<div dir="ltr">I'm not sure what you mean about Severian's sword belonging to "a lictor...never mentioned in the text." Severian is a lictor.<div><br></div><div>The Mithras thing also ties in with the Old Autarch being a castrato.</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br clear="all"><div><div class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div>Dan'l Danehy-Oakes</div><div><br></div><div>The spatula is the natural enemy of the hypothalamus.</div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
<br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Feb 17, 2018 at 7:28 AM, David Stockhoff <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dstockhoff@verizon.net" target="_blank">dstockhoff@verizon.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>I don't see "lictor" mentioned in the wiki---do you have a
specific link to that?</p>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p>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. <br>
</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Hidden in plain sight, as usual.</p>
<p>Thanks!<br>
</p><div><div class="h5">
<br>
<div class="m_-9070866629000320755moz-cite-prefix">On 2/17/2018 9:10 AM, Ab de Vos wrote:<br>
</div>
</div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><div class="h5">
<p>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.</p>
<p><img alt="" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4a/Mithra%26Antiochus.jpg/220px-Mithra%26Antiochus.jpg" class="m_-9070866629000320755thumbimage" height="325" width="220">Mithras-Helios, with solar rays and in Iranian
dress,<sup id="m_-9070866629000320755cite_ref-iranica_105-0" class="m_-9070866629000320755reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism#cite_note-iranica-105" target="_blank">[104]</a></sup> with Antiochus I of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commagene" class="m_-9070866629000320755mw-redirect" title="Commagene" target="_blank">Commagene</a>.
(<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Nemrut" title="Mount Nemrut" target="_blank">Mt. Nemrut</a>,
1st Century BCE)</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><a class="m_-9070866629000320755moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mithraism" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/<wbr>Mithraism</a><br>
</p>
<br>
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