An Archaeology of Whales and Sea Monsters in The Greek World

A Ketos in Early Athens: An Archaeology of Whales and Sea Monsters in the Greek World Author(s): John K.
Papadopoulos and Deborah Ruscillo Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 106, No. 2 (Apr., 2002), pp. 187-227 Published by: Archaeological Institute of America Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4126243 . Accessed: 06/05/2011 18:31
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at . http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=aia. . Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Archaeological Institute of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to American Journal of Archaeology.
http://www.jstor.org
A Ketos in Early Athens: An Archaeology of Whales and Sea Monsters in the Greek World
JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS AND DEBORAH RUSCILLO
Abstract This article publishes a fragment of a scapula of a fin whale (Balaenopteraphysalus) found in an Early Geometric well in the area of the later Athenian Agora. Deriving from the carcass of an immature beached whale, the bone was brought to Athens and was used probably as a cutting surface, before being discarded ca. 850 B.C. The context of this extraordinary artifact is analyzed and discussed, as are its possible functions. The occurrence of whales in the Aegean and Mediterranean is reviewed, so too the use of whales and whalebones in ancient Greece and in other cultures. Although the incidence of whalebone is rare in archaeological contexts in the Aegean, Classical literature is full of references to both fantastic sea monsters and real whales. The words that the Greeks and Romans used for whales and the language of whales in mythology and natural history reveal a rich and varied tradition. There is a similarly rich and long tradition of iconographic representations in ancient art, particularly of fabulous sea monsters, one that extends from Aegean prehistory into the Classical era and well beyond. The Agora whalebone provides a unique insight into the archaeology of whales and sea monsters in Greek literature, natural history, art, and material culture.* How vain and foolish, then, thought I, for timid untravelled man to try to comprehend aright this wondrous whale, by merely poring over his dead attenuated skeleton. Herman Melville, Moby Dick.' One of the most enigmatic objects to have been found in the heart of Athens is the so-called bone in an Earartifact (Agora inv. BI 115), encountered Geometric well (well K 12:2) in the central porly the Classical tion of the area that was to become 1).2 So unique was the object that the Agora (fig. well from which it derived came to be known, for a time, as the "well with the bone artifact." Although
unearthed in 1934, the bone languished, apparently forgotten for many years,firstin the storerooms of the old Agora dig-house, and later in the upper gallery of the Stoa of Attalos, above the Agora Museum. The bone is of interest both on account of the fact that it preserves a portion of a scapula of a fin whale, a member of the Balaenoptera genus of whales, the second largest mammal to have inhabited the earth after the blue whale, as well as for the use it was put to prior to being discarded. The bone, although fragmentaryand now preserving only a small portion of the original scapula, has a series of cut marks on its upper, flat surface, and a neat rectangular cutting for presumed attachment to another element, now lost. While the exact function of the artifact in the context of the Early Iron Age settlement of Athens is not immediately obvious, analysis of the various cuttings, together with the wear on the bone, provide important insights into the life history of this uncommon find. The comparative rarityof whale bones in archaeological contexts in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean generally, coupled with the use that the bone was put to, warrantits detailed publication. Moreover, the physical existence of such a bone serves as a useful focus for the more numerous appearances of whales and other sea monsters in Greek literature, mythology, natural history, and art. In this article, a detailed description and analysis of the bone is provided, which aims at establishing the salient details of its life history, including the nature of the leviathan from which it derived and the context in which it was finally deposited. From there, the incidence of both stranded and sighted
Adrienne Mayor, Greg Monks, Sarah Morris,Jacqui Mulville, Tom Palaima, StavrosPaspalas, Carolyn Riccardelli, Richard Sabin, William Schniedewind, Gianni Siracusano, Aleydis Van de Moortel, Cornelius Vermeule, and Jennifer Webb. We would like to record our special thanks to Adrienne Mayor for her insightful comments and her great enthusiasm for monsters of the land and sea. 1Melville 1851, ch. 103, "Measurement of the Whale's Skeleton," 494-5. of Athens in the Early Iron Age, see 2 For the topography Papadopoulos 1996, 2002.
* We gratefullyacknowledgeour debt to our colleagues in the Athenian Agora for facilitatingour work and for various John McK.CampII, SylvieDutypesof assistance,particularly mont, Anne Hooton, Jan Jordan, and Craig Mauzy.We are gratefulto manyfriendsand colleaguesfor providingillustrations, for allowingaccessto materialin their care, and for discussion on a varietyof topics connected with this paper, espeMary Jean Blasdale, ciallythe following:AphroditeArgyrakis, Laura Bonomi,DavidClarke,John Clegg,RogerColten,Simon PeterDawson,SusanneEbbinghaus, Fox,Michael Davis, Sherry Jehle, Hans ChristianKochelmann, Roel Lauwerier,Susan Lawrence, Nino Luraghi,Yvonne Marshall,Dave Maxwell, AmericanJournal of Archaeology106 (2002) 187-227 187
188
[AJA 106
Fig. 1. Generalviewof the areaof the AthenianAgora,withthe Akropolis,from the west,before the reconstruction of the Stoa of Attalos. (Photo by Alison Frantz;courtesyof the Agora Excavations,AmericanSchool of Classical Studies at Athens) whales in the Aegean and Mediterranean are reviewed, and a brief overview is provided of the use of whales and whalebones in Greece, as well as in other cultures. Next, the words that the Greeks and Romans used for whales and the language of whales in mythology and natural history are discussed. Finally, an analysis is presented on the manner in which Greek and other artists represented these creatures of the deep and the iconographic traditions that were formulated and established in Aegean prehistory and in Classical archaeology. Although Classical literature is full of references to mythical creatures of the deep-as well as to real whales-and fantastic sea monsters feature prominently in Greek and Roman art, Classical philologists and iconographers have been hampered in their attempts to link the word and the image, on the one hand, with the material remains of actual whales on the other. This is in part the result of the paucity of verified whalebones in archaeological contexts and the lack of general information with regard to their specific species or genera, which has sometimes given rise to the mistaken belief that larger whales, such as blue, fin, and sperm whales were-and are-uncommon in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. It is our aim in this paper to (re-)establish the link between once living whales and the rich literary and iconographic traditions of kete in the Greek world. The shoulder blade of the Early Iron Age ketos in Athens, together with discoveries of several other whalebones in various contexts in the Aegean and Mediterranean, permit an archaeology of whales and sea monsters in Greek tradition that draws on the evidence not only of philology and iconography, but also faunal remains and material culture.
THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
Before describing Agora BI 115, it is important to establish the details of its context and its date. The deposit in which the whalebone was found was one of two early wells that were located near the center of the later Agora, beneath the so-called Civic Offices." The stylobate of an Early Roman building intersected one of them, K 12:2 of Early Geometric date, in which BI 115 was found; the other, Protogeometric well K 12:1, was located about 2 m to the south (figs. 2-3). The shafts of both wells had been cut down to the surviving level of the bedrock by early Roman times. Turkish storage pits overlay both wells and extended down into the ragged mouth of K 12:1, which opened in bedrock as an irregular pit, ca. 2 x 2.4 m, narrowing to 1-1.2 m at the bottom. The shaft was about 4.8 m in depth
"The well is noted in Shear 1935, 362-3.
2002]
AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF WHALES AND SEA MONSTERS IN THE GREEK WORLD
189
Fig. 2. Well K 12:1 in foreground and well K 12:2 (the Early Geometric well with the whalebone) in center during excavation in 1934. View from the south. (Courtesyof the Agora Excavations,American School of ClassicalStudies at Athens) from the level of the surrounding bedrock4 and lay under the porch of the Civic Offices, 17.5 m north of Middle Stoa pier 9 (from the west). The Middle Stoa terrace appears to have been built along the line of an earlier east-west road that may have been in service during the life of the well, though such a conclusion is speculative. The material from well K 12:1 can be assigned to a developed phase of the Protogeometric period.5 Just over 2 m to the north of K 12:1 was well K 12:2 (figs. 2-3), also referred to by the excavator as "Protogeometric."6 There appears to have been no physical barrier between the two wells until the stylobate of the Civic Offices was built between them. It is worth adding that during excavation persistent water was met in both wells, even as high as the level of the first meter below the surrounding bedrock. The diameter at the mouth of well K 12:2 as first exposed was 1.3 m, narrowing to 0.7 m at the bottom. The depth of the well below the top of the overlying wall B was 6.25 m; its depth from the preserved level of the surrounding bedrock approximately 5.3 m (fig. 3). Well K 12:2 was one of several Early Iron Age wells that were stratified. The lower deposit (period of use) yielded complete and almost-complete vessels recovered from depths ranging between -4.2 and -5.3 m. These vessels, used to draw water, were inadvertently dropped by their owners; a selection of some of the period-of-use pots is presented here (figs. 45). The upper deposit, filling the remainder of the well, represents the fill dumped into the shaft
4Thatis, 54.45 m abovesea level.Section M:well at 70/ME. Deposit firstnoted 22 and 27 March1934;cleared 29 March14April 1934byD. Burr[Thompson].A numberof complete vesselsfrom the deposit, primarily oinochoai, mayhave been of the period-of-usematerial,but on account of several part joins noted throughoutthe deposit,all of the potterywascombined, without a record of the depth noted. As such, it is not possibleto establishbeyond doubt whether the complete vessels were indeed period of use, or if the entire fill wasdeposited at one time. 5 EvelynSmithson'sdivisionof the EarlyIron Age into distinct phases coincides with that of Coldstream(1968, 8-28) for Earlyand MiddleGeometric.Coldstream's divisionof the
Geometricperiodinto Early, Middle,andLate,withsubsequent phasesfollowsthatoriginallydevisedbyEvaBrannand Evelyn LordSmithson, Papadopoulos see Brann1961, 1998;seefurther 95; Coldstream1968, 4-5; Coldstream1995, 391. Smithson divided the Protogeometricperiodinto variousphaseson the basis of the internal evidence provided by the Agora graves the and deposits,particularly well deposits (wellK 12:1wasassigned by Smithson to PG III). For further notes on these chronological phases,see Papadopoulos1996, 119,n. 34. well at 70/MH. Clearedin6 Section M. "Protogeometric" between 2 and 26 April 1934 by Dorothy Burr termittently [Thompson]. See also Coldstream1968, 10, 13.
190

A
[AJA 106
ODPlan
S1 2 2: 3 K12:4 1
TERRACE TRENCH
MD
,
CUTTING
eMA
Tr.
