Cyprian Latewood

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Cyprian:

Aphrodite is sometimes called "Cyprian" (Kypris), because of her alleged birth on Cyprus.

St. Cyprian lived in the 3rd century CE (thus perhaps during the time of St. Cosmo), and was persecuted and martyred for his beliefs

"late wood":

the outer portion of the growth ring on a tree, more dense than the "early wood" which appears early in the growing season, appearing later in the season, usually summer. Wikipedia entry

Pynchon connects Cyprian Latewood with the Greek demigod Orpheus. When Cyprian arrives, with Reef and Yashmeen, at the convent in the Balkans (Thrace) (p. 956), he is greeted with "Welcome home." Thrace was the birthplace of Orpheus:

The name Orpheus does not occur in Homer or Hesiod, but he was known in the time of Ibycus (c. 530 BC). Pindar (522—442 BC) speaks of him as “the father of songs”.

From the 6th century BC onwards, Orpheus {ohr'-fee-uhs} was considered one of the chief poets and musicians of antiquity, and the inventor or perfector of the lyre. By dint of his music and singing, he could charm the wild beasts, coax the trees and rocks into dance, even arrest the course of rivers. As one of the pioneers of civilization, he is said to have taught mankind the arts of medicine, writing and agriculture. Closely connected with religious life, Orpheus was an augur and seer; practiced magical arts, especially astrology; founded or rendered accessible many important cults, such as those of Apollo and the Thracian god Dionysus; instituted mystic rites both public and private; and prescribed initiatory and purificatory rituals. Wikipedia

Now, it was said that Orpheus could even charm the trees, which is referenced in the first sonnet in Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus:

Tree arising! O pure ascendance!

Orpheus Sings! Towering tree within the ear!

Everywhere stillness, yet in this abeyance:

seeds of change and new beginnings near.

Creatures of silence emerged from the clear

unfettered forest, from dens, from lairs.

Not from shyness, this silence of theirs;

nor from any hint of fear,

simply from listening. Brutal shriek and roar

dwindled in their hearts. Where stood a mere

hut to house the passions of the ear,

constructed of longing darkly drear,

haphazardly wrought from front to rear,

you built them a temple at listening's core. ^[1]

More Orpheus-Tree associations:

Orpheus, the legendary poet whose songs could tame the beasts and charm the gods themselves, takes his name from the word for the alder tree. [1]

Hecate as Hecate trioditis was associated with the Mystery cults; Apollo in Thrace, Demeter at Sparta, and Hecate at Aegina. The divulgence of the Mysteries by Orpheus resulted in his death (Pausanius: ix.30.3; ii.30.2; iii.14.5).

The Elysian Mysteries derive from the cult of the alder tree (French sorb-apple = alisier; Spanish alder = aliso). Orpheus’ father Oeagrus means of the wild sorb apple. If Orpheus stands for ophruoeis or on the river bank, then it may be a title for the Greek Phoroneus or Cronus and refer to the alders growing on the Peneius and other rivers. Thus the alder, and hence the two entities, appear to be names for the pre-Hellenic river goddess Halys, Alys or Elis, queen of the Elysian islands where Phoroneus, Cronus, and Orpheus went after death.

Orpheus’s singing head is similar to the myth of the decapitated Alder-god Bran who (according to the Mabinogion) sang sweetly on the rock at Harlech in Wales. [2]

On p. 958, Cyprian apologizes to Reef and Yashmeen for staying behind at the convent:

"I know you were counting on me. Even if it was only for body mass, another tree in the windbreak. I feel that I just fell over and left you all exposed...."

Oxford University Press - Classical Mythology, 7th Edition

St. Cyprian's is the prep school that George Orwell attended.

References

1. ↑ The Sonnets to Orpheus, translation by Robert Hunter Hunter Archive