Question

" . . . half over to Abendour . . . fifty fathoms deep ." lies :

• A. Sir Patrick Spens
• B. Tess Durbeyfield
• C. The Drowned Phoenician sailor
• D. Arthur Hallam

Answer 1

Answer:

C. The Drowned Phoenician sailor

1. Source of the line

This comes from T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (1922), specifically from the second section A Game of Chess. In this section, Eliot inserts a prophetic warning from the Tarot card reader, Madame Sosostris, who describes different symbolic figures, including The Drowned Phoenician Sailor.

2. Meaning in context

• The “Drowned Phoenician Sailor” is one of the Tarot cards mentioned.

• The phrase “fifty fathoms deep” recalls Shakespeare’s The Tempest (Ariel’s song: “Full fathom five thy father lies”), which also speaks of death beneath the sea.

• “Abendour” (sometimes spelled Aberdour, a Scottish place) reinforces the imagery of drowning and being carried away by the sea.

3. Symbolism

• Drowning here represents both literal death and symbolic death (the collapse of old civilizations, particularly Phoenicia, a great ancient sea-trading culture).

• The “Phoenician Sailor” thus becomes a symbol of cultural decline, death, and transformation — fitting into Eliot’s larger theme of the spiritual barrenness of the modern world.