A-A TurkSection
BTurk.
pit
Ter, tr.
cutting
Section
A-A
eg
Fig. 3. Plan and section of Agora wells K 12:1 and K 12:2. Inked by RichardAnderson, after a sketch in the excavation notebook. (Courtesy of the Agora Excavations,American School of ClassicalStudies at Athens) when the well had gone out of use; a selection from the more numerous and fragmentary material recovered from this level is also presented (fig. 6). Nicolas Coldstream lists the lower deposit as
one of the earliest of his significant Early Geometric I deposits;' the upper fill is listed as the earliest of the Early Geometric II significant deposits on the basis of the latest diagnostic material recovered from it.' The upper deposit yielded some earlier material, including pottery deriving perhaps from disturbed tombs.9 The chronological consistency of the pottery recovered from the lower deposit would indicate that the well was open and in use for a relatively short period of time, an observation supported by the latest material recovered from the dumped filling comprising the upper deposit. Although the well, with the possible exception of one piece (P 20618), does not contain any obvious potters' waste, a number of whole pots from the period-of-use deposit are somewhat poorly fired."' These are in addition to several handmade cooking vessels or chytrai (fig. 5), all clearly fire-stained or burnt from normal domestic use. The poorly-fired vessels, on the other hand, are all wheelmade and painted and may indicate that "factory seconds" were commonly used for more mundane purposes, such as drawing water from wells, though it is worth stressing that damaged vessels sometimes occur in tombs." The whalebone, BI 115 (figs. 7-8), was found in the upper deposit at a depth of 1.75 m below wall B and, therefore, at least 1 m in the fill as measured from the level of the surrounding bedrock. Such a depth is well below the level of the intrusive material encountered at the mouth of the well, and the bone artifact may be dated on the basis of the diagnostic pottery recovered from the upper fill of well K 12:2. This would indicate the chronological phase Early Geometric II, or ca. 850 B.C. in the conventional absolute chronology, as a terminus post quem for BI 115.12 How long the bone was in use prior to its having been discarded cannot be determined. It is worth noting, however, that
7Coldstream1968, 10. Well K 12:2 is listed behind Agora gravesC 9:8 and N 16:4.
'Coldstream 1968, 13.
9Three vessels,a lekythos (P 3826), a pyxis (P 14207), and a "fruitstand"(P 3967), all clearlyProtogeometricand quite
early, must derive from disturbed burials, perhaps even from the same grave; this will be treated in more detail in the forthcoming volume on the Early Iron Age tombs in the Athenian Agora series. " See Papadopoulos 1996, 2002. P 20618 is a fragment of a one-handled cup preserving less than one-half of body, including handle scars, but nothing of the base. The clay body is in part reduced and the paint has mostly fired brown, in places approaching black. It is not inconceivable that the fragment was once a test-piece. The cup is stylistically earlier than the
other material in the deposit and thus represents earlier residual material dumped into the well. Apart from the inventoried pieces already noted, there are, among the many sherds from the deposit stored in context, a few that are very poorly fired, including some that may even be fragments from possible wasters or production discards, though their fragmentary state is such as to render any statement uncertain. The whole pots from the period of use that are poorly fired include P 3687, P 3688, P 3939; other poorly fired vessels from the lower deposit include the fragmentary oinochoe P 3941. " See Papadopoulos 1998. 12Many of the pieces illustrated in figure 5 from the upper fill were recorded as coming from a similar depth as BI 115; others were recorded as coming from a depth down to 1.54 m.
2002]
191
Fig. 4. Well K 12:2. Selection of wheelmade and painted pottery from the period-of-usedeposit: inv. P 3938, P 3688, P 3687, P 3939. although fragmentary, the state of preservation of BI 115 as an artifact is such that it is less likely to have been a residual object, kicking around for any significant length of time. Apart from the three vessels recovered from the upper fill of well K 12:2 and believed to derive from disturbed tombs,'3 the vast majority of residual pottery recovered from this and other Early Iron Age deposits consists of small and very worn scraps of pottery. The possibility that BI 115 was deposited in an earlier tomb and subsequently disturbed cannot be ruled out, nor can it be verified on account of the unique nature of the object. Here it is important to emphasize that the whalebone was not the only bone recovered from the fill of well K 12:2. The analysis of the faunal sample from well K 12:2 reveals a pattern of bone finds, the interpretation of which may assist in casting light on the use of the whalebone, and perhaps even of the immediate surrounds, in the Early Geometric period. Table 1 summarizes the faunal remains from well K 12:2 as they were preserved and collected in 1934. Apart from the whalebone, which is described more fully below, at least five other species are represented in the faunal sample from well K 12:2, including canids, bovids, and equids. Most of the specimens in the sample represent lower extremiof ty skeletal elements with a predominance bones. The significance of these parmetapodial ticular remains is that, with the exception of the Equus mid humerus and acetabulum fragments, there are no meat-bearing skeletal elements There are, for instance, no elements from present.14 the trunk of the skeleton, such as vertebrae or ribs, that are typical debris from butchered portions of meat. Particularly meaty bones like sheep/goat and
Fig. 5. Well K 12:2. Selection of handmade cooking pots (chytrai) from the period-of-use deposit: inv. P 3760, P 3761.
n. 9. 4The equid humerusand acetabulumbones were neither butchered nor burnt; therefore the evidence suggests that
13 See
these bones were not meal remains. It is generallybelieved that equids were not considered a normal source of meat in ancient Greece.
192
[AJA 106
row,P 3963, P 3964, P 3969; bottom P 3966, P row, Fig. 6. Well K 12:2. Selection of pottery from the upper deposit. Top 20608, P 20617. cattle femora or scapulae are also not present in the assemblage. Most of the bones in the existing sample represent the mid and lower leg portions of the skeleton. Bones from the lower extremities are typical refuse from the preparatory butchering for meat, but they are also the first parts of the skeleton to be discarded during the removal of the hide. The bones do not exhibit cut marks from hasty butchery or skinning, a feature indicative of a skilled butcher. The bones in the sample could therefore be refuse from preliminary butchering for meat or for skinning, or conceivably for both. At least four equids were represented in the sample, but, as already noted, there is no compelling evidence that such animals were eaten by the Greeks. Hide removal would then explain better the deposition of the equid remains, together with the other lower extremities of different species in the sample. Although comparatively small, this faunal assemblage of mostly unworked metapodials might suggest that leatherworking was carried out in the immediate vicinity. As we shall see, such a scenario may go a long way in explaining the numerous scratch marks on the surface of the whalebone (fig. 7). The possibility that part of this area northwest of the Athenian Akropolis was an industrial district in the Early Iron Age is in keeping with the copious evidence for potters' activity, in addition to other industrial debris in this area, which suggest that this was the original Kerameikos-the Potters' Quarter of early Athens.'5
THE WHALEBONE AND ITS POSSIBLE
FUNCTIONS
The whalebone BI 115 (figs. 7-8) is the remnant of the right articular section of a broken scapula,
Fig. 7. Whale scapula (glenoid) fragment, Athenian Agora inv. BI 115. (Drawing by Anne Hooton)
' The evidence is fullyoutlined in Papadopoulos2002;for a summary, Papadopoulos1996.Forevidence of metallursee
gy in this area, see esp. Mattusch1977.
2002]
193
Fig. 8a-c. Front and lateral views of the whale scapula, BI 115. (Photos by Craig Mauzy)
also known as the glenoid. The glenoid articulates with the proximal humerus in the pectoral girdle in all mammalian species, and its scapula is commonly referred to as the shoulder blade (fig. 9). Although the piece is badly fragmented, the diagnostic features indicative of a large marine mammal are still clear. The bone is lighter than one might expect for its size because of the porosity of the spongy trabecular bone, a result of life in an aquatic environment. Body weight is reduced significantly in saline marine habitats and the bones of marine mammals acquire increased buoyancy rather than the weight-bearing stamina that terrestrial animals develop. Agora BI 115 was compared with specimens maintained by the British Museum of Natural History in London, where some 66 individual whale skeletons from a variety of species are available for examination.'6 In terms of classification and nomenclature, whales belong to the order Cetacea, from the Greek word ketos (Latin cetus or cetos, see below), which includes three suborders: the Archaeoceti, or "ancient whales," extinct forms known only from fossils;" the Mysticeti, or "moustached whales," which include at least 10 living species of baleen, or whalebone, whales; and the Odontoceti, or "toothed whales," including 65 or more living species of dolphins, porpoises, and whales with teeth but no baleen.'s Because of the fragmentary nature of BI 115, species identification was not straightforward. The classification was further impeded by the fact that the scapula originated from an immature individual, with the result that the diagnostic features of the animal had not had a chance to develop fully prior to death. The remnants of the juvenile cortex around the glenoid cavity, as well as the exposure of the epiphysial surface of the glenoid, indicates that the bone is underdeveloped (fig. 8b). Through a comparison with modern specimens, the bone most closely resembles the glenoid of an immature fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus, Linn. 1758) (fig. 10), a baleen whale of the suborder Mysticeti. The individual was approximately two to three years of age at the time of death.19
16The whalebone comparativecollection is stored off-site in Wandsworth Outstation. a 17For useful overviewof fossilwhales,seeJones 1999, 178. The evidence of fossilssuggeststhatthe distantancestorsof beastscalledmesonychids,scavengers whaleswere"hyena-like for carrionand hunters of fish"(Jones 1999, 17). Bernadette Arnaud (http://www.archaeology.org/online/news/ of whale.html)reportsthe discovery a fossilizedwhale,probably a baleen, some 18 ft. long, near Benguela in Angola. This
is evidentlythe firsttime a dismemberedwhalehas turnedup at a Paleolithic site. For exposed Eocene whale skullsin the Mediterranean,see Mayor2000, 160. 8 Leatherwoodet al. 1983, 2. '9Weareindebted to RichardSabin,the cetaceanspecialist of the Mammals Groupat the NaturalHistoryMuseumin London. We gratefullyacknowledgehis assistancein identifying the species represented by this bone and his help with the for literature, particularly earlierauthors.
194
JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS AND DEBORAH RUSCILLO Table 1. Fauna from Well K 12:2 Species Balaenoptera (whale) Canis (dog) Ovis/Capra (sheep/goat) Bos (cattle) Element 1 right glenoid fr 1 left unfused humerus 1 fr metacarpus 2 mid tibiae 2 right metatarsi 1 left metatarsus 1 mid metatarsus 1 mid metacarpus 1 left calcaneum 1 right astragalus 1 right distal tibia 2 right metatarsi 2 left metatarsi 2 left metacarpi 1 right metacarpus 1 distal metapodial 2 metapodial frr 1 proximal phalanx 1 left tibia 1 left radius 2 tarsi 1 right mid humerus 1 fr acetabulum Number of Individuals 1 (BI 115) 1 1 2 1
[AJA 106
Equus (horse/donkey)
2 (likely donkeys) 2 (another donkey and a horse)
The fin whale is also known as the Common Rorqual, deriving from the Norwegian word for "furrow," and refers to the pleated grooves running from its chin to its navel.2" Alternative names include Finback, Finner, Finfish, Razorback, and Herring Whale. As already noted, fin whales are the second largest mammal on Earth after the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus, Linn. 1758); the former can measure up to 27 m (89 ft.) long, the latter can reach a length of up to 33 m (109 ft.). In both species, female individuals are larger than the males by more than 10%.21 Herman Melville relates that in the days of Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, Captain James Cook's naturalists, a Swedish member of the Academy of Sciences set down certain Iceland whales-reydar-fiskur or Wrinkled Bel-
lies-at 120 yards (or 360 ft.).22 Although likely to be exaggerated, such a description ("wrinkled bellies") can only refer to blue and fin whales. Here it is important to remember that in the days of Melville, although there were stories of large leviathans, not least of which was Moby Dick (Mocha Dick),2" the largest of the whales that could be caught commercially was the sperm whale or cachalot, followed by the bowhead and right whales.24 It was their size and the quality of their oil-particumade the sperm whale larly the spermaceti-that one of the most commercially viable commodities of the sea in the modern era, and the lives of the whalers who hunted them hazardous (fig. 11).25 Here it is important to note that 11 of the 80 or so known kinds of whales and dolphins were discov-
Leatherwood et al. 1983, 52-6. The throat grooves, in 20 the additionto streamlining shapeof thewhale,allowthe throat area (cavumventrale) expand considerablyduringfeeding, to
thus allowing the intake of tons of food-laden water, which is then discarded through their baleen plates, leaving the fish or krill for swallowing. This efficient system enables the largest creatures to feed on some of the smallest. 21 Leatherwood et al. 1983, 52; Wfirtz and Repetto 1998, 133. 22Melville 1851, 501. 23 Melville 1851. For the great white whale of the Pacific, Mocha Dick, which Melville used for his novel, see Reynolds 1932. For the story of the whaleship Essexrammed by a sperm
whale in 1820 that inspired the ending of Melville's narrative, see Philbrick 2000. See also Jones 1999, 19. 2"Melville 1851, 145-57, 194-203, 493-5. 25One of the most highly prized parts of a sperm whale was ambergris, a peculiar substance that occurs in the lower intestine in lumps weighing up to 100 kg. It is formed around squid beaks that remain in the stomach. It was once highly prized for a variety of uses, including as a fixative or base for perfume, in medicine, to spice wine and other foods, and as an aphrodisiac. In 1912 a 1,003 lb. lump sold for $69,000. See Leatherwood et al. 1983, 87; Reese 1991, 6; Philbrick 2000, 56. For the favorite meal of the sperm whale-the giant squid-see Ellis 1998.
