(urth) Mythic Women in BotNS

[James Wynn]

> Lee-
> You wondered if the daughter of Erebus and Nyx, Noctua in the Tale, might be Dorcas.
> I suggested rather that if aliens and ancient gods are analogs then the most likely
> female partner of Charon/Inire would be The Cumaean.
> [...]
> First, we know the Student's Son in the Tale is an analog of Theseus, making Noctua an analog of Ariadne. What I recently learned is that in Greek legend, Theseus dumped Ariadne and abandoned her on an island.
> She was miserable but her life soon took a turn for the better. She ended up with an even better husband- whom else but..Dionysus! Another bit possibly connecting Inire and The Cumeaean.

Sweet! As you probably know, Noctua is a merging of Ariadne and 
Aphrodite in the Theseus story.

> James I know you have scoured the mythological tales in BotNS mostly for hints of Typhon.
> But I think these female goddess connections might provide some evidence for the connection
> also between The Cumaean and Father Inire. To the monster gods of the oceans as well.
> To find connections between three different mythic stories within BotNS seems important in and of itself.

I'm uncomfortable with your Chariots of the Gods theory at a thematic 
level because Severian needs to be human for the Concilliator/Mediator 
trope to work.

There _is_ some sort of connection from Inire to Typhon-- and not just 
because he might have worked for him. The red hair is a flag of a 
Typhonian, and the connections between red hair and simian traits brings 
us again to Inire.  Additionally, I'm beginning to suspect that the F. 
Inire-to-Fenrir anagram is not just a lark:

Inire = Fenrir.
Cumaean = Jörmungandr.
Severian = Surt.
Tzadkiel Ship = Naglfar.

If one  decides that Wolfe is following closely the Ragnarock model, 
that last connection would suggest that Inire might be Tzadkiel in 
disguise since, according to the Gylfaginning, the ship that sets sail 
during Ragnarok is piloted by the giant Hrym (whose name means 
"decrepit"). Also, there is some confabulation between Hrym and Loki 
(who is mappable to Dionysus).

Naturally, this model will only make _you_ more convinced that Severian 
must be non-human since Surt is a giant just as Hrym is a giant. On the 
other hand, it would be nigh impossible to have a story with 
mythological homages that does _not_ have all the main characters map to 
gods.

u+16b9

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.urth.net/pipermail/urth-urth.net/attachments/20110125/8f3c3077/attachment-0003.htm>