(urth) City on Green

[Lee Berman]

>David Stockhoff-Other than the Augean Stables, has anyone compared Hercules' 
>chores/feats/tasks/miracles one for one with Severian's?
 
I gave it a preliminary shot. I think I had comparisons for five or six of
the twelve labors. Some were awfully metaphorical: Hercules captures the deer
with golden antlers= Severian's relationship with Dorcas (name means "gazelle").  
Hercules, like Severian, carries the weight of the world on his shoulders when
he subs for Atlas. etc.
 
 
I think "one for one" may be too much to ask...it would be like Typhon having 100 heads 
like his mythological namesake. Too direct and obvious a borrowing for Wolfe. Still, 
Nessus, a twin, disguised parentage, mysterious strengths and indominability are pretty
good clues. I think there are others, not yet discovered.
 
 
Someone recently mentioned The Town That Forgot Fauna. I think there is much there which 
reflects on the founding of Nessus. It is on a river. It has grand walls and towers. There
are black beans mentioned. We never learn the "grand name" of this city but its nicknames
"Urbis" and "Pestis" are highly evocative of the name "Nessus" to me.
 
Unexplored, I think, is the name of the owner of the original piece of land, Fauna. This 
Roman goddess is significant to me in that she is the daughter of the god Faunus. As I 
have noted elsewhere, an epithet for Faunus is Innus, derived from the copulatory verb,
"inire" and a name associated with monkeys. BotNS does have a male and female character 
who are both very old.