(no subject)

[ferris-girl.livejournal.com]

Just to bring this up. I was in my literary theory class when my prof happened to mention Janus. And I immediately thought of Sejanus. For those of you who don't know, Janus is a Roman god that has two faces looking the opposite direction. I thought this fit Sejanus very well...

Are there other wordplays within the books? Did I already miss this conversation...let me know.

Comments

[fabricalchemist.livejournal.com]

Dude, good call! I didn't even think of that.

[rowana.livejournal.com]

Wow. I did not see that. :)

I can't remember a conversation on this...I've noticed lots of characters names seem to fit. Like Eugenides coming from Eugene (or possibly being an old name?) which means the Well-born that could have been a bit of a hint in the Thief. :)

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Oh, anon8 needs to answer this. She has made a study of names, I believe. :)

Sejanus was a Roman statesman, head of

[dunkelpig.livejournal.com]

the Praetorian Guard, who was put to death for plotting against the Emperor Tiberius. Ben Jonson wrote a play about him.

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

Hah! I was going to post something about the play, but I might have known dunkelpig would get there fustest with a lot more than I know about it. :-)

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I was looking for something completely different and saw this:

Galen (A.D. 129–199), a native of Pergamum in Asia Minor, moved to Rome early in his career, devoted many years to the study and practice of medicine, and became court physician to the emperor Marcus Aurelius. (from http://healthychoice.epnet.com/)

And:

The poppy plant is a native of Asia Minor and was known by the ancient Greeks. The famous Greek physician Hippocrates prescribed the opium’s healing powers to his patients suffering insomnia. Another famous Greek physician, Galen, recorded the first opium overdose. He became an advocate of practicing eating opium for some physical ailments.... (from http://www.poppies.ws/articles/poppies-plant.html)

Luckily, that first opium overdose wasn't Eugenides.

However, wouldn't he have become addicted? Maybe "lethium" is the non-addicting kind of poppy juice. :)

Xenophon

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

As I read The Lantern Bearers (Sutcliff) I came across a character named Xenophon. Remember him in QoA? He was in charge of the men who traveled in the bed of the Aracthus with the fake cannon. And I found out that he, too, was a real person.

Xenophon led a Greek army on a harrowing retreat across Asia Minor, then wrote a vivid account of the event that is still being published and read today, almost 2,400 years later. Exiled from his native city of Athens for most of his life, Xenophon wrote prolifically on a variety of subjects. He is the most celebrated of the early Greek historians.

from UXL Biographies

Now you know.