u/SiriusFiction

Extracting material from Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the New Sun: A Chapter Guide (2019), putting it into dictionary form, the following:

 

Theologoumenon (II, chap. 10, 85). In what amounts to an unremarked “Temptation,” Severian offers the Claw of the Conciliator to Vodalus. Vodalus proves to be afraid of the Claw, saying, “If I were to possess it, they [the rabble] would think me a desecrator and an enemy of the Theologoumenon. Our masters would think me turned traitor” (85). In this, Vodalus seems to be using the term as a synonym for the Conciliator himself.

 

Bible: A “theologoumenon” is a theological statement or concept that lacks absolute doctrinal authority. The Catholic idea of Limbo is an example, once a widespread concept now generally abandoned. So one reading has Vodalus saying that the belief in the Conciliator is a popular yet baseless religion.

(Yet applying the term to an individual or a relic seems to be unusual.)

 

The term shows up two more times in Severian's narrative.

 

(III, chap. 28) “The columns of the carapace would then be the armies of the Theologoumenon, terrible and gleaming...” This line provides some triangulation, in that Severian uses the term, so it is not limited to Vodalus and his particular bundle of positions.

 

(IV, chap. 14) “I came forward and knelt before it. I needed no scholar to tell me the Theologoumenon was no nearer now. Yet he seemed nearer...” This line further reinforces that the term is about the person of the Conciliator himself, rather than being about casting doubt upon the relic, or something else like that.

 

I should amend the “one reading” line above into “So one reading has Vodalus saying that the belief in the Conciliator is a popular religion not directly supported by scripture,” since, as I understand it, “theologoumenon” is about pious belief or individual opinion that cannot be substantiated. My using the word “baseless” makes it seem as though theologoumenon is only applied to discarded or discredited ideas. I only used the case of “Limbo” above to avoid sensitivities to more active theologoumenons such as the virginity of Mary, or the necessity that the messiah had to be born in Bethlehem.

 

This being Wolfe, it is possible that he is using the term in its original Greek meaning as “that which is said about God,” but this seems even more difficult when applied to a person.

A reader recently contacted me with the following meaty information regarding Medea and Hellen in Latro’s narrative.

 

In A Chapter Guide to Gene Wolfe's Latro Novels “Appendix L1-1: Preliminary Notes,” the last paragraph goes like this:

 

>In contrast, Wolfe shows a subtle playing of themes in Herodotus. In the opening paragraphs of his histories, Herodotus attempts to trace the beginning of the conflict between Hellenes and Barbarians, and he finds it in a series of four rape/abductions: that of Io by the Phoenicians, Europa by the Hellenes, Medea by the Hellenes, and Hellen by the Trojans, the last of which led to the legendary Trojan War. In Soldier of the Mist, an important character is named Io, and Latro travels on a ship named Europa, thereby alluding to two out of four.

 

Thus, the last line claims that Medea and Hellen are not addressed in Latro’s narrative.

 

However, in Soldier of the Mist, the character Drakaina talks explicitly about having been Medea in a previous life:

 

>“The Ram carried him to Aea, at the east end of the Euxine, thinking he’d be safe there. After putting in a good word for him with the king, it hung its golden coat in a tree and returned to the sky. I was a princess in Aea—”

>“Wait a minute! I thought this was hundreds and hundreds of years ago.”

>“We live many different lives,” Drakaina told Io, “in many different bodies. Or at least some of us do. I was a princess in Aea, and a priestess of Enodia just as I am now. I told my father quite truthfully that the goddess said he would be killed by a stranger. Since Phrixos was the only stranger around, that did for him. And I set my pet python to guard the golden fleece. Then—”

 

So the last line of Appendix L1-1 has to be changed to admit that Medea was mentioned, thus, three out of four.

 

But wait, there's more.