2002]
195
exhibited at the Royal College of Surgeons, London, Fig. 9. Skeleton of a bowhead whale (Balaenamysticetus) after a 19th-centurydrawing.Arrowpoints to scapula. ered in the 20th century.26 Although the fin whale was known in the earlier 19th century-"a monster which, by the various names of Fin-Back, Tall-Spout, and Long John, has been seen almost in every sea and is commonly the whale whose distant jet is so often descried by passengers crossing the Atlanleviic"27-it was considered an unconquerable athian by the whale fishery of the time. Melville describes the "Fin-Back" as a shy and solitary creature, gifted with wondrous power and velocity of swimming, so much so "as to defy all present pursuit from man."28 Melville's remark on the velocity of fin whales is supported by modern research, which indicates that they are one of the fastest of the big whales, possibly reaching burst speeds in excess of 32 km per hour (sei whales, Balaenoptera borealis, may be slightly faster).29 This is a contributing factor as to why photographs of this species are rare and perhaps why casual sightings-in antiquity as in the have been few and far between. present-would One of the most numerically abundant of the large whales, the fin whale was the first species to be hunted with the harpoon gun and was heavily exploited by the whaling industry, particularly in the 20th century, its population severely depleted, especially in the southern oceans.30 The head of the fin whale is flattish and can be between one-fifth and
Fig. 10. Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus)
26Jones1999, 50. Melville 1851, 150. 27 etal. (1983, 28Melville 1851,151.Accordingto Leatherwood 53) fin whalesaresometimesfound singlyor in pairs,but more often in pods of three to seven individuals. 29 Leatherwoodet al. 1983, 54. 30See Leatherwoodet al. 1983, 55-6, 24-30; Connor and
Micklethwaite Peterson 1994, 202-7. AsJones (1999, 72) has noted the steam-powered harpoon appearedin 1864 and the
number of whales it killed rose from 30 in that year to 66,000 in 1961. Pre-whaling estimates suggest that there were 300,000-650,000 fin whales swimming the oceans of the world.
Currentfigures suggest that a mere 123,000 animalsare left.
196
[AJA 106
entitled Pche du Cachalot, Whaling Museum,New Bedford, Mass. (Courtesy the Fig. 11. Aquatint, after Garneray, of the Whaling Museum) one-quarter of the total body length. A distinctly ridged tailstock gave rise to the whalers' name "Razorback."31 Fin whales have twin blowholes with a single longitudinal ridge extending from the blowholes to near the top of the snout. The baleen plates in the mouth of fin whales (260-480 on each side) reach a maximum length of 0.7-0.9 m and a width of 0.2-0.3 m."32 Agora BI 115, when reconstructed to its approximate original dimensions, suggests a total body length of an individual 10-12 m long. Fin whale calves are born at an approximate length of 6 m."33Accordingly, the individual represented by BI 115 must have been a calf between two and three years of age when it met its demise. The greatest dimensions of the scapula are as follows: 0.12 m preserved length on the shortest side, 0.16 and 0.195 m on the adjacent sides, and 0.22 m on the longest side (fig. 7). The bone is 0.0675 m thick on the articular end (glenoid) and 0.015 m thick on the blade (fig. 8c). If reconstructed to its original state, the scapula from this individual would measure approximately 0.6 x 0.35 m (fig. 12);34 consequently, the preserved portion of the scapula represents only about 20% of the original bone (fig. 12a). The lateral surface of the scapula is marked by fine cuts made by a fine metal instrument (figs. 7, 8).3 The marks have no regular orientation and occur in random directions of varied length measuring from 2 mm to 5 cm. The marks form no patterns or signs but rather exhibit cut marks from fine specialized work. The palimpsest nature of the marks seems to suggest work carried out over a period of time rather than all the marks having been made at one time. On account of the irregularity of the markings, we can rule out a number of possible uses of the bone. For instance, a scapula bound to a
" On some animalsthe white of the rightside can continue onto the upper lip and to the side of the neck givingit a characteristic asymmetrical appearance. Leatherwoodet al. 1983, 53. The baleen bristlesare soft "32 in comparisonto the blue whaleandvaryfromyellowishwhite to grayishwhite. 1 Leatherwoodet al. 1983, 52.
Dimensionswere calculatedon the smallestmetricalfig34 ures of the Balaenopterascapulaprovidedin True 1904, 144. as " Microscopicanalysisof the cut marksindicatesthat they were made by a fine metal instrumentratherthan a chipped stone blade. For the differentiationof metal and stone tool markson bone, see Greenfield 1999.
2002]
197
Fig. 12. Reconstruction of the original shape and size of the whale scapula, BI 115, restored with three hypothetical cuttings for the attachment of legs (a, acromion process; b, glenoid fossa; c, coracoid process). (Drawing by Deborah Ruscillo) wooden shaft and used in the fields as a hoe to till the ground would exhibit regular markings and scrapes following a dorsal to ventral pattern on the bone surface.36 Although the complete bone would have been large and sturdy, the 0.015 m thickness of the blade renders the specimen inappropriate for certain tasks: the blade, for example, could not withstand blows from a cleaver without snapping. The rectangular cut hole at the articular end measures 0.035 x 0.025 m and appears to have been cut by a sharp implement. The shape of the hole and the care with which it was cut suggests that it acted as a juncture between the bone and another object, perhaps a wooden leg, thereby transforming the original large scapula into a useful small table or working surface. If so, the scapula could have had similar cut holes at adjacent points for other wooden legs, no longer preserved (fig. 12). Here it is important to note the other faunal remains from the well, discussed above. A whale scapula used as a leatherworking surface appears to conform nicely with the possible hide-removal refuse implied by the other associated faunal finds,
and also accounts both for the fine cut marks on the flat surface and the rectangular cutting. The advantages of such a whalebone in leatherworking, particularly for the cutting of leather, lie in the soft and porous yet firm texture of the bone, which provides a good surface on which to cut, but one that does not damage the cutting blade as a stone surface might. Moreover, wooden surfaces have a tendency to splinter when repeatedly worked upon with sharp instruments. Bone, however, provides a hard yet elastic surface that will rarely splinter when cut repeatedly by a sharp blade. Bone is also easier to maintain and wash and will not warp when exposed to frequent humidity. These traits, along with the versatility of bone to accommodate many uses in its basic form, make large bones particularly desirable commodities. A whale scapula, such as BI 115 in its original form, with its ample smooth and flat working surface would have appealed to industrial and domestic workers alike, a worthy commodity of exchange. Unlike whalebone, the incidence of elasmobranch or cartilaginous fish, such as shark, ray, skate, sawfish, and guitarfish (evidenced primarily by vertebrae), is well known and fully documented in Aegean and Cypriot archaeological contexts.37 In reviewirig the 120 or so such examples collected and discussed from approximately 40 sites, and placed in the larger context of fish bone assemblages from Aegean and Cypriot sites, David Reese's impression was that these fish were the result of chance nettings, rather than having been specifically hunted."8 In the case of the few specimens of cetaceans or whalebones that occur in archaeological contexts in the Aegean, it is usually assumed that the mammal was stranded close to the settlement in which it was found;39 many of the larger whales, even immature individuals, would destroy most nets. The possibility that the Agora bone derives from a beached whale appears to be confirmed by its surface wear. The edges of the glenoid have been naturally worn down and smoothed by wave action and sand friction. There are no tools marks around the glenoid, even microscopically, to suggest that the edges were filed down by human use. The wear found around the glenoid is typical of bone that has been tossed around the surf for quite some time. The coracoid process has been worn down
Cattlescapulaehavebeen knownto be used in ruralAfri36 ca as hoes. Reese1984.Althoughwe referto sharks passingthroughin 37 out thisstudy, haveavoidedmorespecificdiscussion these we of
creatures. Various typesofsharksarecommonin the Mediterranean and the bibliography them is extensive. on Reese 1984, 191. 38 39 See, e.g., Renfrewet al. 1968, 119.
198
[AJA 106
Fig. 13. Stranded sperm whale on the shore near Katwyk,Holland in 1598. Engraving byJacob Mathamafter an original drawingby Hendrik Goltzius.NewYork,the MetropolitanMuseumof Art, Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 51.501.6056. (Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of.Art) (fig. 12) from the posterior side of the glenoid, and the acromion process broken off. The waterworn edges indicate that the whale was likely not hunted out of the waters, but was washed ashore after its death, or else stranded on the beach, where it subsequently died. The age of the individual represented by BI 115 supports such a hypothesis. Immature whales must maintain a close relationship with their mothers, even after nursing for the first three or four years of life; otherwise the calf will have little chance of survival on its own. If the calf strays away from its mother, it will likely starve or fall prey to predators.40 When a whale dies in water, provided its skin is not punctured, its body expands with decompositional gases (methane), causing the carcass to float.41 The carcass can be carried by water currents until it is ultimately washed up upon a shore. A classic illustration is the engraving, executed by Jacob Matham after an original drawing by Hendrick Goltzius, of a 21 m Sperm whale that was stranded at Katwyk in Holland in February of 1598 (fig. 13).42 The excitement and curiosity around the stranded creature is evident in the host of spectators, from gentlemen on horseback to barefoot children. When a whale is beached, the body degenerates within weeks, exposing the skeleton to the elements. During rough weather the skeleton is dismembered by wave action and the bones can be drawn into the surf. Sea currents can then redistribute the bones onto other shores. These bones are often found and collected for use as tools or keepsakes, particularly as the time spent in salt water and on the sand exposed to the sun has minimized the fat content of the bone and the pungent scents associated with it. A classic example of part of a beached whale skeleton is illustrated in figure 14, showing seven semi-articulated vertebrae of whale stranded on the coast of the Aegean island of Schoinousa in the 1990s and photographed by Nikos Panagiotopoulos. Whale strandings are particularly common in northwest Europe, and by 1947, Grahame Clark was able to enumerate some 80 instances of archaeological sites yielding whalebone in prehistoric con-
40 Roger Crane, Cetacean Specialist,research support for IMAXdocumentary,Whales (1999). 41RichardSabin (pers.comm. 1997).
Museumof Art,ElishaWhit42NewYork,the Metropolitan telsey Fund, 51.501.6056. See, e.g., den Broeder 1972, 82-3, no. 80.
