(urth) Father Inire as Dionysus

[Lee Berman]

> Consider the flowery, grandiose language used by Inire in the letter Rudesind brings
> to Severian. Does it remind you of another character's writing and speech? Hint:
> someone who seems to know a great deal about the past and future history of Urth and
> has rather miraculous powers of persuasion and anatomical transformation. A character
> who does not possess a saint name but, like Inire, one from Greco-Roman mythology.
 
Jeff Wilson: Juturna?

 
Argh! No, I meant Talos.
 
The end of RttW makes it pretty clear that The Outsider (and, through an ambiguous 
father-son connection, Typhon) are meant to be tracked in some manner with the Earth god 
Dionysus.

The Thracian worship of Dionysus involved casting him as "Dionysus Bassareus" or Dionysus
the Fox. The Bacchanalic revelers in that case tended to wear fox skins in contrast to the
Pan/Faunus goatskins worn by other Mediterranean Dionysus worshippers.
 
We are told Talos is fox-like and that he is a "homunculus" grown/created by Baldanders. But
obviously Baldanders didn't use his own DNA to create him. What was the source material? And
why does a doctor know so much about Commonwealth politics, mythology, eschatology and genesis 
and cosmic history (not to mention Severian's mother)?
 
In past posts, I've noted how Inire's name connects to Dionysus through Inuus/Faunus/Pan. 
I've mentioned how the name of the Green Man connects to Dionysus through the pagan/wiccan
Great God Pan.
 
It shouldn't matter but I'm starting to think I should change the name of my model from the
Father Inire theory to the Dionysus theory. It isn't really that Father Inire is everywhere.
Inire himself is an appearance of a Dionysian analog god of Urth/Briah who really can
be found everywhere (including Long/Short Sun).
 
FWIW, I used to be mystified by the dream appearance of Thecla's father as a large, bull-
headed figure. No longer. This Orphic Hymn sums it up nicely.
 
>Hymn to Dionysus Bassareus Triennalis
 
>COME, blessed Dionysius, various nam'd,
>Bull-fac'd, begot from Thunder, Bacchus fam'd.
>Bassarian God, of universal might,
>Whom swords, and blood, and sacred rage delight:
>In heav'n rejoicing, mad, loud-sounding God, 5
>Furious inspirer, bearer of the rod:
>By Gods rever'd, who dwell'st with human kind,
>Propitious come, with much-rejoicing mind.