The Anathemata
Keel, Ram, Stauros (continued)
[page 175] gibbet
for the dented spolia?
gibbet at Laverna’sa cruxed-way
for dolorous queansa to mourn an Adonis ad vincula? 1
David Jones notes
1 See the goddess Laverna, patroness of malefactors, and cf. Beggar’s Opera, Air III, Cold and Raw.
‘A Rope so charming a Zone is!
The Youth in his Cart hath the Air of a Lord
And we cry, There dies an Adonis!’
additional notes
a Laverna was a goddess of thieves, cheats and the underworld. In Rome, her sanctuary was near the Porta Lavernalis.
see also
semantic structures
glossary
a quean: a woman of bad behaviour, a harlot.
comments
A gibbet as a timber construction can be used to display the spoils of war as trophies as well as for the hanging of malefactors. ad vincula (Latin) = in, or taken to, prison.