2002]
199
Fig. 14. Seven semi-articulatedvertebrae of a whale beached on the Aegean island of Schoinousa. (Afterthe Greekmagazine
Tachydromos)
texts ranging from the Mesolithic through the Iron Age.43 Although scholars have long been aware that whales and whale products were extensively utilized by different peoples on the Atlantic seaboard of Europe, it is generally assumed that stranded whales provided the main source of supply in antiquity.44 The problem of determining whether stranded whales were exploited or whether live animals were hunted is not straightforward.45 This is important to bear in mind, because it is possible that coastal cultures in those parts of the world where whales are less common than northwest Europe, such as the Aegean, may have exploited stranded whales from time to time. So far as western Europe is concerned, from at least the ninth century
A.D. whaling was widespread along the Channel coast of France between Normandy and Flanders, and there is evidence of similar activity off the Biscay coast of France and Spain.46 The exploitation of the whale by the inhabitants of the Atlantic seaboard inspired numerous myths and motifs, but the leviathan also left its mark on the peoples of the Mediterranean.
LEVIATHANS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
For any reader of the Old Testament, the literary image of Leviathan was above all else frightening, a bold symbol of evil in Judeo-Christian literature, and a constant reminder of the wrath and omnipotence of God. More importantly, these massive sea
the British Isles, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and France, by far the more common occurrences were at preViking Iron Age sites in Scotland. Scottish sites have produced a greatvariety of implements made ofwhalebone (see below), and the Firth of Forth has yielded numerous remains ofwhales stranded on its shores during the Stone Age (see Clark 1947, 92, fig. 3 [Firth of Forth], and pls. I-II for whalebone implements). In addition to these physical remains of whales, prehistoric representations of cetaceans are common in northwest Europe, especially in Norway (see Clark 1947, 94-8, figs. 6, 9), and more recently, Whittle (2000) has suggested that the motifs on certain Breton menhirs often interpreted as an axe or axe-plow could be representations of whales. 44 See discussion in Childe 1931, esp. 97; 1935, 248; Nordmann 1936, 127-8. For the view that whales were hunted by the Erteb6lle, see Mathiassen 1935, 150; 1927. The evidence and much of the earlier literature is usefully presented in Clark
Clark1947, 100-2. Although Clarklisted examplesfrom
1947. Similarly, there is little evidence for the practice ofwhaling in Anglo-Saxon or later Medieval England, although the venerable Bede, at the opening of the Historia Ecclesiastica, mentions that seals, dolphins, and sometimes whales were caught off the coast of Britain (see Gardiner 1997, 173-4; see further Wallace-Hadrill 1988, 6). 45 In dealing with the archaeology of whaling in southern Australia and New Zealand, Susan Lawrence and others have advocated a more nuanced ethnography of place, one that meshes documents and artifacts into an integrated historical account, which is sensitive to local material horizons and cultural landscapes very different from our own. See Lawrence 1998; Mayne and Lawrence 1999. 46 The evidence is summarized in Gardiner 1997, 175. For whaling in Normandy and Flanders see Musset 1964; Lestocquoy 1948. For whaling in the Bay of Biscay see Fischer 1881; Jenkins 1971.
200
[AJA 106
creatures, whatever their precise nature (see below), did not inhabit some far off realm; they represented, if only in a poetic sense, a stark reality of the Mediterranean: Yonder is the sea, great and wide, which teams with things innumerable, living things both small and great. There go the ships, and Leviathan which thou didst form to sport in it (Psalms 104:25-26). In his seminal study on whales as an economic factor in prehistoric Europe, Clark wrote: Several species of whale penetrate the Mediterranean and some are at home there, but there is no indication that whales were economically important in ancient any more than in modern times. Dolphins are particularly numerous and were commonly depicted by the Minoans, as in the well-known fresco in the "Queen's Megaron" at Knossos; although the barbarians of the Black Sea used their fat for oil and ate their flesh salted, the Greeks and Romans regarded Dolphins auspiciously as guardians of mariners and refrained from slaying them, except for medicinal purposes.47 Despite the fact that the Greeks enjoyed dolphin, especially pickled slices of the mammal, as much as their "barbarian" neighbors,48 it is clear that whales were not systematically exploited in Aegean prehistory and in Classical antiquity. In modern times, a variety of whales have been recorded in the Mediterranean, but our knowledge is limited by the lack of systematic records.49 Steve Jones notes that even today the Mediterranean has mqre than 3,000 whales.50 Species that have been identified in the Mediterranean include the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus), with stranded speciClark1947, 84, n. 1, with reference to Keller1909-1913, 47 408-10. in see pickledslicesofdolphincarried amphoras, Pritch48For ett 1956,202-3, n. 192;Papadopoulosand Paspalas1999,177, n. 82. For the consumption of fish in ClassicalAthens, see Davidson (1997, 8), where it is clear that the dolphin wasnot consideredamongthe greatpiscifaunal suchastuna, delicacies, orgrouper,congereel, grayandredmullet,gilt-head, sea-perch and sea-bass, variousotherfish.Commonspeciesof dolphinin
Greece include Delphinus delphis,Tursopstruncati,Stenellacoeruleoalba,and Grampusgriseus.To this list, Ragnar Kinzelbach (1986b) has added Risso's Dolphin (Grampidelphisgriseus), through a specimen found stranded between the mouths of
mens recorded from Tenos, Euboia, and Karpathos,51 and, more recently, a number of sperm whales sighted in the Saronic Gulf on 20 May 1998.52 Smaller cetacean species in the Mediterranean include the Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), which is quite common, as well as the Minke whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata), pilot whale (Globicephala melas), and the killer whale (Orcinus orca), all of which are rather rare.53InJuly 1999, the Greek press carried a story of a blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) reportedly spotted in the Gulf of Kavala, heading southwest, according to fishermen who said they almost collided with the large sea mammal, which was moving between the Strymon Gulf and Mount Athos.54 The Kavala-based fishermen were fortunate in comparison to Darius's fleet, which in 492 B.C. was wrecked by the storm vividly related by Herodotos (6.44) in the waters around Mount Athos. According to Herodotos, the Persians lost 300 ships and more than 20,000 men, some dashed against the rocks, others dying from exposure or drowning, while many were carried off by the wild seabeasts, which abounded in the coasts around Athos ( yocEy&p OrqptloEo6rrqq oo60qq Ozq adooqq iijq -ra6iqq iqqf nepi i v "Ao@v).55 Most recently, in April 2001, a rare sighting of a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) was reported off the coast of Tolon in the Argolic Gulf.56 As for the larger fin whales, although actual sightings of these creatures are not very common in the Mediterranean, they are not unknown, so the incidence of a Balaenoptera scapula in the Aegean could be explained either by a beached whale or by currents carrying the carcass of a dead animal. A fin
50Jones 1999, 258.
1980,62; Reese 1991, 1986a,15;Marchessaux 51Kinzelbach
3-5. The sperm whale is also recorded in Israel (Aharoni 1944)
and Egypt(Flower1932). 52Reportedin the national news of Greece on that day. 53For these species, see Marchessaux 1980, 61-3; the Cuvier's beakedwhaleis also discussedin Bauer 1978;Kinzelbach 1985,with recorded specimens from variouspartsof Greece near Gythion,and Tilos), Turkey (near (Rhodes, Karpathos, and al-Bardawil), Egypt(Sabkhat (anakkaleandnearKaratas),
Israel (Bet Yannay, Ras Haniqra, near Tel Aviv and Tantura
[Dor]). For Israel, see further Ilani 1980. In May 1996, 12 Cuvier'sbeaked whales were stranded on the coast of the
and the rivers Vassilipotamos Eurotas,5 kmsouthwestof Skala in Lakonia,a place famousfor kete (see below). of One of the greatproblemsimpedinga detailedanalysis 49 is the distribution ofwhalesin the Mediterranean the factthat recordsof sightingsand strandingshaveonly been systematic in gathered annuallysince the early 1980s, primarily France and Spain. In some Mediterraneancountries, as Pilleriand Pilleri (1982, 49) lament, there are no nationalrecordswhatsoever.
Western Peloponnesos (Kathimerini6 July 1998, 3). 54Athens News 10 July 1999, 4. The whale reportedly measured over 20 m in length. 55 It was this wretched passage around Athos, with its sea monsters, which led to Xerxes' decision to cut the canal
through the neck of the peninsula of Akte in 483-481 B.C. (Hdt. 7.22-4). in Kathimerini 20-22 April 56Reported the Greeknewspaper,
2001.
2002]
201
whale, for example, was recorded stranded by Lacepiede on St. Marguerite Island off the coast of France in 1798,57 and live fin whales have been spotted off the coast of Italy, including a splendid specimen of a Balaenoptera physalus photographed between Calvi and San Remo.58 The fin whale is especially common in the western Mediterranean, where it has been recorded all year round, with peaks in the summer months, particularly between Corsica and the French Riviera and around the Italian coasts.59 In Greece, fin whales have been sighted primarily in the continental slope area in the southern part of the Aegean, and especially around Rhodes, Karpathos, and Crete, though in 1997 a fin whale was found stranded in the harbor of Kavala in the north Aegean.60 Stranded fin whales have also been reported in the eastern and southeastern part of the Mediterranean basin.61 Several authoritative guides mention the presence of fin whales in the Mediterranean,62 and Whirtz and not only stress the incidence of Balaenoptera Repetto physalus in the Mediterranean, but assert that Mediterranean fin whales are genetically isolated from the Atlantic population.6" Although they are most common in the Southern Hemisphere, fin whales inhabit the North Atlantic and North Pacific in smaller populations.64 Most importantly, the fin whale is the only rorqual commonly found in the Mediterranean. Consequently, the discovery of a fin whale scapula in the heart of what was to become historic Athens should not be seen as unusual, and it is even possible that the animal represented by BI 115 was stranded along the coast of the Saronic
Gulf not far from the Early Iron Age settlement of Athens.
THE THE USE OF WHALES WORLD AND AND WHALEBONES BEYOND IN
GREEK
finds of whale remains are unArchaeological common in Greece. The earliest extant whalebone remains from Greece were recovered from the Late Neolithic settlement at Saliagos, now a small islet between Paros and Antiparos. The two vertebrae are suspected to have originated from Pilot or Killer whales."65 Small cetacean vertebrae have also been recorded from the excavations at Torone in Chalikdike, in mixed levels, but are most likely from dolphins or small whales.66 The excavations at Phaistos in Crete also yielded a whale vertebra, discovered under the pavement of one of the magazines of the Minoan palace.67 More recently, a massive piece of a whale vertebra was seen by one of the authors (Ruscillo) in the storage area of the Corinth excavations. No one is sure of its provenance, but it appears to be a modern find, since body oil was still present in the bone. The specimen consists only of trabecular bone, with no surfaces extant. The dimensions are approximately 0.45 x 0.35 m (greatest length x width). The surviving trabecular piece seems too large to originate from a sperm whale, but reconstruction is impossible without any cortical surface preservation. Outside of the Aegean, the incidence of whalebone in ancient contexts in the central and eastern Mediterranean is similarly rare. Reese describes four sperm whale vertebrae from the Phoenician colony at Motya in western Sic-
the relativelyhigh frequencyof sightingsof all typesof whales between Rhodes and Karpathoscould be related to the upwelling phenomenon, discussed by Panucci-Papadopoulou et al. (1992), that occurs in this area at various times of the year. Marchessaux (1980, 63) lists two specimens of fin whales that were observed and photographed near the island of Gavdos, south of Crete. 61Marchessaux and Duguy 1979; Marchessaux (1980, 63) notes a fin whale of 16.5 m length found stranded at Askelon inJanuary 1956; he further notes that Israeli fishermen sometimes pick up fin whale mandibles in their dragnets. See further Carpentieri et al. 1999, 72. At least two stranded fin whales have been reported on the coast of Egypt: one near Alexandria in 1860 (see Paulus 1966), another near Mersa Matruh in December 1926 (see Flower 1932).
