(urth) [BGSpam]Re: Typhon's nature

[Gerry Quinn]

From: larry miller

> All we know for sure is that Piaton is not Typhons original
> body.  The links between Scylla and Typhon suggest that maybe his
> original form was that of a megatherian.

But we know Typhon's head was human or humanoid, and that he lived on land 
when he ruled Urth.  I don't think it's tenable to identify him with a sea 
monster.  Nor was his observation "there are powers in the sea that would 
rule" followed by "used to be one myself".

In the two later series there is considerable evidence that Typhon was human 
or at least reasonably humanoid.

> I think Jonas telling the
> beans story in the same  chapter of the Piteous Gate (most likely
> caused by the undines swimming through the river beyond the wall)  is
> Wolfes sly way of hinting at a connection.  Growing from a bean as
> being a way to explain cloning from a frozen embryo seems to fit with
> high technology passed off as magic throughout the books.

The beans certainly are embryos of some kind (or nano-factories or whatever 
sea monsters develop from).  And Wolfe once observed that Damon Knight grew 
him from a bean.  But I don't where you find a connection with Typhon here.

- Gerry Quinn