“Appendix L2-1: Historian Notes,” at the end tuck in an update about Hellen being mentioned:

 

“Appendix L1-1: Preliminary Notes” ended with the observation that Hellen of Troy had not made an appearance, but this changes with Soldier of Arete. In chapter 22 the ghost of Achilles is with Helen, in the story where they send for Chryse, last of Priam’s line, at the temple of Athene Ilias (the Trojan Athene) and then murder her:

 

>“But this time there was a good wind. Hubrias said they had to reef their sail again and again; even so they nearly ran aground on the White Isle. The ghost was there, waiting for them on the sand; and standing beside him was the most beautiful woman that Hubrias had ever seen. It had been over a year when I talked with him, yet his eyes lit up still each time he tried to describe her to me. There was something in her that beckoned to you, he told me. You knew she was the proudest woman in the world—and the most humble. There was not a man alive, he said, who would not have laid down his life for her, and been happy to do it.”

 

This from Pausanias:

 

Pausanias:

>[3.19.11] A story too I will tell which I know the people of Crotona tell about Helen. The people of Himera too agree with this account. In the Euxine at the mouths of the Ister is an island sacred to Achilles. It is called White Island, and its circumference is twenty stades. It is wooded throughout and abounds in animals, wild and tame, while on it is a temple of Achilles with an image of him.

>[3.19.12] The first to sail thither legend says was Leonymus of Crotona. For when war had arisen between the people of Crotona and the Locri in Italy, the Locri, in virtue of the relationship between them and the Opuntians, called upon Ajax son of Oileus to help them in battle. So Leonymus the general of the people of Crotona attacked his enemy at that point where he heard that Ajax was posted in the front line. Now he was wounded in the breast, and weak with his hurt came to Delphi. When he arrived the Pythian priestess sent Leonynius to White Island, telling him that there Ajax would appear to him and cure his wound.

>[3.19.13] In time he was healed and returned from White Island, where, he used to declare, he saw Achilles, as well as Ajax the son of Oileus and Ajax the son of Telamon. With them, he said, were Patroclus and Antilochus; Helen was wedded to Achilles, and had bidden him sail to Stesichorus at Himera, and announce that the loss of his sight was caused by her wrath.

 

Fission of Bible scenes. Sometimes in Severian’s narrative a Bible scene is directly reenacted, for example, Typhon’s attempted coercion of Severian is close to Satan’s temptation of Christ Jesus. There is perhaps one case where a scene has been broken up: consider the Vodalarii Feast as part of a reenactment of the baptism of Christ Jesus.

 

There is no question that at the Feast, Severian ends up with a long-term indwelling spirit. This looks like the baptism of Jesus, when the dove came down; and look, dovey Thea is in the scene.

 

But Thea was given her dove association in the first chapter of Severian’s narrative, which, chronologically, came after Severian’s drowning incident. The river mishap is widely seen by readers as being baptismal, and in that lens, it answers the (multiverse) question “who died?” with the (Sunday school) answer “Severian’s pre-baptismal self.”

 

What I am trying to add to the conversation is that, for starters, we have the undine taking the role of John the Baptist at a watery gravesite (water baptism); and then in the next chronological chapter we are introduced to an angelic dove at a gravesite; followed a volume later by the same dove being present at the introduction of a long-term indwelling spirit (Spirit baptism). One Bible scene fissioned into three quite different episodes.

 

Alternate Trinities. Combining murky details traced earlier (New Sun Religion #3), it seems arguable that the “New Sun Trinity” is Increate, Pancreator, and Wisdom (feminine).

 

(Ironically, the torturers inadvertently model the Christian Trinity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with the masters Palaemon (elder), Gurloes, and Malrubius (deceased). Once again, the torturers are more orthodox.)

 

Wolfe’s Long Sun series ends with a new trinity of Pas, Silk, and Kypris. While this looks similar to the above mentioned Increate, Pancreator, and Wisdom, it is more explicitly carnal.

