Phlebas the Phoenician
E482010
Phlebas the Phoenician is a drowned sailor whose death serves as a symbolic warning about mortality and the futility of worldly concerns in T.S. Eliot’s poem "The Waste Land."
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
drowned man
ⓘ
fictional character ⓘ literary character ⓘ sailor ⓘ |
| ageAtDeath | middle-aged (implied) ⓘ |
| appearsIn | The Waste Land NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| associatedWithMotif |
drowning
ⓘ
shipwreck ⓘ the turning of the tide ⓘ water ⓘ |
| associatedWithTheme |
death
ⓘ
decay ⓘ forgetfulness ⓘ loss of identity ⓘ vanity of worldly pursuits ⓘ |
| causeOfDeath | drowning ⓘ |
| contrastWith | the busy, anxious modern figures in The Waste Land ⓘ |
| createdBy | T. S. Eliot NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| describedAs |
once handsome and tall
ⓘ
once rich and carefree ⓘ |
| ethnicity | Phoenician ⓘ |
| firstPublicationOfWork | 1922 ⓘ |
| interpretation |
allegory of the fall of ancient maritime civilizations
ⓘ
critique of commercialism and trade obsession ⓘ embodiment of the universal human fate ⓘ |
| languageOfWork | English ⓘ |
| literaryPeriod | Modernism NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| medium | poetry ⓘ |
| memoryStatus | forgotten by his contemporaries ⓘ |
| mentionedInSection | Death by Water NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction |
cautionary example to the reader
ⓘ
memento mori figure ⓘ |
| occupation | sailor ⓘ |
| partOf | narrative structure of The Waste Land ⓘ |
| referencedAs | "Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead" ⓘ |
| relatedToCharacter | the reader addressed as "you" in Death by Water ⓘ |
| roleInWork |
example of the futility of worldly concerns
ⓘ
symbolic warning about mortality ⓘ |
| settingOfDeath | the sea ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
mortality
ⓘ
the futility of materialism ⓘ the inevitability of death ⓘ the transience of youth ⓘ |
| undergoes |
physical dissolution in the sea
ⓘ
spiritual stripping of worldly concerns ⓘ |
| warns |
those absorbed in worldly calculations
ⓘ
those preoccupied with profit and loss ⓘ |
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.