"I'm alive..."

I quoted John Carter, "We still live!" Gratillonius says, "'I'm alive.'" (Dahut, Chapter XIV, section 1, p. 296) He wonders what possessed his young challengers when he should ask who but indignantly rejects any suspicions of Dahut. But who possesses her? Is it Lir, in what Corentinus would call a demonic possession? She has become a fanatic.

I seem to remember that, on Barsoom, a green warrior who killed his Jeddak became the Jeddak so maybe the comparison of Gratillonius with Carter is more apposite than I thought? Certainly a green Martian inherits property, females and even names from those he kills. Thus, John Carter of Virginia, former Captain in the Army of the Confederate States, becomes Dotar Sojat, chieftain of Thark, then Prince of Helium, then Jeddak of Jeddaks, Warlord of Barsoom, just as Gaius Valerius Gratillonius of the Belgic tribe in Britannia, centurion in the Second Legion Augusta, becomes Roman prefect in Ys, also King of Ys, chief priest and incarnation of Taranis, a Father in Mithras and, later, a man in Christ.

(I don't make this up; I just summarize it!)