 

Three towers, three religions. As noted, there is the strong argument that the torturers maintain a less corrupted form of Christianity in their tower. There are hints about their neighbors. The witches are stated to have gnostic symbols, so obviously they are Gnostics. The beast handlers at the Bear Tower seem more cryptic, but their elevation rite seems straight out of Mithraism. So, three towers maintaining three religions that were, historically, contemporary competitors.

 

Source of miracles. In The Book of the New Sun, the Claw is rather capricious in providing miracles; in The Urth of the New Sun, Severian is more direct, even as he learns the tremendous energy costs involved.

 

In the New Testament, sometimes Jesus performs miracles in the Father’s authority (John 10:37–38), while at other times He acts on His own authority (Matthew 12:9–14).

 

Thus, Wolfe takes this pattern and applies it to Severian’s perception of the miracles: first it is the will of the Conciliator acting through the Claw; later it is Severian himself.

 

But just to cloud the water, the possible pre-Claw miracle of raising Triskele introduces the idea that Severian himself is the source (modeled after van Vogt’s Null-A); and some readers persist in this notion, even after it has been established that Severian will literally become the Conciliator, so there is no distinction (beyond whether the source being teen Severian acting in the current timeframe, or thirty-three-year-old Severian acting across time).

Female fission. Dorcas has an obvious link to New Testament woman named “Tabitha, meaning Dorcas” (Acts 9:36), a Christian who was raised from the dead by Apostle Peter. While Tabitha was famous for sewing, Wolfe’s Dorcas has only a slight association with sewing: she reports a recurring nightmare about visiting a lace shop, in order to buy tiny clothes, wherein she hears the thread hissing as another person sews (II, chap. 22). At her parting with Severian in Thrax, when she talks about making money on her trip back to Nessus, she does not talk about sewing for money, she mentions prostitution and thievery (III, chap. 12).

 

In curious contrast, when Cyriaca speaks on making money in Nessus, says she can dress hair and sew (III, chap. 12). Her pelerine costume also touches on sewing, “I’m proud of my figure, and we only had to let it out a little here and there” (III, chap. 5).

 

So, with Dorcas and Cyriaca, we find on the surface they are similar for both fleeing to Nessus at about the same time, but they also seem cryptically linked to Tabitha, Dorcas for being resurrected, Cyriaca for having a strong skill in sewing. The Tabitha details have been divided among two women.

 

This recalls an odd detail regarding the half-sisters Thea and Thecla.

 

Thea is associated with a dove in the opening pages of Severian’s narrative. The dove is a Christian symbol for the Paraclete; the Holy Spirit Dove famously descended upon Jesus at his baptism by John; but it is Thea’s half-sister Thecla who rises up within Severian as a sort of Paraclete at the Vodalarii Feast. So, Thea is associated with the dove; and the dove is associated with the Paraclete; but Thecla is the one to actually dwell within Severian. The Paraclete details have been divided among two women.

 

When you least expect him, H.G. Wells. The First Men in the Moon (1901) has our Earthmen trying to escape the sublunar civilization. By chapter sixteen they have left the blue-lighted area of their confinement for a place with brighter lighting, at which point they discover that their prisoner chains are made of gold. In the next chapter they have ascended a bit further to a cave of the mooncalf butchers, where the businessman takes a couple of the crowbars and uses them as clubs in fighting the butchers. In chapter eighteen they emerge on the surface with golden crowbars. A footnote to chapter seventeen:

 

>I do not remember seeing any wooden things on the moon; doors, tables, everything corresponding to our terrestrial joinery was made of metal, and I believe for the most part of gold, which as a metal would, of course, naturally recommend itself—other things being equal—on account of the ease in working it, and its toughness and durability.

 

All this to say that a similar thing happens with Severian, when he realizes in the brighter light that the club he has taken from the subterranean man-ape is covered with gold. (An interesting cluster of presumed high tech, in an underground setting, where the metal of choice is the lowest tech.)