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==Stanza 1-2==

===Title===


The title refers the reader back to Madame Sosostris' card reading in part one, "The Burial of the Dead" (see [["The Burial of the Dead" Annotations]] for more information).  She bids her client to "fear death by water."

===Lines 312-318, Ancient History===
    
    Phlebas the Phoenician, a fortnight dead,
    
    Forgot the cry of gulls, and the deep sea swell
    
    And the profit and loss.
                                  A current under sea
    
    Picked his bones in whispers. As he rose and fell
    
    He passed the stages of his age and youth
    
    Entering the whirlpool.


"Phlebas" may be name derived from the latin adjective "flebilis" meaning "lamentable, to be wept over," which only makes sense if he's a fortnight dead.  Phoenicians are historically best known for their rich trade network, and so this passage shows a man who probably lived to make money, dies at the hands of cruel nature.

==Stanza 3==

===Lines 319-321===

    Gentile or Jew
    
    O you who turn the wheel and look to windward, 
    
    Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you.