The Anathemata
Middle-sea and Lear-sea (continued)
It was dark, a very stormy night—the projecting cheek-guards, the rigid nasal-piece—brazen he wore it and darked his visage; twin-cresteda, and his mantling horse-tail shadowed dark murexb my fair Aryan shoulders. Not he—not his proofed thoraxc neither, nor had he gratitude to unlace the mired greavesd of surly iron—the squat Georgiee!
B’the clod smell on him that’s what he was—before he got his papers,1 by the manners of him. Yet—Verticordia, prevent us continually! but which way should grace turn matriarch-hearts?2 . . . and how his glory filled the whole place where we were together.
And, now that I recall it:
he first, with his butt-iron, marked the intersection and squared a space—he took his own time on that—and signed me to stand by, then, with a beck of his elbow, turned m’ ample front to constant Arcturus,f himself aligned to the southward, minding his dressing like the foot-mob masherg he was,—or a haruspexh checking his holy stance,
the terrible inaugurator!i
and, at the intersected place he caused our sacred commerce to be. Why yes—west he took himself off, on the base-line he traced and named when he traced it: decumanus. West-turn from his kardo I saw him go, over his right transversus.3 From to rear of him I discerned his marcher’s lurch—I’d breath to see that.
West-star,j hers and all!
brighting the hooped turn of his scapular-plates enough
to show his pelvic sway
David Jones notes
1 Mars was an agriculturalist before he was a soldier.
2 Venus, under the title Verticordia, Turner of Hearts, was supplicated as the special guardian of fidelity and in this capacity was the patroness of matrons.
3 Cf. the sacred routine followed by the Roman surveyors in the laying out of sites: the north-south bearing was called kardo and the east-west was called decumanus, and the left and right limits of the square were each called limes transversus.
additional notes
DJ note 1: In ancient Roman religion and myth, Mars was the god of war and also an agricultural guardian, a combination characteristic of early Rome. He was second in importance only to Jupiter and he was the most prominent of the military gods in the religion of the Roman army. Most of his festivals were held in March, the month named for him (Latin Martius), and in October, which began the season for military campaigning and ended the season for farming.
a Mars was often represented with a twin-plumed helmet.
e From the Greek word γεωργος (georgos) meaning ‘farmer, earthworker’, itself derived from the elements γη (ge) ‘earth’ and εργον (ergon) ‘work’.
f Arcturus is constant because he never sets and is the ‘Guardian of the Bear’ (ἄρκτος, ‘bear’ and οὖρος, ‘guardian’). See also page 68.
i not only someone who begins something, but also including the Ancient Roman sense of augur, a ceremonial priest.
j The evening star, Venus.
see also
The opening of the paragraph reminds us of the initial epigraph.
semantic structures
glossary
b murex: a purple-dyed cloth much prized by the Romans.
c thorax: a breastplate covering the whole of the upper part of the body.
d greaves: metal armour protecting the lower legs (below the knee).
g masher: a man who attempts to force his unwelcome attentions on a woman.
h haruspex: an ancient Roman soothsayer who performed divination by the inspection of entrails.
comments
This paragraph describes the use of the groma mentioned on page 85, and relates its use to Rhea Silvia’s account of the context of the conception of Romulus and Remus.