(urth) mysteries of the long sun?

[David Stockhoff]

On 10/28/2011 3:28 PM, James Wynn wrote:
> On 10/28/2011 12:52 PM, Antonin Scriabin wrote:
>> His injury by the vulture is also one of the reasons he is able to 
>> become close with Crane; his hurt ankle serves as a pretext for Crane 
>> to give him the wrapping, etc.  So the vulture serves an importance 
>> narrative purpose as well.  Also, Wolfe seems to have a thing with 
>> lame protagonists.  Weer, Severian, Silk ... not sure why that is.
>
> His leg injury  occurs when he falls out of the window because 
> Hyacinth is taunting him with her azoth. He only gets a cut from the 
> gyrevulture.
>
> The Silk leg injury another example of Silk and Auk acting out the 
> life of Hephaestus. Hephaestus was alternately tossed off Mt Olympus 
> by Zeus (lighting bolt) and Hera (make of it what you will), and 
> injured his leg. There's the prophesy in Genesis in which the serpent 
> bites the heel of the "enmity" which in turn crushes his head. Also, 
> Jason and Cinderella had only one shoe and Oedipus had a club foot.

And Jesus was stabbed in the thigh. Don't forget that one!

The provenance of this trope is ancient. As I recall, it has to do with 
the sacred status of a king and his ability to procreate; symbolically, 
if the king is virile the land will be fertile. If he is wounded, this 
is put in doubt. Groin = thigh = leg = foot ::: foot = leg = thigh = groin.

All good heroes have been dealt blows that weaken them; they can't all 
be King of the Prom and captain of a winning football team. In fact none 
can be unless they then suffer a blow. If they were, they would always 
win and their stories would be very short.