IV. DEATH BY WATER
Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
And the profit and loss.
A current under sea
Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
He passed the stages of his age and youth
Entering the whirlpool.
Gentile or Jew
O you who turn the wheel and look to windward,
Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.
- T.S. Eliot, “The Waste Land”
I now have an abhorred hatred of this man, Phlebas. Upon the realisation that he is not, in fact, a reference to The Odyssey NOR The Aeneid, a good 40 minutes of what could’ve been used to write this essay were wasted finding him in the texts aforementioned. He was in neither. A guy drowns in The Aeneid. His name isn’t Phlebas. I was lied to.
