(urth) Mystery of Agia

[Lee Berman]

>Ryan Dunn: We still need to figure out who is Hethor's missing poppet. I feel she is brought too 
>vividly to our attention to completely ignore it as a clue (or maybe I'm being obsessive).
>Agia is clearly Asian looking, and weren't there some Korean named spaceboats? We already know that 
>if you push her to the ground, her head makes a metallic sound. :)
 
I agree that Hethor babbles on too much about his poppet for it to be meaningless. And nobody else
has come up with anything approaching a plausible theory about the subject. You are right to be 
obsessive about this because it is the only way progress can be accomplished. Wolfe wants to appeal
to the subconcious in his mysteries and if something keeps bothering you I think it likely isn't
an accident or mistake. So here are my contributions:
 
Agia is a great starting point in the search for the poppet. Who else does Hethor show erotic interest
in? (aside from Severian, but we won't go there just now).
 
I think one stumbling block of resistance to the idea was the subject heading about Agia being a robot.
She seems both very feminine and flawed which would seem to argue against her being a factory product.
 
But what if the metallic sound we heard was meant more as metaphor than a real metallic sound. Consider
Dr. Talos. He is named for the mythical man of bronze but we can be pretty sure he also is not made of
metal. The "Talos" name is probably a reference meant by Wolfe to mean he is a construct. 
 
Perhaps the same is true of Agia. Now, Jolenta is revealed to have metal bands as part of her beautification
so perhaps Agia's head could have something similar.  But I lean against this direction. Wolfe goes out
of his way to emphasize Agia's imperfections. I don't think she was beautified.
 
But her resemblance to Agilus hints at cloning. Perhaps she is a contruct in that regard. Hethor's poppet 
ravings seem to suggest she could be put away in a capsule while not in use. And I think there is even a 
suggestion that the capsule was launched into space- perhaps arriving on Urth. 
 
*I think you might have something with your observation of Agia's somewhat Asian features and the Korean 
connection to the residents of the antechamber (who landed on Urth in some sort of ship from elsewhere).*
 
If Agia was really the poppet, I would expect some clues that she has a bit of familiarity with space
travel. I don't think there are any. But if Agia was cloned from the poppet (whoever she might be) it might
complete the story with the proper connections. So, maybe there is some myth or legend or story which could
provide a poppet character from which Agia could be derived?
 
Personally, I think further answers to this question can be found in the multiple connections between Hethor 
and Father Inire. (Inire who elevated Agia to be the new Vodalus). But I'll leave it at that for now and hope
maybe some of these ideas are helpful.