(urth) Lake of Birds

[David Stockhoff]

On 5/20/2012 3:18 PM, Dave Lebling wrote:
> I have always felt that the Cumaean is in fact the same as the Roman 
> one, as literally as it is possible to be in an ostensibly different 
> universe. It has been argued multiple times that she is an alien 
> (cacogen/heirodule/...). In our history the Cumaean Sibyls were famous 
> for holding the books of prophecies which she ("not a native of the 
> country") offered to King Tarquin of Rome, with instructive results, 
> then "disappeared." How SFnal can you get without an actual spaceship?

I like it. There is of course no Cumae in BNS and no explanation of her 
name.

>
> Given what goes on in the Botanic Gardens, the idea that the Cumaean 
> and her cave might be a survival from a history not unlike our own 
> seems an easy step.
>
> As for the idea that the medieval belief that the Cumaean prophesied 
> Christ, and that that is "the link," where does she do so in TBotNS? 
> It is not all about Christ; TBotNS is not a Christian apologetic.

She doesn't that I can see, and she doesn't need to, for the reasons you 
give. But I think BNS is all about existence before-Christ, as Lee has 
commented.