5 Hershovitz 1966, 165-6. 58 For confirmed sightings of fin whales off the coast of Italy, see Van den Brink 1967. For the illustrated fin whale, see Pilleri and Pilleri 1982, 54, fig. 4. See further Pilleri and Pilleri 1987. 59Duguy and Vallon 1977; Marchessaux 1980, 62-3. 60 Carpentieri et al. 1999, 72. The authorsfurther note that
Leatherwoodet al. 1983, 55; Notarbartolodi Sciaraand 62 Demma 1994, 61, 69;Ridgway Harrison1985,176;Tinker and 1988, 288. We owe many of these references to RichardSabin. 63Wfirtz and Repetto 1998, 133. For the differences between the scapulaeof Europeanand Americanfin whales,see True 1904, 142, figs. 33-6. 6 See Leatherwood et al. 1983, 55. Some populations migrate between warm,low latitudewintermating grounds and cooler, high latitudesummerfeeding grounds,but theirmovements are less predictablethan other largewhales.Some lower latitude populations, such as in the Gulf of California(Sea of Cortez) and Mexico seem to be resident year round. Fin whales are least common in the tropics and will enter polar waters,but not as often as Minke or Blue whales. 65See Renfrew et al. 1968, 119. Dr. Frazer of the British Museumwritesthat it is impossibleto givea specificidentification to these two vertebrae. 66Theidentification of these wasmade by the late Dr. Sandor Bkonyi. 67Pernier1935, 119; Reese 1991, 5.
202
[AJA 106
Fig. 15. Campanian red-figure krater from Lipari, now in the Museo Mandralisca, Cefalui,depicting a fishmonger slicing a large fish for a customer on a table conceivably made of a whale vertebra. Name vase of the Tunny-seller Painter. (Photo byJohn Papadopoulos) ily dating from the sixth to fifth centuries B.C. and a few possible additional fragments found at Isola Lunga near Motya.68 It is important to note that all of these finds are vertebrae (cf. fig. 14), and similar whale vertebrae used as chopping blocks are well known in British sites, such as Maidencastle, and in Canadian British Columbia.69 Although there are no attested whale vertebrae chopping blocks in the Aegean, a number of Archaic and Classical representations depicting fishmongers chopping or slicing large fish may show tables, the upper parts of
which are composed of a whale vertebra. Scenes of the butchering of fish are relatively rare in Greek vase painting. We know of only four examples: a black-figure olpe in Berlin with two wreathed men preparing to cut up a tuna,70 and three representations which depict a fish, invariably large, placed on a small table, which stands either on three legs (fig. 15) or else on a conical support (fig. 16).71 In all three cases, the upper part of the table, that on which the fish is actually placed, is a circular disk of varying thickness that could very well be part of a large whale vertebra. Be that as it may, the few examples of whalebone finds in the Aegean listed above, together with Agora BI 115, represent the sum total of whalebone found in archaeological contexts in Greece. It is generally assumed that all are likely to have derived from stranded whales, though the possibility that some may have been hunted, perhaps accidentally, cannot be ruled out. In this context, the evidence from Neolithic Saliagos is potentially informative. There, large scombridae (tunny and albacore) account for 97% of the fish bones identified.72 These tuna bones from Saliagos are from fish measuring between two and six feet in length (a five foot tuna can weigh up to 800 lbs.), and thus represent a substantial source of food.73 The killing was performed by spears with obsidian spearheads, though it is possible that nets, perhaps strengthened with leather, were used to corral the fish during their annual migration.74 In the light of this information, it is not too difficult to imagine the occasional small whale speared off the coast of Antiparos. Against the backdrop of these few whalebones from Aegean sites, Agora BI 115 stands out both by the fact that it is a scapula, as opposed to the more common vertebrae, and for the fine cut marks on the flat side, suggesting that it was used as a cutting surface. Such a use for a whale scapula is rare even
Reese 1991, 1-2, 5. The IsolaLungapiece comprisedtwo 68 teeth identified as probablyfrom a false killerwhale (Pseudorcacrassidens, Owen 1846) associated withthe third-century B.C. Punic shipwreck; further Ryder1975, 213, fig. 1. For the see incidence of falsekillerwhalesin the Mediterranean, Evans see 1987, 94. to of 69We aregrateful SimonDavis the AncientMonuments of Laboratory EnglishHeritageforinformation, includingillusfrom Maidencastle withchopping trations,of a whalevertebra markson it.YvonneMarshall the DepartmentofArchaeoloof and Greg Monks of the Departgy, SouthamptonUniversity, ment of Anthropology the University Manitoba at of both generouslyoffered informationon whalevertebraeused as chopping blocksfromvarioussiteson the westcoastof Canada. 70Durand 1979, 28, fig. 9.
71Thethree vasesinclude: a Campanianred-figurekrater from Lipari(fig. 15), Trendall 1967, 207-8 (the name vase of the Tunny-sellerPainter;Tullio in Consolo et al. 1991, 68-9, kraterin a privatecollection, fig. 55); a southItalianred-figure Bielefeld 1966, 253, fig. 1; and a black-figurekylix (Type C), theJ. Paul GettyMuseum,inv. 96.AE.96 (fig. 16), True and Hamma 1994, 92-4, no. 38. 72Renfrew et al. 1968, 118-21. Renfrewet al. 1968, 119. 73 74The storyof the annual fishing of tuna by the tonnaroti of a Favignana, smallislandoff the coastof Sicily-and its associatedwayof life,isdramatically relatedbyTheresaMaggio(2000) in her account of the mattanza. the tuna runsin the AtlanFor tic near Gibraltar, Brown 1968, 56-61. see
2002]
203
Fig. 16. Detail of Athenian black-figure kylix showing a fishmonger cutting up a fish on a biconical table, perhaps with a whale vertebra at the top. Malibu, the J. Paul Getty Museum, inv. 96.AE.96. (Courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum) in cultures that extensively exploited whales and whalebones. Indeed, the only comparandum we have been able to find for this type of working surface is a scapula from a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) found on the west coast of Canada at the pre-contact period site of T'uukw'aa (1200 B.P.), a site believed to have been settled by the Nootka people. Five pieces of a left scapula blade were identified with fine cut marks over the lateral surface, with additional cut marks on the medial surface (fig. 17).75 The cut marks do not appear to be oriented in any particular direction, and the glenoid has been removed. Although clearly used as cutting surfaces, the Athenian and west Canadian scapulae could not have been used as chopthe whale vertebrae noted ping blocks-unlike above-on account of the thinness of the cortex and the fragility of the spongy trabecular bone. Leatherworking has been suggested for BI 115, and a similar function is possible for the T'uukw'aa scapula. The use of whale products by cultures with access to the creatures, whether stranded or hunted, is wide ranging, since whales have an enormous number of usable parts. Whale meat was used as food both for human and animal consumption, whale oil was burned for light, as well as for lubrication and soap, and even the skin of cetaceans was used.76 Of the toothed whales, particularly the sperm whale, the teeth were used for elaborate carving (scrimshaw), while the jaws were worked in a fashion similar to ivory. In certain cultures, such as the Arctic populations of Alaska, Canada, Russia, and Greenland, whale meat was a subsistence staple, as it was in the Azores and Madeira island groups in the Atlantic, or in the Lembata and Solor Islands of Indonesia and parts of the Philippines." In other cultures, at certain times, whale meat enjoyed a
75Weare most gratefulto Greg Monksof the Department of for ofAnthropologyat the University Manitoba sharingthis informationwith us and for providingthe photograph illustrated in figure 17, now published in Monks2001, 143, fig.4. Melville (1851) gives a wonderful overviewof the enor76 mous numberof usablepartsof a whaleand the varioususes of
whale products in the 19th century.For the curing of whale meat by the Basques,see Kurlansky 1997, 19-22. Peterson1994,208.Elsewhere, Connorand Micklethwaite 77 in the FaroeIslands,for example, the hunting of whale wasa more seasonalactivity, particularly duringthe summermonths Peterson 1994, 207-8). (see Connor and Micklethwaite
204
[AJA 106
Fig. 17. Detail of the left scapula of a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae),showing fine cut marks on the lateral surface, from the site of T'uukw'aaon the west coast of Canada (ca. 1200 B.P.). symbolic value considerably greater than a subsistence resource. Mark Gardiner has argued that stranded whales in Medieval England were claimed by the king as "royal fish," and he goes on to note that the possession and consumption of cetaceansone arena whales, porpoises, and dolphins-was in which social tensions and the aspirations of groups competing for power were worked out.78 The use of whalebones, as opposed to the skin and flesh of the animal, is even more varied and far less ephemeral in archaeological contexts. Many coastal cultures exploited whalebones in architecture. Whalebone houses, for example, can be found in abundance in the Canadian High Arctic, where alternative building resources are scarce.79 The Thule Inuit culture, ca. 1,000 years ago, built semi-subterranean houses using whale mandibulae and ribs as rafters,80 whereas whale scapulae were often set upright in the foundations to keep the ribs and jaws stable.8s For Europe, Jacqui MulGardiner1997, esp. 173, 188-9. 7" et 79 See Dawson2001;Habu and Savelle1994;Kershaw al. 1995;McCartney 1979;Mathiassen1928;Savelle1997;Taylor 1960. 80Mathiassen1927, 132-55; Dawson 2001. The curvature of theseelementsbound togetheratthe top resultedin a domeshaped house thatwascoveredwith skins,turf, and moss. 81 A similaruse of whalebonescan be observedat archaeological sites on the Canadianwest coast. Mulville2002. 82 83Pliny the Elder 9.2.7 (H. Rackhamtranslation).See also
ville discusses the various instances where whalebone has been incorporated into Neolithic and Iron Age sites in Scotland, especially at Skara Brae, Dun Vulan, Freswick, Cheardach Mhor, and Scalloway Smith, and part of a blue whale humerus was incorporated into a stone wall at a building at the Norse site at Kilpheder.82 Although there does not appear to be a clear pattern of bone usage at these sites, whalebones seem to have been used opportunistically rather than strategically, and, in some cases, for display effect. In this context it is important to note the testimony of Pliny the Elder, who mentions that the "admirals of the fleets of Alexander [see below] have stated that the Gedrosi [the inhabitants of modern Makan] who live by the river Arabis [either the Purali or the Habb] make the doorways in their houses out of the monster's jaw and use their bones for roof-beams, many of them having been found that were 60 feet long."83Whalebones were similarly used in other parts of the world. A.B. Smith and J. Kinahan review the use of whalebones by the indigenous coastal peoples of western and southern Africa, who exploited whales for food and housing materials.84 Although most of the whalebones used for building material in the cultures noted above are typically the ready-to-use ribs, mandibulae, and maxillae, the scapula enjoys a small but important role in the archaeological record for shelter construction in a number of different cultures. Several other uses for whale scapulae have been documented in the archaeological and ethnographic literature. In the Channel Islands of southern California, for example, whale scapulae were used as tomb covers and grave markers.85 In Ameland, off the northern coast of the Netherlands, whale scapulae were used as doorstops and signboards on the houses of whalers in the 17th and 18th centuries.86 Whale scapulae, as well as ribs and mandibulae, were also hung outside town halls in whaling societies in the Netherlands as a sign of policy and wisdom of the authorities.87 Scapulae of various other animals, including cattle, rhinoceros, and the passagein Arrian,Indica, cited below. 84 Smith and Kinahan 1984. It is likelythat Polynesianand coastalAustralian indigenouspeoples alsousedwhalebonesin shelter construction, and it is worth adding that there are numerous representationsof whalesin Australian Aboriginal in rock art,particularly the SydneyBasin (see Campbell1899, 1941-1947; 1954-1962, esp. esp. 34-5, pl. 13, fig. 4; McCarthy 23-4, fig. 9A). 1952;Bryan1970. 85Walker Lauwerier1983. 86 87 Brongers 1995, 15.
