(urth) Lictor

[Gerry Leb]

In Thrax, based on the letter from The Guild, Severian is appointed Lictor.
As such, he is the chief law enforcement officer of Thrax, responsible for
the prison, the barbican, the personal security of the Archon, and also, in
the final scene of his holding of the office, he is detailed to perform the
murder of a subject, Cyriaca. He refuses to kill her, and flees. In the
book, as far as I can recall, there are no references to Severian in any
context that could possibly be connected to the earthly faith of Mithraism.

On Sat, Feb 17, 2018 at 6:56 PM, Ab de Vos <foxyab at casema.nl> wrote:

> I meant to say it isn't obvious that a lictor is an executioner as well as
> a servitor of Mithras which connection the Greek word υπηρέτης  supplies.
> It would be interesting to know what the function of the lictor was  in the
> ritual.
>
> Bees and honey, Samson killed the lion. Remember his hair and riddle. I
> believe Robert Graves (contested off course) said that he was originally a
> sun hero before being worked over  in Hebrew scripture. The record of
> gathering honey goes back to neolithic times as shown by rock paintings in
> Spain (Cova de l'Aranya).
>
> So bees carry a complex symbolism being both associated with the sun and
> the moon among different cultures.
>
> I am reading the Life of Plotin by Porphyry at the moment. In fact that is
> the reason I had to look up the word υπηρέτης. Rogatianus was a pupil of
> Plotin. a senator. so philosophically detached he refused to appear in
> public as a praetor even when the *lictors* were already there. He also
> gave up his property etc. besides the office. That made me think about
> Severian.
>
> Op 17-2-2018 om 17:46 schreef David Stockhoff:
>
> Yes. Soldiers didn't have the money to kill all those bulls anyway. It was
> pure symbolism, and the taurobolium wiki suggests that it was likely
> symbolic even for the Great Mother mysteries. Who knows. But there still
> are symbolic reasons for Severian's fuligin cloak.
>
> I still don't see anything here about Greek servants or headsmen or "the
> eleven" but it's clear that lictors were literally "servants of the law" or
> of the temple. Presumably it follows that the term would have been used in
> a Roman soldier's cult as well. Even for a Leo there were higher grades,
> such as Pater, and the slaves, soldiers, and freemen who joined the cult
> would have understood "serving" a god or his priest.
>
> I like "tauroch/auroch" and "autarch." Funny that the real autarch victim
> turns out to be associated with bees and honey---he's practically a priest
> himself---because the two are closely linked in Greek cults. The bee is one
> of Mithras' several symbolic animals and honey was part of Mithraic
> initiation rites, while the bull was eternally sacrificed and reborn.
> Sacrificed bulls became bees.
>
> "To the ancients, the honey bee was not only a messenger but a direct
> representative of the gods and goddesses of heaven and the airy realms.
> ...
>
> Porphyry (AD 233 to c.304) writes: “The ancients gave the name of
> Melissae (bees) to the priestesses of Demeter who were initiates of the
> chthonian goddess; the name Melitodes to Kore herself: the moon (Artemis)
> too, whose province it was to bring to the birth, they called Melissa,
> because the moon being a bull and its ascension the bull, bees are begotten
> of bulls.  And souls that pass to the earth are bull-begotten.”
>
> Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas (1921 - 1994) writes of this passage by
> Porphyry: “...we learn that Artemis is a bee, Melissa, and that both she
> and the bull belong to the moon.  Hence both are connected with the idea of
> a periodic regeneration.  We also learn that souls are bees and that
> Melissa draws souls down to be born.  The idea of a ‘life in death’ in this
> singularly interesting concept is expressed by the belief that the life of
> the bull passed into that of the bees.” "
>
> https://mirrorofisis.freeyellow.com/id576.html
>
>
> On 2/17/2018 10:55 AM, Ab de Vos wrote:
>
> The link is : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lictor
>
> The only link to the Mithras cult I found was in Liddell & Scott's
> dictionary but without any specifics;  I didn't find links to Mithras
> elsewhere.
>
> *ταυροκτόνος*, "bull killing" even suggests autarch(ktonos).
>
> According to Wiki ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tauroctony ) "The
> tauroctony should not be confused with a "taurobolium
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taurobolium>", which was an actual
> bull-killing cult act performed by initiates of the Mysteries of Magna
> Mater <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Mater>, and has nothing to do
> with the Mithraic Mysteries.
>
> The sacrificial symbolism is clear.
>
> Op 17-2-2018 om 16:28 schreef David Stockhoff:
>
> I don't see "lictor" mentioned in the wiki---do you have a specific link
> to that?
>
> Nevertheless, the Mithraic cult has always been suggestive of similarities
> to both early Xtianity, which is useful to Wolfe, and to Severian's "secret
> history." It's closely allied with a branch of Roman government and with
> Rome. A sword figures prominently in its symbology. Severian becomes an
> outcast when he gives Thecla a blade, and he becomes Autarch when he kills
> the Autarch with a blade. He is often blood-covered, as with the
> sacrificial blood of a bull (sun symbol), but never blood-stained.
>
> Cultists proceeded through grades like Masons to become Leos, and lions
> have always been linked with the sun. The Mithraic leo has been taken as
> Aion, who is the Greek god of eternity or "unbounded time." Severian's
> going to Yesod and returning as the New Sun literally enacts this elevation
> to Leo.
>
> I had not realized that "mitra" could be read as "covenant." That's
> suggestive too. It's always been a mystery to me that Severian's sword (The
> Sword of the Lictor) belongs to a lictor that is never mentioned in the
> text, but if the lictor is a servant of a secret god with whom a covenant
> is held, then ... it fits.
>
> Hidden in plain sight, as usual.
>
> Thanks!
>
> On 2/17/2018 9:10 AM, Ab de Vos wrote:
>
> By chance I had to look up the Greek word for servant (υπηρέτης). The
> "servant of the eleven" in Athens was the executioner or his servant.
> Servant is also the greek translation of Lictor. The lictor is an official
> of the roman state but the term is also used for servitor in the cult cult
> of Mithras.
>
> Mithras-Helios, with solar rays and in Iranian dress,[104]
> <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism#cite_note-iranica-105> with
> Antiochus I of Commagene <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commagene>. (
> Mt. Nemrut <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nemrut>, 1st Century BCE)
>
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism
>
>
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