(urth) vanished people=Hieros

[Lee Berman]

>Nick Lee: The Green Man is Vertumnus, the "changing one." "Vert" also 

>happens to mean "green."

 

>I think The Green Man may actually be Inire, which makes sense as they both
>are known to change shape, and that he is trying to influence Severian to
>create a future in which his race evolves from humanity.

 

A good call Nick. Vertumnus is another rustic Roman nature god joined to the

cadre of Bacchus, Faunus, Fauna, Flora etc. who all seem at least tangentially 

referenced in the Sun Series under the Dionysus umbrella.

 

I still think that wiccan/pagan carved wooden figure called The Green Man is

also referenced, perhaps under the same umbrella since he is closely associated

with the Great God Pan. A certain carved wooden mask which appears in Long Sun

has been discussed here in regard to that...maybe last winter.

 

I think your understanding of the Inire character is correct. We see various

versions of....someone in the story. Some seem "good", some seem "evil". But

working together as hammer, anvil and tongs, they forge humanity or at least

drive it (via Severian) along the proper, necessary path.

 

>Jeff Wilson: When do the Green Man or Inire display their shape-changing ability? 

>Are they attested to do so in the story somewhere?

 

Since the topic has been discussed at length before, I'll take that as a rhetorical

question not really designed to elicit an answer or reflect a desire for knowledge.

 

As has been demonstrated in here before, if you don't see the old woman and/or don't

especially want to see her, no painstaking effort to show the lines which create

her image will ever allow her to be seen. 

 

http://www.askix.com/avav/images/optical_illusions/woman.gif