2002]
205
mammoth, have been found in archaeological contexts around the world, used by different cultures at various times. At prehistoric Langhnaj, in Gujarat, India, a rhinoceros shoulder blade, with a variety of cut marks and small notches or pits, appears to have been used as an anvil of sorts by a microlithmaker.88 Experiments conducted with the shoulder blade of a modern horse suggest that the rhinoceros scapula may have been used between the knees of microlith-maker, thus leaving the hands to be freely used. The small notches on the surface of the bone were interpreted as being the places where the blades were struck, and the cuts on the edge the places where the "backing" operation was carried out.89 In their book on mammoths, Adrian Lister and Paul Bahn enumerate some of the uses of large scapulae found in archaeological sites, as anvils (indicated by dents and notches not unlike those on the Langhnaj shoulder blade), percussion instruments, and as tomb covers."9 In China, cattle scapulae were used at various times as oracle bones,91 and a related function for incised cattle shoulder blades, for necromancy, was known in ancient Cyprus.92 In discussing the Cypriot ox scapulae, Jennifer Webb adduces examples from various parts of the ancient Near East (Tell Arpachiyah, Byblos, Tabara el Akrad, G6zlfi Kule [Tarsos], Nuzi, among others), as well as Italy and various Cypriot sites of the later Bronze and Iron Ages, down into the Classical period.93 In Greece, Michael Psellus described the method of divination (Opionca-TOOKornIEca),current in the 11th century A.D., by inspecting shoulder blades, and John Cuthbert Lawson traced the same practice in parts of Greece into the 19th and 20th centuries.94 There is also the story, recorded in Pausanias (5.13.1-7), that the Akhaians would never capture Troy until they brought a bone of the legendary Pelops to the besieged city. The bone that was accordingly sent from Pisa was a shoulder blade (-rv
60o-v litponX6Irqv),and the Greek victory was thus assured. On its return from Troy to Greece, the ship carrying Pelop's scapula was wrecked by a storm off the coast of Euboia, but it was not until many years later that a certain Damarmenos, a local fisherman from Eretria, happened to haul up the bone in his nets. Staggered by its size, Damarmenos hid the bone in the sand, but his conscience got the better of him and led him to Delphi to enquire as to whose bone this was and what he should do with it. Adrienne Mayor speculates that the huge bone that Damarmenos netted off Euboia belonged to a Neogene mastodon, and she provides a sketch indicating its approximate size to that of the fisherman.95 Given its aquatic associations, might it not be possible that the creature whose bone Damarmenos retrieved was a whale, as George Huxley first suggested?96 Whalebones could also be used as tools or as raw material for tool production, and we wonder how many bone tools in Greece that have not been analyzed with regard to the animal from which they derive may be of cetaceans (whales or dolphins). In Scottish, Norse, and Arctic populations, whalebone was fashioned to make a variety of tools, ranging from fine needles to the heftier blades used as blubber mattocks.97 In Iron Age Scotland and in the Orkney, Shetland, Caithness, and the Hebrides Islands, as Clark notes, cetacean bone was used, among many others things, for "weaving-combs, perforated mallet-heads, knife-handles and copies of metal hair-combs, keys, harness-pieces and the like" (fig. 18). Vertebral epiphyses have been interpreted as "pot-lids" from Scottish sites, and hollowed-out vertebrae have been identified as vessels or lamps."9 Whale ribs and mandibulae were also used at various Medieval coastal European sites as yokes and harnesses for traction animals.99 In addition to the bone, the baleen itself served many purposes, though this rarely survives in the archaeological record. Among the Inuit it is employed for a
" Zeuner 1952. Zeuner 1952, esp. 182-3. 89 Listerand Bahn 1994, 108-10. In the United States,at 90 were site the Lange-Ferguson in SouthDakota,twomammoths made from the flat butchered using heavycleaver-choppers part of a mammoth scapula 10,670yearsago (see Listerand Bahn 1994, 110). 91 See, e.g., Chou 1976,where a wide varietyof such oracle bones are illustrated.Forfurtherdiscussion,with references,
see Webb 1977, 79.
92
birthin the 1940sand predictedhis name and occupation,an incident that shows the persistenceof scapulaoraclesto the modem era. It is also worthadding that one of the oldest enMiddleStone Age gravedbones, found in ca. 70,000-year-old
levels at Blombos Cave in South Africa, probably derives from a mandibular fragment, rather than a scapula fragment (see Henshilwood and Sealy 1997; d'Errico et al. 2001, esp. 313-8).
Mayor2000, 109, fig. 3.3, 268. 95

96
97 Clark1947, 95, 99, pl. I; MacGregor1985;Hall6n 1994;

Mulville 2002.
Huxley 1975, 45; 1979, 147; Mayor 2000, 300, n. 4.
was heardfroma nativeof Samosthata lambscapula readat his
93Webb 1977, 76-9. 94Lawson1964, 321. Adrienne Mayorinformsus that she
See esp. Webb 1977, 1985.
Childe 1931; Hamilton 1968; Hedges 1987; Campbell 98 1991;Smith 1998;Mulville2002.

99Brongers 1995.
206
[AJA 106
Fig. 18. Objects of cetacean bone from Scottish Iron Age sites. (After Clark 1947; courtesy of the National Museums of Antiquities of Scotland) multitude of purposes, and was used in ancient Ireland for making saddle-trees, sieve-bottoms, and even hoops for small vessels.'00 The versatility of whalebones, together with baleen, have made them a valuable resource throughout human history for use as tools, construction materials, objects of personal adornment, and everyday items. THE LANGUAGE FROM KETOS TO PHALLAINA:
OF WHALES IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY
Despite the rarity of whales in the Mediterranean as opposed to the Atlantic seaboard of Europe and the great oceans of the northern and southern hemispheres, it is not uncommon to find references to whales in Classical literature. We even know the personal name of one particularly belligerent later Roman whale-Porphyrios ("Purple")-a wor-
thy successor of Hesione's ketos that terrorized the coast near Troy (see below). Porphyrios, according to Procopius (7.29.9-16), annoyed the city of Byzantion and neighboring towns for some 50 years, "eluding all means devised by the Emperor Justinian for its capture.""'' Procopius adds that Porphyrios's reign of terror was not continuous; the whale occasionally disappeared for long periods of time. In the end, however, the great Porphyrios met his demise: pursuing a large group of dolphins that had gathered near the mouth of the Euxine Sea one day, the whale came too close to land, found itself stranded in deep mud, and was dragged to shore by the local people and finally killed. The carcass of the creature was placed on wagons, and it was found to be 30 cubits (about 15 m or 45 ft.) long and 10 cubits (5 m or 15 ft.) broad. Its length and color could refer to any number of whales, including mysticeti,such as blue or fin whales, or odontoceti, such as sperm whales. Porphyrios's size, longevity, color, and temperament are all, however, in keeping with male sperm whales, which can reach a length of 18 m, with current averages of slightly more than 15 m, and are characteristically a dark brownish gray.102 Identifying Porphyrios, however, as a male sperm whale remains, at best, a tentative guess, since Procopius's account gives no more useful details to assist in determining species or genus, but Melville himself was strongly inclined to believe that Porphyrios was a sperm whale.'03 The incidence of whales in the area of Istanbul is also recorded by later authors, not least of which is Evliya Qelebi, the 17th-century Ottoman Pausanias, also known as Dervi? Mehmed Zilli. In his description of the fishmongers of the city (Bailiksatajian), Evliya (elebi writes: "The fishermen [many of whom are Greeks from Kaissarieh, Nikdeh, and Mania] adorn their shops on litters with many thousand fish, amongst which many monsters of the sea are to be seen. They exhibit dolphins in chains, sea-horses, beavers, whales, and other kind of fish of great size, which they catch."'04 In describing the antics of Porphyrios, the word that Procopius uses to describe the creature is ketos (I6 K?IoS; plural KlIl- or Kfl[Ea). It is from the Greek word ketos (Latin cetus) that the order Cetato both whales and dolphins-is decea-referring
alsoJoyce 1903, 288. story of Porphyrios is eloquently told byJocelyn Toynbee (1973, 208). 102 Leatherwood al. 1983,84-6. Forthe character sperm et of whales,see furtherPhilbrick2000,passim, xiii,for a sperm esp. whale with the vindictivenessand guile of a man, and 224-5.
100 Clark1947, 99; see
'01 The
Qelebi, section 14 (210), see von Hammer 1834, 104Evliya 160. We are gratefulto SperosVryonis, for assistancewith Jr. Celebiand for allowingus to use his forthcomingpaper Evliya on the Greeksand sea (Vryonis forthcoming) priorto its publication.
10'Melville 1851, 228-9.
2002]
207
quintessential Greek monsters as the Gorgons and, in subsequent generations, Kerberos, Hydra, Pegasos, Chimaira, Sphinx, and the Nemean lion, to mention only a few."1 As for a huge fish, as opposed to a sea monster, the word ketos is sometimes used to refer to a tuna, as in Archestratos (Fr. 34.3). Oppian, writing in the third century A.D., in his Halieutica (or Fishing) uses the word ketos to refer generally to any large
Fig. 19. Detail of Corinthianblack-figure amphora,depicting Andromedaand the ketos,with Perseusto the rescue.Berlin, Staatliche Museen, F 1652, from Cerveteri.Second quarter of the 6th century B.C. (Drawingafter Pfuhl 1923, fig. 190) rived. The word is found in Greek literature as early as Homer, and normally refers to any sea monster or huge fish. In his account of Odysseus's adventures with the Sirens, Skylla and Charybdis, Homer provides a particularly gory description of Skylla (OdysIn that description we hear of sey 12.85-100).
"6eA(iv6q
IcT KiUVq KqTlOCq"("dolphins and dogfish or anything bigger, some sea monster").105 A similar usage of ketos is found elsewhere in Homer, both in the Odysseyand Iliad.o06 In one only Homeric passage (Odyssey4.446, 452), the word ketosis used specifically for seals, but this is for poetic effect, and the normal word for a seal in Homer, as in Greek generally, is phoke ((46K'jq).107 Ketos is also the sea monster to which Andromeda was exposed, a story that led to no shortage of iconographic depictions of beauty and the beast, ranging from the Archaic (fig. 19) through Roman (fig. 20) periods and into the modern era (fig. 21).~10 The association of the sea monster and Andromeda extends to the very heavens, for KIf[OC in Greek was also the name of a constellation.'09 In Hesiod's TheogKeto ony (238) we find a certain fair-cheeked who, when paired with Phorkys, begat such (Kqr(ib), ITE, KCtt Ei no0t
PieTov iEn
Fig. 20. Andromeda exposed to the ketos, with Perseus flying to the rescue. Roman wall painting from Pompeii (1.7.7). (After Blanckenhagen 1987, pl. XXVII:2)
Od. 12.96-97. Od. 5.421; Il. 20.147. 107 LSJ sv xOjKq. 108 See, e.g., Euripides, Fragmenta 121;Aristophanes, Clouds,
105 106
ofAndrom556; Thesmophoriasouzai Forthe iconography 1033.

