Date: Sat, 21 Dec 2002 08:53:58 -0600
From: James Jordan 
Subject: Re: (urth) Quadrifons & Juturna

At 08:57 PM 12/20/2002, you wrote:
>Did anybody ever work out what the deal with Quadrifons is? Going  back 
>thru the archives, I see suggestions that Quadrifons is the name of a 
>cherub. I'm sure that's true, but I'm also sure that the more relevant 
>association is with Janus, in his four-faced aspect - Janus Quadrifons. 
>After all, the text describes Quadrifons as "the god of doors and 
>crossroads, and much else", which sounds pretty much like Janus to me.
>
>Assuming the connection with Janus is intended, why "Quadrifons" rather 
>than the more usual "Bifrons"?

         Cherubim have four faces. Sphinxes are a one-faced form of the 
cherub. Being cats, they guard crossroads (as you know if you have a cat; 
look where he/she likes to sit: where he can watch up and down the halls 
and into the rooms). Cherubim guard doors, particularly the door into Eden.

Nutria

>
>Janus was married to the nymph Juturna, the goddess of springs and wells. 
>Wolfe presumably knows this, but what's it supposed to mean?  Like all of 
>these speculations, anything you can make of it is based on the flimsiest 
>textual evidence; but I wonder if Juturna is the Undine Scylla and Silk 
>speak with at the end of RTTW; and whether somehow Juturna's interest in 
>Severian stems form this? Dunno!
>



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