Docs Rachel Scott (Rhona Mitra) and Quincy
Tophet (Sam Spruell) try to find a cure and save humanity.
And
Tophet, which the poem references, is a Biblical city that, for the Victorians, was a resonant symbol of environmental degradation; according to one mid-century exegete, the historical
Tophet was originally known as "the pleasant valley" which later became "a receptacle for the rubbish and filth of the city" where piles of trash were perennially burning.
Sold or wide awake, All will go to
Tophet Why then seek to vie With Solomons or Sidneys?
Wolff excavated an area in the city of Carthage estimated to be no less than "between 54,000 and 64,000 square feet" that they called the "Carthaginian
Tophet." They estimate that as many as 20,000 funerary urns containing the bones of young children were deposited at the site between 400 B.C.E.
Near by is the
Tophet, the Punic sacrificial site where a dig uncovered 20,000 urns containing the ashes of unfortunate children sacrificed to the gods of Baal and Tanit.
The crisis climaxes in the dog-days (the time of madness) in an episode in the Rue Saint Thomas de l'Enfer, when a 'Thought' suddenly rises in him, making him ask himself what he is afraid of, and whether he cannot '"trample
Tophet itself [...] while it consumes thee?" [...] And as I so thought, there rushed like a stream of fire over my whole soul' (p.
Tophet.
Tophet was the original name of a place near Gehanna, south of
(34) While there is no direct functional relationship between
tophet or sacrificial stelai and this funerary example, the juxtaposition of divine imagery (the Tanit symbol) with nautical imagery (the prow) evidently had a place in Phoenician-Punic religious iconography.
Such men given twenty minutes from the tomb at the Day of Judgment, would patronise the naked souls as they hurried up with the glare of
Tophet on their faces, and say: 'You should have seen this when Gabriel first began to blow'.