eda and the ketos, see Schauenburg 1981. Figure 19 is a detail of a Corinthian black-figure amphora from Cerveteri, now in Berlin, Staaliche Museen, F 1652; see Pfuhl 1923, fig. 190;
Boardman1987,pl. XXIV(top left). Forthe Romanwallpainting from Pompeii (fig. 20), see von Blanckenhagen1987, 85,
note 4 (=Pompeii 1.7.7). Andromeda and the ketos is a popular theme in European art from the 16th century on. Rubens painted a version in 1636 (see Held 1980, 291-2, no. 209, pl.
218) and Van Dyck in 1637-1638 (see Price 1988, 74), both of which appear to have been inspired by Titian's Perseusand Andromeda,of ca. 1562, now in the Wallace Collection in London (fig. 21; see Wallace Collection1968, 318-22, P11). Aratus 354; Eudoxus (Astronomus) apud Hipparchos 109See (Astronomicus) 1.2.20. See further Manilius AstromicaBook V, and esp. Coleman 1983. 1"oAs West (1966, 235) notes, Kqrxbis probably formed simply from KqTflO(Apollodoros 1.2.7 actually has a Nereid called Keto). As for genealogy of the offspring of Keto and Phorkys, the details are not quite certain, but West (1966, 244) provides one likely stemma.
208
[AJA 106
Fig. 21. Andromeda and the ketos by Titian, painted for Philip II about 1562, now in the Wallace Collection, London. (Courtesyof the Wallace Collection) creatures of the sea."' These include a variety of whales (among which are the dashing Physaloi), as well as a number of large fish, some of which are specifically named (e.g., tuna, sawfish, the Lamna, and the Maltha), as well as different types of sharks, dogfish, and rays, including ycakeot."2 Oppian also includes among his kete those animals that leave the salt water and come forth upon the land, such as eels, turtles, and seals."31 In Classical literature, two locations of kete are preeminent in Greek-especially Aegean-geography: Athos and "hollow Lakedaimon." With regard to the former, Emily Vermeule wrote: "As in the sad tale of the Deacon and the Shark, an encounter the abbots of Mount Athos remember well, though it happened in the ninth century-A.D. or B.C.?-certain places were always hunted by theria, the wild animals of the sea. Herodotos knew that the waters off Mount Athos were packed with seamonsters,
plunge."114
long
before
the
deacon
took
his
The monster-infested waters around Athos are well reflected in a series of engravings (XaAKoypa(qiS) depicting the various monasteries of the Holy Mountain."15 Of the many such paper icons, we present here only one example, dating to 1850 and illustrating the Monastery of Esphigmenou, on the east coast of the Akte peninsula (fig. 22). It depicts, in the lower left corner, a sea-creature described as a "fantastic ketos.""6 The kete on some of the Athos engravings are truly fantastic creatures of the imagination; others, however, more closely resemble real whales. The double spouting creature in figure 22, with its huge body, strange mouth, and flukes takes certain elements from the real world, others from a more imaginary realm. The second geographical topos for kete in the Aegean is the Lakonian Gulf between Malea and
"1 Halieutica 1.48, 1.360-408; 5.21, 5.71.

112 Halieutica
Vermeule 1979, 183. 114

11"6Baltogianne1997, 86-7, no. 36 (inv. XAE 3052).
1.360-82.
1990. For 115 these,generally,see Mylonas1963;Papastratou
113Halieutica 1.394-408.
2002]
209
Fig. 22. Paper icon depicting the Monasteryof Esphigmenou on the Mt. Athos Peninsula, with a whale in the left corner, ca. 1850, ByzantineMuseum,Athens, XAE 3052 (0.42 x 0.27 m). (Courtesy of the Byzantine Museum) Tainaron. In the Homeric poems, the kingdom of Menelaos is twice introduced with a formulaic description that has inspired scholarly comment since antiquity."117 In the Catalogue of Ships (Iliad 2.581) the allies of Menelaos are introduced thus:
Oi 68' EtXOV KOLfrlv AQaKXt4POV KrflTOoa(V
The same line, with a change of verb, announced the arrival of Telemachos and Peisistratos at Sparta (Odyssey 4.1):
Oi 6' ikov KoiArlv AaKE.citaOV KlrTO[oavo np6S 8' 6pa 6px 1a' Ayov MevwAXoU KUClhi1pOlO
As Sarah Morris has shown, the prevailing interpretation derives from an understanding of KohAqv
as the "hollow" valley of the Eurotas River, and standard translations provide variations of "hollow Lakedaimon." Rather than "hollow," Morris goes on to show that the passage refers to the sea monsterbound shores (Kqr-feoocuv) of Lakedaimon."11 As Emily Vermeule so cogently expressed, the Homeric kete, like Herodotos's theria, sounded more dangerous for not having specific names; they were nameless monsters, which perhaps grew less threatening as the science of marine biology developed, studying, classifying, and perhaps dissecting them."9 It is not until the fourth century B.C., however, that we find the word ketosassociated with natural history, generically referring, in the modern
Morris 1984, 1-2. "117 Morris 1984. 118
I"Vermeule 1979, 183.
210
[AJA 106
sense, to the spouting cetacea.Aristotle, in his Historia Animalium (6.12 [566b, 2]), writes:
K' 4dXkLXACtlvQ Icl t Axc Kflrl, 6ocLpil KIi AAXtiAq&6 &AXA Uorlrppc, (cOOIOKOOOlV.... 3pdPYXta ~EXt
The dolphin, the whale, and the other Cetacea, as many as have no gills but a blowhole instead, are viviparous. ... Elsewhere in Aristotle we read: 6 t piv 8E Fv'L6p(ov, oiov
avcxnvi tvac+uo~vizrt KlyTl nE_(J ndv-rc, ivta F Kc't iJV
Kai 5EA ic KXi T 6XAhhctvca

ndHvca"
All land animals breathe, as do some of the water animals, such as the whale, the dolphin, and all the spouting cetacea.'"2 Although the ketos is used to refer to all the spouting cetecea, the word that Aristotle uses specifically for whale is phallaina ( 6AAactva or 46Atxtvcx), hence the Latin bal(l)aena (whale), and ultimately baleen. From the fourth century B.C. onward, phallaina is a common word for whale in Greek, found in authors as varied as Aristotle, Strabo, Aelian, Philostratos, Nonnos, Babrius, Galaenus, Porphyrius Tyrius, and others (some of these authors also used ketos with specific reference to whales).121 Although we have now entered the world of scientific enquiry, the word phallaina could occasionally be used to denote any devouring monster. Indeed, one of the earliest uses of the word, in Aristophanes' Wasps (35, 39), has precisely such a meaning.'22 In Oppian (Halieutica 1.404), the word phallaina is used only once to refer to the whale (Oppian commonly uses ketos when referring to whales), which "leaves the sea for the dry land and basks in the sun." This reference, together with Porphyrios's last charge through the Bosphoros, is one of a number of passages in classical literature that alludes to the stranding of whales, even though Oppian is mistaken in his belief that whales basked in the sun.'":1
In Strabo (16.3.7) we hear of a whale some 50 cubits (25 m) in length that was stranded on a beach in the Persian Gulf (cf. Arrian, Indica 39.4). Arrian (Indica 39.5) further reports that the whale's hide was as much as a cubit thick, and that it had many oysters, shellfish, and seaweeds growing on it, a feature common to many varieties of whales. The word that Arrian and Strabo use in this context is Kq-Toq, and and it is clear that both words-KIfTOO to a point, up 6dAAXcvau-were interchangeable, so far as whales were concerned. One of the longest and liveliest accounts in Greek of the sighting of whales is to be found in Arrian. The report, which was used by Pliny the Elder (see above), is all the more vivid as it evocatively relates the surprise and wonder of Alexander the Great's men when they confronted large whales (KqiLl). Arrian's account is of interest not only for the information it offers on living whales, but also for the architectural use that the bones of stranded whales were put to by the indigenous peoples of the outer ocean (Arabian Sea).'24 Arrian (Indica 30.1-9) writes: Monstrously large sea animals feed in the outer ocean, much larger than those in our inland sea. Nearchos says that when they were sailing along the coast from Kyiza, about daybreak they saw water being blown upwards from the sea as it might be shot upwards by the force of a waterspout. They were astonished, and asked the pilots what it might be and how it was caused; they replied that it was these great animals spouting up water as they moved about in the sea. The sailors were so startled that the oars fell from their hands. Nearchos went along the line encouraging and cheering them, and whenever he sailed past them he signaled them to turn the ships in line towards the animals as if to give them battle, to raise their battle cry in time with the plash of oars and to row with rapid strokes and with a great deal of noise. So they all took heart and sailed together according to signal. But when they were actually nearing the beasts, then they shouted with all the power of their throats, the trumpets gave the signal, and the rowers made the utmost
3.6 120Arist. qofAnimals (669a, 7-9). See also 4.13 (697a, Part.s 16). For Aristotle,in addition to the passagesalreadycited, 1' see, e.g., Hist. an. 1.5 (489b, 4), 3.20 (521b, 24), 4.10 (537a, 31). See also Strabo 3.2.7; Ael. NA 9.50, 16.18; Philostr. VA 2.14; Nonnos, Dion.6.298; Babrius39.1; Galenus 6.728, 737, alsoDe UsuPartium3.12; DeAbstinentia3.20. Tyrius, Porphyrius 122The normal translationof the Aristophanic 6rXXacnvac it as In varies. someEnglishtranslations appears "grampus" (e.g., in Rogers 1924 Loeb edition), and thus could refer to any of the smallercetaceanscommonlyfound in the Mediterranean, such as a varietyof dolphins, perhapsalso some of the smaller Henderson in toothed whales,such as the killerwhale.Jeffery his 1998 translationtranslatesphallainaas a "raveningdrag-
is on." In Aristophanes, 6dX?Acavuused as a comic devise in the place of Kleon, both for his greed ("withscales in hand weighingpea pulse")and for hisvoice ("holdingforth in tone and accentslike a scaldedpig").Fora relatedmeaningof phallaina, see also Lykophron841. Another meaning for phallaina, but one that is veryrare,is moth, LSJsv 6AXcatva. "3Elsewhere,Oppian (Halieutica 5.70-71) refersto a companion fish, referred to as 'Hyqfljpa (Guide), which was especially close to whales (KjTq), i.e., the pilot-fishor whaleguide. 124 In the passage that follows and in Pliny 9.2 (7) on the Gedrosi,both authorshave clearlywhalesand whalebonesin mind. Mayor's (2000, 331) suggestion that these are fossil bones seems, in this case, unlikely.
