(urth) The coins, torpedo, and George

[Mo Holkar / UKG]

Hi all,


Just a quick note about something that struck me. When Bax first 
finds the coins he says "I believe the city must be Corinth, but I've 
no idea whose head that is" (75). I'm curious as to how he identifies 
the city. It can't be the word 'KORINTHOS', or he would be certain 
about it. Presumably then it's from an emblem that he knows is 
usually associated with Corinth. A quick Google suggests that lots of 
Corinthian coins depicted the Pegasus on the reverse of Athena's 
head, so that might be a candidate.

Then when he takes a coin to Port St Jude (127), we are told 'The 
helmeted woman on the obverse... presumably she is Athena' and that 
the reverse depicts a different woman, with breasts (plural), a spear 
and a sword. So either (a) Bax did earlier silently identify this 
other woman, and associate her with Corinth, or else (b) the three 
coins don't all have the same design -- which seems more likely, but 
leaves wide open the question of who the woman is. Warrior women who 
are not Amazons are pretty rare in Greek myth. Not Artemis, as she 
would have a bow; not Athena as stated; maybe the obscure war goddess Enyo?


On another, unrelated note: do we assume that the 'long, skinny 
torpedo' seen with the Greek (198) is Nicholas the Butler? Odd that 
although Iron Mike gave the Greek the names of Shell and others who 
were close to Bax, this doesn't seem to have been followed up on. 
Perhaps knowing that Bax was 'doing swell' was all Skotos really needed.


And a question: how did George get from following Nicholas into the 
house (233) to being picked up 'on the street' by the police (270)? 
In between, he seems to have written Letter 37 (assuming that's not a 
Bax forgery), whch Bax 'found' in an unspecified place, but 
presumably at the house (265). He also may have checked out of the 
Hilton (266), although that could have happened earlier. And then he 
somehow gets away from the police again ("I doubt they'll keep him 
long" (276)) and is back at the house trapping Nicholas (282). We 
aren't able to guess much about George's motivation apart from 
insensate hatred of Bax, but I'm curious as to how his timeline goes.


Mo




Mo Holkar
Undying King Games
mo at ukg.co.uk
http://www.ukg.co.uk