The Anathemata
Middle-sea and Lear-sea (continued)
Not always: blue Aegean
nor smiling middle-mare.
The loomings and the dippings
unsighted
what jack she wore
unrecognized.
Who are you pray?1
unanswered.
(Low, raked, Pelasgian Long Serpent
for the low sea-mist.)
The shifts of wind
the intermittent rain
but Sunium
rounded.
Thirty-seven forty-five north
twenty-three thirty-nine east:
right ahead, beyond tanged Salamis, obscured Eleusis—
to port, Cleruchy island.2
David Jones notes
1 See the formula used in questioning the identity of another ship fallen in with at sea.
2 The island of Aegina.
additional notes
A cleruchy (Greek: κληρουχία, klēroukhia) in Classical Greece, was a specialised type of colony established by Athens. The term comes from the Greek word κληροῦχος, klērouchos, literally ‘lot-holder’. Normally, Greek colonies were politically independent; they would have a special relationship with the mother city (the metropolis), but would otherwise be independent entities. Cleruchies were significantly different. The settlers or cleruchs would retain their Athenian citizenship and the community remained a political dependency of Athens. The first cleruchy was Salamis. Aegina followed much later (and is here anachronistic, but no matter).
comments
We now meet our first seafarer. He is a Pelasgian, a hold-all term for any ancient, primitive and presumably indigenous people in the Greek world prior to the Greek language. ‘Low, raked, Long Serpent’ reminds us of a Viking ship; what Pelasgian ships were actually like is, I think, unknown, so this description is as good as any. He is currently about 11 nautical miles south of Athens on a northward course since from his position the island of Salamis (‘tanged’ because of its irregular shape) obscures Eleusis on the mainland of Attica.