From: Alex David Groce <Alex_Groce@gs246.sp.cs.cmu.edu>
Subject: Re: (whorl) Re: Heads; Scylla; Four Eyes
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2001 14:28:04 

Robert wrote:

> I agree with you about Abaia and Erebus being space travelers, but
> the Scylla you're talking about is not from beyond Urth, she's Pas's
> daughter Cilinia, who's secretly joined the undersea cabal
> pre-launch. As Horn tells us near the end of RETURN, talking about
> Oreb/Scylla, "The Scylla we see is no more than a sketch of the
> original Scylla, of the daughter of the tyrant who assumed the name
> Typhon, the daughter who had pledged herself in secret to one of the
> gods of the Short Sun Whorl that would in time become our Red Sun
> Whorl. It was a a form of treason, of rebellion against her father."
> It's this Scylla (the "Greater") who's apparently left behind when
> young Cilinia/Scylla is scanned into the Whorl's computers (the same
> way Typhon-Piaton is). I'm therefore not sure she's ever had the
> chance to travel widely on a galactic basis, nor how she's able to
> explain to Horn how to contact the Mother, who, we know (because of
> Seawrack's ring and otherwise) is allied with the Neighbors. I doubt
> that your theory about Neighbor being the lingua franca of the Great
> Lords is correct.

Several points here.  It's not really my theory that Neighbor is their
language.  I am unconvinced that the "how to communicate with..." is
about teaching a language at all.  I'm thinking more the equivalent of
a summoning method.

Also, unless I am mistaken, you're mixing up Scyllas, or perhaps your
theory conflates them more than is needed.  In my opinion, Great
Scylla is a Abaia/Erebus type monster, on Urth prior to Cilinia's
birth.  Cilinia takes this creature's name as part of her treason.
The original Scylla is NOT the daughter of the tyrant, but the space
monster.  The daughter of the tyrant (as you even say above) betrays
Daddy by going over to the creature's side.

It is this Great Scylla, who is not Pas's daughter or her scanned
image, that I am talking about knowing this language.  I think this
Scylla is quite plausibly a space traveler.  I don't see any evidence
for the idea that young Cilinia becomes the monster herself (she
betrays Daddy by going over to her future self's side?  Not utterly
ridiculous, given that time travel is possible here, but still not
even remotely supported.)  The real Cilinia is buried in a tomb that
her astral self eventually goes to also, rather than roaming the seas
with her siren spawn.



--
"And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
--
Alex David Groce (agroce+@cs.cmu.edu)
Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University - Computer Science Department
8112 Wean Hall (412)-268-3066
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~agroce

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