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Seven Genders?

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Seven Genders?

Postby CSLFAN » June 27th, 2010, 9:35 pm

Does anyone happen to know what Lewis was refering to in That Hideous Strength, "The Decent of the Gods", when he says that Viritrilbia, Perelandra, and Malacandra represent 3 of the "Seven Genders"? Is this actually referencing some historical/philosophical belief or just creative writing? Thanks for the help. :??:
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Re: Seven Genders?

Postby galion » June 28th, 2010, 10:20 am

That's a really interesting question, which never actually occurred to me before, and I don't know the answer. It looks to me faintly esoteric; unfortunately I don't know enough about C. Williams, the Golden Dawn etc. to be able to tell whether or not Williams might have been an influence here. Does anybody know this area better?
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Re: Seven Genders?

Postby Theophilus » June 29th, 2010, 4:52 pm

I once read a science fiction story called "Venus and the Seven Sexes." Here is some information about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_and_the_Seven_Sexes

Since it was written before Lewis wrote the Chronicles it is possible that he might have read it.
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Re: Seven Genders?

Postby Sven » June 29th, 2010, 8:00 pm

Rat! he found breath to whisper, shaking. Are you afraid?
Afraid? murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love.
Afraid! Of Him? O, never, never! And yet -- and yet -- O, Mole, I am afraid!
Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.
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Re: Seven Genders?

Postby galion » June 29th, 2010, 9:25 pm

Latin has seven genders??!? Three, the last time I looked: masculine, feminine and neuter.
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Re: Seven Genders?

Postby Sven » June 29th, 2010, 11:03 pm

Rat! he found breath to whisper, shaking. Are you afraid?
Afraid? murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love.
Afraid! Of Him? O, never, never! And yet -- and yet -- O, Mole, I am afraid!
Then the two animals, crouching to the earth, bowed their heads and did worship.
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Re: Seven Genders?

Postby CSLFAN » June 29th, 2010, 11:13 pm

Thanks. These all sound pretty interesting. I had another thought about this in connection with the Seven Archangels referenced in the bible. Its a bit of a stretch, but is an interesting connection. I thought, perhaps Malacandra was somehow associated with St. Michael (a warrior), Viritrilbia with St. Gabriel (a messenger), and the other planetary powers with the rest in a mysterious way (since, aside from Raphael, we know of know other Archangels). Anyway, just a thought. Thanks again for the insight.
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Re: Seven Genders?

Postby galion » June 29th, 2010, 11:26 pm

I still am sure that the Latin connection is at best a red herring. The speakers of that tongue throughout all the centuries before Comenius do not seem to have noticed that it had more than three - and in any case, Comenius does not indicate what forms of words these extra four genders had. What Comenius might have thought was less that Latin grammarians had been lax in their analyisis, and more that the Latin language was deficient in this respect, which is an opinion not widely shared. The angelic approach might be more fruitful, since we do know of seven archangels. - but then there is a tendency of people in a certain cultural area to describe things in sevens - see for example Geoffre Ashe's The Ancient Wisdom. (wish he hadn't chosen that title! :wink: ). I suspect that the esoteric /astrological approach is the best; unfortunately I can't think of any concrete examples.
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