Thursday 6 August 2015

Phoenicians

What did a typical Phoenician of 950 BC look like? Poul Anderson tells us in "Ivory, And Apes, And Peacocks." Captain Mago was:

slender;
swarthy;
hook-nosed;
with large, slanted eyes;
high cheekboned;
neatly bearded;
wearing colored kaftan, conical hat and sandals.

Perfect instructions for a graphic illustrator or film-maker. In fact, Anderson refers to films:

"Not that this was any prettified scene in an Arabian Nights movie." (Time Patrol, p. 232)

That suggests an interesting way to film this scene as Mago's ship, carrying Everard, approaches Tyre. Let us see it looking like "Arabian Nights" from a distance, then home in on the beggars, slaves and badly treated beasts of burden as Everard notices them. Mago had claimed that Tyre was "'...queen of the sea...'" (p. 230) and Everard acknowledges to himself that this city newly built on former skerries is "...in its way...as impressive as New York..." (ibid.) so we could also see his juxtaposed memories of New York?

Anderson presents the overwhelming vitality of the city with some of his list descriptions:

9 activities of the men bustling on the piers;
10 kinds of sounds;
9 kinds of smells.

I could reproduce the lists here but they are there to be found on p. 232.

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