Phlebas the Phoenician, for modernity, is introduced by T.S. Elliot as a character from his poem The Waste Land, in Part IV. ‘Death by Water’. It is the shortest section of the poem, describing the aftermath of the drowning of Phoenician sailor Phlebas, an event forewarned by Madame Sosostris. His corpse is still trapped in a whirlpool that serves as a metaphor for the cycle of life and death, and serves as a warning to pursue a meaningful life. Consider Phlebas, first published in 1987, is a space opera novel by Scottish writer Iain M. Banks. It is the first in a series of novels about an interstellar post-scarcity society called the ‘Culture’. Hence, Phlebas’ modernity continues:
Madame Sosostris, famous clairvoyante,
Had a bad cold, nevertheless
Is known to be the wisest woman in Europe,
With a wicked pack of cards. Here, said she,
Is your card, the drowned Phoenician Sailor,
(Those are pearls that were his eyes. Look!)
Here is Belladonna, the Lady of the Rocks,
The lady of situations.
Here is the man with three staves, and here the Wheel,
And here is the one-eyed merchant, and this card,
Which is blank, is something he carries on his back,
Which I am forbidden to see. I do not find
The Hanged Man. Fear death by water.
I see crowds of people, walking round in a ring.
Thank you. If you see dear Mrs. Equitone,
Tell her I bring the horoscope myself:
One must be so careful these days.
The character is modern fiction, but the Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon. As with ‘The Jews’, the whole semantic peoples (from Phoenicia) are known as ancients who brought trade and mercantilism into modernity, in the westward direction of historical ‘development’. This is why the narrow political abuse in the term, ‘antisemitic’, is so wrong. The term ‘antiphoenicanism’ should be used as identifying the problem thinking, to include the concern for Jewish persons, but also Palestinians, Lebanese, and every person who claims a ‘The Levant’ tradition. ‘Levine’ is a Jewish name that was originally derived from the Hebrew male given name, Levi, which means joining. All of these terms are contestable in political agendas. The point is to be inclusive in the semantics and the thinking.
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Featured Image: A Roman mosaic with reference to Phlebas the Phoenician, memento mori, with the words, “know-thyself” (gnothi sauton).
Neville Buch
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