Date: Thu, 4 Sep 2003 17:28:55 -0700
Subject: Re: (urth) reckless speculation on Typhon and Quetzal
From: Lisa Schaffer-Doggett 


On Thursday, September 4, 2003, at 03:12 PM, James Wynn wrote:

>
> The importance of archetypes in understanding what is going on in the 
> Long
> and Short Suns can hardly be overemphasized. And I agree that the 
> serpent
> Ladon the is to be found on the Whorl.  The thing is that Quetzal is 
> not the
> only serpent on Whorl (he's not even the only inhumi). There are lots 
> and
> lots of them.

Yes, but Quetzal is the only inhumu who is a Sun archetype, Dionysus.  
This singles him out as being somehow related to Typhon and Silk (and 
Severian) imo.  According to Graves there are only two, one for each 
half of the year.  Mr. Wolfe is an amazing exploiter of the disconnects 
between various versions of a myth, using science fiction as the glue.  
For example, one of the fatal (and annoying) problems with Graves is 
that he supports an argument with the myth of Cronos and Zeus (father 
and son) one minute and butresses the rest of the argument with the 
myth of Set/Typhon and Osiris (brothers) ignoring the obvious problems 
this poses.  Cloning solves this problem in the Sun cycle.  If Typhon 
is Severian's genetic father then Silk (as Typhon's clone) is also 
Severian's father (Cronos and Zeus).  However Silk, as Typhon's clone, 
is also in a sense his son and thus he and Severian could also be 
considered brothers (Set/Typhon and Osiris).  I'll belabor my point 
with something I thought of yesterday.  I'm not sure if this has been 
discussed but one of Severian's obvious archetypes is Apollo, or 
Apollon as I keep seeing it lately.  Well Apollo is connected to 
Apollyon the Destroyer who is not really a fallen angel but the 
righteous angel of Hell's pit.  Severian the Destroying Sun.  So to my 
way of thinking (which I know many discount) it makes perfect sense 
that Mr. Wolfe would identify Quetzal with Typhon by identifying him 
with Dionysis (though there are a myriad of other reasons for that in 
addition.  What a genius!) and also identify him as the serpent of 
Colchis through the biology (two or three books later, good lord!) of 
the inhumi's reproductive cycle.



> On Thursday, September 4, 2003, at 03:32 PM, Chris wrote:

> You said a mouthful. I just read "There Are Doors" and was playing 
> around tracking references to Attis/Dionysus/etc. looking for more 
> keys that I hadn't picked up. In the process I found lots of alternate 
> stories of Attis I hadn't known about, many of which contradict each 
> other, and Wolfe appears to have been using ALL OF THEM, sometimes at 
> the same time. His grasp of myth continues to impress me.
>
>
Indeed!  It's maddening.  Speaking of which, I'm being told I have to 
go to my room and take my medication now.
Don


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