# Coth — Jurgen character guide

> Coth in Jurgen by James Branch Cabell.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0040-xxxvi-why-coth-was-contradicted

## Snapshot

Jurgen's querulous father, trapped in Hell and forever quarreling, whose stubborn opinions become facts the moment he holds them.

## Who they are

Coth bickers with his son in the timeless idiom of family grievance — about Jurgen's tone of voice, his mother, his light women — while the fiends tormenting him withdraw in embarrassment at the sheer volume of it. Because Satan has said that whatever Coth believes will be true in Hell, Jurgen goads him into believing in pretty women and vampires, and Florimel promptly appears. Coth is both comic relief and a metaphysical hinge: his irritable certainties are the raw material from which the underworld's realities are made.

## Relationships

### [Jurgen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/characters/jurgen)

_friendship_

Coth is a loyal companion and fellow traveler who accompanies Jurgen on parts of his quest.

### [Jurgen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/characters/jurgen)

_friendship_

Coth is a loyal companion and fellow traveler who accompanies Jurgen on parts of his quest.

### [Jurgen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/characters/jurgen)

_friendship_

Coth is a loyal companion and fellow traveler who accompanies Jurgen on parts of his quest.

## In the story

### [XVI: Divers Imbroglios of King Smoit](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/chapters/xvi-divers-imbroglios-of-king-smoit)

Revealed to be the son of King Smoit and Steinvor, making him Jurgen's father.

### [XXXIV: How Emperor Jurgen Fared Infernally](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/chapters/xxxiv-how-emperor-jurgen-fared-infernally)

Jurgen's father, seen standing in a flame in Chorasma, chewing his moustaches; he does not recognize Jurgen.

### [Why Coth Was Contradicted](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/chapters/xxxvi-why-coth-was-contradicted)

Jurgen's father, tormented in Hell but dissatisfied with the inadequacy of his punishments; stubbornly contradicts Jurgen, inadvertently shaping reality.

### [XXXVII: Invention of the Lovely Vampire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/chapters/xxxvii-invention-of-the-lovely-vampire)

Parted with his son in anger; his imagination conjured Florimel.

### [XXXVIII: As to Applauded Precedents](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/chapters/xxxviii-as-to-applauded-precedents)

Jurgen's father, visited by Jurgen and Florimel after their marriage.

### [XXXIX: Of Compromises in Hell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/chapters/xxxix-of-compromises-in-hell)

Jurgen's father, mentioned as having invented Florimel, with whom Jurgen had no tastes in common.

### [XL: The Ascension of Pope Jurgen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/chapters/xl-the-ascension-of-pope-jurgen)

Mentioned as Jurgen's father in the younger angel's self-identification.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/characters/coth
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/jurgen_se/characters