(urth) Lake of Birds

[Bruno de Albuquerque Furtado]

"I've long thought the Old Leech was the Cumaean in disguise. The Old Leech
is connected to
Vodulus as is the Cumaean (through Hildegrin). The lamia were snake-women
who stole children
to drink their blood (remembering the poor youth Mamas in the story).

I also think the Cumaean is in disguise as the necromancer, Ceryx. I tend
to think all the encounters between the Cumaean and Severian, perhaps even
the first in the Witches Tower were
pre-arranged, not chance meetings. I think the (never fulfilled) purpose of
the meetings was to wrest from Severian the secret of the one (christ-like)
power the pagan deities (even Tzadkiel)
did not possess: true resurrection, be it the life of a human being or a
planet."

The Old Leech as the Cumaean in disguise is an intriguing notion, but what
other evidence do you have of this? The blood bat that attacks Severian at
the ziggurat is also an indicative of vampirism, and everything about the
Old Leech character seems to revolve around blood.

As for Ceryx, I don't really see the connection, but obviously that doesn't
mean it's not there. Another problem is that this would make the Cumaean a
demonic character, which wasn't really my impression of her upon reading
the books.
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