Ahira's Hangar

I have always thought that the story of Alia Atreides is perhaps the greatest tragedy of all of the Duniverse.

Well, from the perspective of the story, of course what happened to her was necessary.

Yet, it is still so sad.

The young but so-old and very lonely child who is born and takes on her own grandfather's assassination in Dune. The passionate and beautiful young woman we meet in Dune Messiah. The monster we meet in Children of Dune. What a horribly lonely life she led! And to have to live with all of those inner voices all of those years, beginning before she was even born! It's no wonder she finally gave way before them and became an abomination...

I have always wondered if anything could have been done by either the Lady Jessica or by the Bene Gesserit or by the Fremen Rev. Mothers to have tried to save her? After all, the twins found a way to remain themselves (more or less), to remain sane...

Or was Alia doomed from the instant Lady Jessica drank the Water of Life? ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
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She reminds me of the classic tragic female figue of Greek drama. Was it Medea, or do I have the wrong name...? *****
Before, you are wise; after, you are wise. In between you are otherwise.
Fravashi saying (from the formularies of Osho the Fool) <i></i>

Medea was the one who married Jason (of the Argonauts and the Golden Fleece fame) and who ate her own children with Jason when he sought a younger and more beautiful princess. She was a great sorcoress, powerful, passionate, and very cruel.

I would like to say Electra, but that's probably quite simply because Electra was an Atreides. Her father was Agamemnon, who had been murdered by her mother, Clytemnestra and Clytemnestra's lover, said to be a first cousin or other close relative of Agamemnon's. She lived a life waiting for and preparing for vengeance of her father's murder, and convinced her brother Orestes to kill their mother. The waiting for vengeance for her father's murder would fit, as would the exile following her father's death, but Jessica obviously did not kill Leto (though other relatives of Alia's did). Alia certainly did help Paul bring down the murderers of their father, though.
www.online-mythology.com/agamemnon_orestes_electra/
www.mala.bc.ca/~johnstoi/aeschylus/HouseofAtreus.htm ******************************************************

Our lives are the songs that sing the universe into existence.~David Zindell
<i>Edited by: Duchess of Malfi at: 8/11/06 9:00 pm
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You gotta love the Greek Classics! Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia for a strong wind. Clytemnestra kills her husband Agamemnon for killing their daughter (Iphigenia.) Clytemnestra’s daughter Electra and her brother kill Clytemnestra for killing Agamemnon.

I never really thought about it, but I suppose Alia (at least in Dune) could remind me of Antigone. She was old beyond her years. She was extremely patient and knew how to handle herself in tense situations. She was loyal to her father and despite knowing that her father was going to die (there was some prophesy I think) she didn't avoid the prophesy or try to live around it. <i></i>

Wow, you guys know your classical Greeks.

I certainly agree with Duchess that Alia's, (and I've always loved her...title/whatever, St Alia of the Knife) story is a tragic one. In theory of course she need not be doomed, if the twins could find a way to prevail, so could she have...perhaps. On the other hand, the twins at least had each other. And IIRC, they weren't changed in the womb as she was.

Not only that, but her early childhood, dealing with the reaction of the people to her strangeness, probably wasn't good for her self-esteem. And that may be at the root of her surrender...she lacked strength of self perhaps.

--A ____________________________________

A sense of the sardonic preserves a man from believing in his own pretensions. -The Sayings Of Maud'Dib<i></i>