character in Borges story, based on legendary figure of the Wandering Jew
Fishburn and Hughes: "A fictional character in 'The Immortal'. His name alludes to the legend of the Wandering Jew, which first appeared in a thirteenth-century chronicle by Roger Wendover. According to Wendover, a certain Cartaphilus (believed to be St Joseph of Arimathaea), taunted Jesus on his way to the Cross and was told by him that he would have to wait on earth until he returned. Cartaphilus lived to a hundred and then reverted to thirty, at which age he was destined to remain until the end of the world. The legend of the Jew condemned to wander about the world until Christ's second coming has been told in several versions and was a popular subject in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Through these reworkings the legend shares with the Odyssey the fate of 'immortality'." (41)