The Anathemata
Mabinog’s Liturgy (continued)
Martha!a stop that endless meddling!
and dont tie Argos up
or, he’ll bark
the place down.
He’s a nose for what springs new from hoar stem
and ancient holm.
Let him come gently.
See! he would reach to lick
the trickling blossoms
by the ancient stone.1
David Jones notes
1 Cf. the carol known as The Corpus Christi Carol.
‘ . . . there standeth a stone
Corpus Christi wreten thereon’
(verse 6, MS. circa 1400)
‘. . . there lieth a hound
which is licking the blood as it
daily runs down.’
(verse 6, Derbyshire, recorded in 1908)
‘which ever grows blossoms since Christ was born.’
(verse 7, North Staffs, recorded in 1862)
And cf. Odyssey, Bk. XVII, 291-292.
‘A dog lying there raised up his head and ears
(This was) Argos (the dog) of . . . Odysseus.’
Cf. page 242 below.
additional notes
DJ note 1: there are many variants of this carol. Some do not include verse 6 cited above and some do not include verse 7. See Wikipedia.
In the most moving dog cameo in world literature, Homer describes how Odysseus, after many years of wanderings, returns home to Ithaca disguised as a beggar (so as to surprise his wife possibly with her lovers during his absence). He is, however, recognised by his very old, blind, ill dog Argos who welcomes his master back after his long absence and, feeling that his faithfulness has at last been rewarded and he now has permission to die, does so at his master’s feet.
a Martha: refers to the woman who is is rebuked by Jesus for being too concerned in household tasks to pay attention to his teachings (Luke 10:38-42). Another fine example of DJ’s use of a single word to signal a complete change of context, or the introduction of an additional one: in this case, the significance of the life of Jesus.
comments
Argos, recognising the budding stems as (symbolically) bleeding wounds, applies the obvious therapy (for a dog): he licks them.