Watson and the Shark, by John Singleton Copley, 1778.

Watson and the Shark, by John Singleton Copley, 1778. National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

The Sea

Volume VI, Number 3 | summer 2013

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Preamble

Sea Change

By Lewis H. Lapham

The sea offers a particular kind of freedom, though it’s one that comes at a price.

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A Winelike Sea

By Caroline Alexander

Homer’s famous “wine-dark sea” has left scholars wondering: how did the Greeks truly see the sea?

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Map

Water World

From radioactive waste to underwater cables, the world under the sea.

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Miscellany

According to a 2012 report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, over 87 percent of global fish stocks are either “fully exploited” or “overexploited.”

1995 | Suffolk

Gazing into Eternity

W.G. Sebald goes fishing.More

c. 1477 | London

A Thousand Fearful Wrecks

A Shakespearean nightmare.More

c. 1185 BC | Strait of Messina

Between the Devil and the Deep-Blue Sea

Odysseus faces Scylla and Charybdis.More

Charts & Graphs

Mutinous Tides

Thar be traitors aboard.

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Photograph of American dramatist Edward Albee.

Photograph of former U.S. President Millard Fillmore.

Color portrait of English poet John Donne.

Engraving of Scottish economist Adam Smith.

Black and white image of Greek biographer and writer Plutarch.

Color image of English novelist Charlotte Brontë with book in hand.

Portrait of English novelist and poet Charlotte Smith.

All streams run to the sea, but the sea is not full.

—Book of Ecclesiastes, c. 250 BC

Portrait bust of Roman poet Virgil.

Photograph of French writer Guy de Maupassant.

Virgil & Guy de Maupassant

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