Re: Ikadz the executioner?

From: Loren Miller <loren_at_wharton.upenn.edu>
Date: Mon, 24 Feb 1997 11:57:47 +0000

"Erik Sieurin" <BV9521_at_utb.hb.se> asks:
> And finally: Is Ikadz the deity of executioners as well as torturers?
> The acts are usually performed by the same people.

Hmmm.

PRO: this is how it worked historically, and so it makes things more believable, less necessity to suspend disbelief.

CON: ikadz doesn't have the mythology of an executioner. execution would be something that humakt would have done. of course... this points back to the pro side of the equation, and maybe this is a function that ikadz stole from humakt, explaining some of humakt's dislike for ikadz.

So... I'd conclude that Ikadz often serves as executioner in societies where his worshippers serve as torturers. Plus, whenever an important public execution comes to pass and the powers that be decide to impress the populace with the awful fate that will result from similar behavior, then the painmaster is called in and performs the full series of seven excruciations, in public, ending with the horrible, slow death of the prisoner, culminating in the painmaster holding the liver and still-beating heart of the victim overhead, followed by the breaking of the corpse. On the other hand I'd think that plain old crucifixion, impalement, stoning, beheading, defenestration and burning at the stake don't require Ikadz.

Ugh... I'm making myself queasy.

> BTW, liked Loren's job on I the Nice One.

Thanks, and huh? Is there a missing phrase in there?

Cheers,
Loren
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Loren Miller <loren_at_wharton.upenn.edu> A priest, a rabbi, a Penn student, and an elephant walk into a bar. The bartender says, "what is this, some kind of joke?"

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