Name of Pavis

From: Paul Anderson <pmanderson_at_hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 02 Sep 1999 18:28:31 PDT


What do you think? This is not yet sent; have I been clear?

Keith N:

>What was the name of Pavis while Pavis was alive?

Thank you; an excellent question, and one new to me. Here are two others:

What was the name of Sartar (the principality), when Sartar ruled it? What was then the wyter of Boldhome, assuming that it is Sartar now?

The mundane answer is that it was called "the City" or "Pavis's City" or "here". Elsewhere you said "I'm going over to Pavis", like "I'm going up to Orlmar," and the ambiguity was unimportant.

I prefer to think that the city was called Pavis, because the city-spirit _was_ Pavis, even in his lifetime. There is a parallel to this: the Spartan general Brasidas founded a city Amphipolis, and was worshipped as the founder-hero even though a Greek hero was, by definition, dead. In this view, Pavis's identification with the city was part of that determination, that closing off of possibilities, which ends in apotheosis. He was no longer free to be an adventurer, for example; he was everywhere the City, as King Harry was England.

If you had to be clear which Pavis you were talking about, you said "Prince Pavis" or "Pavis the City"; just as now you speak of "the City", "the Cult", "the Body", etc. -if it is not clear from context.

Paul MacLean Anderson
pmanderson_at_hotmail.com
"I'm not making this up, you know!"



Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

Powered by hypermail