2002]
211
splashing with their oars. So the animals, now visible at the bows of the ships, were scared and dived into the depths; then not long afterwards they came up to the surface astern and again spouted water over a great expanse of sea. The sailors clapped at their unexpected escape from destruction and praised Nearchos for his courage and cleverness. Some of these large creatures go ashore at many parts of the coast, and when the ebb comes are caught in the shallows, while some are cast on the dry land by heavy storms and as a result putrefy and die; their flesh rots away and the bones are left, to be used by the natives for their huts. In fact the bones in their ribs served for the larger beams of their dwellings, the smaller for rafters and the jawbones for doorposts, since many of these creatures reached a length of five-andtwenty fathoms. A range of meanings similar to those in Greek is found in Latin for cetus and bal(l)aena. Cetus in Latin can refer to any large sea animal, such as a whale, dolphin, or porpoise; it can also refer to the sea monster to which Andromeda was exposed, as well as the constellation "the Whale."125 As with the Greek )6AAXatva, the Latin ballaena (sometimes ballena) referred more specifically to "whale."'26 In Petronius's Satyricon (21.2) we even find the adjecof whalebone"-as in tival ballaenaceus-"made Quartilla's whalebone rod ("Quartilla balaenaceam tenens virgam"). Latin authors located whales in different seas. Juvenal (10.14), for example, locates whales in the waters around Britain ("ballaena Britannica"), while Pliny (Naturalis Historia 9.2) discusses the whales of the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, where the ballaena can reach sizes of over four iugera (one iuger is about two-thirds of an acre!).27" Pliny marveled that the same region produced lobsters that grow to four cubits (six feet) in length, and he even tells us of eels in the River Ganges that can grow to "tricenos pedes" (300 ft.). Pliny's three-acre Arabian Sea whales bring to mind the massive leviathan on which the Irish Saint Brendan, the noted traveler, built a chapel.128 After the massive whales of the
Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, Pliny (9.3 [8]), notes that the largest creature in the Gallic ocean (Bay of Biscay) was the physeter, almost certainly a whale, often translated as a sperm whale, "which rears up like a vast pillar higher than a ship's rigging and belches out a sort of deluge."'29 In modern taxonomy, physeter (to which was added macrocephalus) became the species name for the sperm whale. Closer to home Pliny (9.5 [12]) notes that whales penetrated the Mediterranean ("Ballaenae et in nostra maria penetrant"), a fact corroborated by several other authors, not least of which was Dio Cassius. In Book 75.16.5, Dio recounts how a huge whale (KqfToc 6npprye0sq) in the reign of Septimius Severus was washed up on shore in the Portus Augusti near the mouth of the Tiber River. Dio goes on to relate that a model was made of the ketos for display at a wild beast show; the model was large enough to accommodate 50 bears that were driven into it.'"o Somewhat earlier, in the reign of Clauditells of an orca in the harus, Pliny (9.5.[14-15]) bor of Ostia. Although Pliny specifically uses the word orca, often translated as a grampus or killer whale (in keeping with the species name for the killer whale in modern taxonomy) -correctly in our estimate-some translators prefer to envisage a larger whale."' Be that as it may, the emperor ordered a barrier of nets to be stretched out at the mouth of the harbor, and setting out in person with the praetorian cohorts made a spectacle for the Roman people by attacking the stranded creature. The orca, however, did not go down without a fight, and managed to sink at least one of Claudius's boats with its spouting. Pliny's use of terms such as orca and physetershows an interest in describing different species of cetacea in the Mediterranean. Such an interest goes back at least as early as Aristotle. In Book 3.12 (519a, 24), Aristotle refers to a pUoo( K6KqTOg, or "moustache-whale." Alternatively given as puo06KrzTOg or pUOTOKrTOq, 6 'Of)qT, KfTOc refers to the fact that
129 Pliny HN9.3 (8), translatedby H. Rackham,who translates the physeter physteras or "spermwhale." 130 Toynbee 1973, 208; Mayor 2000, 138-9.
3' Rackham, for example, in his Loeb edition of Pliny, translates orca as "killer whale," but adds that this is unlikely, and goes on to state that it was probably a cachalot (sperm whale). There is enough internal information in Pliny, however, to suggest that the creature he refers to as an orca is indeed a killer whale (Orcinus orca). At 9.5 (12-13), for example, Pliny notes that orcas attack other whales (ballaenae), often in a group, a pattern of behavior that is well known for killer whales, but not for sperm whales, nor any of the baleen whales.
125
See, among many others, Pliny, HN 32.10, 32.83, 9.78;
Vergil, Aeneis 5.822; Manilius 1.433, 5.15, 5.500, 5.656; Vitr. De
arch. Celsus2.18.2;Sta9.5.3;Plaut.Aulularia 375; Captiui851; 406. tius, Achilleis 1.55; Silius 11.480;Varro,Menippeae 126 See, for instance, Plaut. Rud.545; Ov. Met.2.9; PlinyHN 9.4, 11.235;Juvenal 10.14.
127 Pliny also notes in the same passage the smaller pistris, perhaps a smaller whale or shark that can measure over 20 cubits (10 m) in length. See further Toynbee 1973, 208.
See 128 Little 1945;Selmer 1959;Ashe 1962. For an illustration of St. Brendan and his monks celebrating mass on the back of the giant whale,Jasconius,on the 1621 map by Honorius Philoponus, see Nigg 1999, 172-4; see also 135-6.
212
[AJA 106
such whales lack teeth in their mouths, and "have instead hairs similar to pigs' bristles." Aristotle's meaning here is perfectly clear, as he is describing the characteristic baleen plates of the whalebone whales (blue whales, fin whales, etc.). Indeed, the term for the mysticeti sub-order of whales (i.e., baleen whales) is derived from Aristotle's puo-caK6KIIrtO (cf. the musculus marinus qui ballaenam in Pliny, Naturalis Historia 11.62 [165]).132 Such usage highlights the importance of the original texts, as opposed to translations, and it is our experience that certain misunderstandings that have crept into the literature concerning whales are sometimes at the level of the translation. The natural historians, like Aristotle and Pliny, go to some length to describe the physical characteristics of whales and other cetaceans, descriptions that are based on direct observation or secondhand testimony from mariners and others. Aristotle speaks about various aspects of the lives and habits of cetaceans, details ranging from their milking habits (3.20 [521b]) and copulation (5.5 [540b]), to the manner in which the animals sleep: "there are people who have actually heard a dolphin snoring" (4.10 [537b]). Such information, however, is only as good as its observer. Even in those instances when classical authors state a physical characteristic of a cetacean that seems clearly wrong, a closer reading will point to some illuminating detail. For example, in describing various cetaceans, Aristotle (7 [8], 591b, 24-30) states: "Generally the other fishes catch the smaller ones in their mouths while swimming straight ahead in their natural attitude. But the selachians and the dolphins and all cetaceans oi KqTI()&tq) turn over on their backs to (ndvTrE take them, as their mouth is placed down below, thus allowing a fair chance of escape to the smaller
fishes."'13
feeding upside-down. Similar disorientation is expressed by Pliny (9.6 [16]): Ora ballaenae habent in frontibus, ideoque summa aqua natantes in sublime nimbus efflant. Whales have their mouths in their foreheads, and consequently when swimming on the surface of the water they blow clouds of spray into the air (Rackham translation). In a similar vein, we have heard many modern whale-watchers express doubt or reservations as to which side of the animal is up or down at the sight of a breaching humpback whale. Although the dolphin was well known to Greek artists and a popular iconographic subject from prehistory through late antiquity, the baleen whales, particularly those of the Balaenoptera genus (e.g., blue, fin, sei, Bryde's, and minke whales) are more difficult to observe because they surface less frequently and rarely frolic on the surface. Actual sightings of this genus in the eastern or central Mediterranean would have been few and far between (see above). There is one other Latin text that deserves special mention with regard to cetology: Manilius's description of the sea monster- Cetos-both as a heavenly constellation and, especially, as the mythological monster associated with Andromeda. In a paper fully devoted to Manilius's monster, Kathleen Coleman cogently unravels a baleen whale from Manilius's text, a creature that lies in contrast to the more poetic sea monsters of Ovid and Vergil.134 As Coleman has shown, Manilius described his Cetos directly, treating it as a creature in its own right. The arrival of this Cetos is presaged by the swelling surface of the water (5.579-581) and by a mouth full of water (5.581-583). According to Coleman, "the picture of sea foaming inside toothed jaws is an accurate reflection of the feeding-habits of the mysticeti," and she goes on to describe the baleen habits of the whalebone plates and feeding whales.135The picture that emerges is not quite pure scientific description: in addition to its enormous size and jaws, the creature does have scales and it is described as "coiled"; but Manilius was, after all, dealing with a mythological creature. As Coleman concludes, Manilius's Cetos is all the more menacing for being recognizable as a whale, but with nightmarish additions.'36 In this, it is little different to
Dolphins do not have to turn on their backs to consume fish, and this rather strange mis-description of the dolphin has troubled classical philologists, so much so that several editors have suggested deleting it altogether. The baleen whales, however, have the characteristic mandible that closes uniquely upward toward the dorsal side of their cranium (fig. 10). If one expected the mouth to curve downward on the ventral side of the body like most fish, it would appear as if a baleen whale was
tion is echoed by Pliny (9.7 [20]) who writes:"Theswiftestof all animals,not only those of the sea, is the dolphin; it is swifter than a bird and darts much faster than ajavelin, and were
'"' See also Coleman 1983, 230. '3.Cf.Arist.PartsofAnimals (696b, 24). A similardescrip4
not its mouth much below its snout, almost in the middle of its belly, not a single fish would escape its speed."
134 135
Coleman
1983.
Coleman 1983, 229-30. 136 Coleman 1983, 232.
2002]
213
the kete with which the monks of Mount Athos adorned their paper icons (fig. 22): part fact, part fantasy. We have already discussed several instances of stranded whales in Greek literature, but some of the most spectacular stories in Classical literature of stranded sea animals are to be found in Pliny. In Book 9.4 (10), Pliny reports that during the reign of Tiberius (A.D. 14-37), in an island off the coast of the province of Lyon (Lugdunensis), the receding ocean tide left more than 300 monsters at the same time, of marvelous variety and size, and an equal number on the coast of Saintes (Santonum litore).'" The word that Pliny uses to describe these creatures is belua, which simply means "beast." We cannot be sure what sort of animal Pliny had in mind, but the passage is concerned with possible sightings of Nereids and a Triton. Reports of stranded sea creatures that are not whales are well known in Greek literature. In the Anthologia Graeca, for example, there are at least two reports of the body of a skolopendra (oKoA6nrEv6pa) washed ashore. The first (6.222 [Theodoridas]) is described as a thousandfooted shkolopendra, found on the rocks of lapygia in south Italy; the mutilated body of a second such creature (6.223 [Antipater]) was discovered by Hermonax. The skolopendrafound on land is clearly a millipede, and the sea-skolopendra must be a related worm-like creature of enormous size."13The creatures of the Anthologia Graeca, however, are not your average millipede: both are described as sea monsters, and one even had a vast rib (pFcyac nAeupbv), which was dedicated to the gods, a fact which led Adrienne Mayor to suspect the possibility of a fossil.'" Pliny's beluas do not end with the strandings off Lyon and Saintes. Pliny (9.4 [11]) mentions Turranius's report of an enormous sea monster cast ashore on the coast at Cadiz (Gadir, on the Atlantic coast of Spain near the Strait of Gibraltar), which had some 120 teeth ranging in size between six and nine inches long. But the most fabulous of Pliny's stranded sea beasts was at the far eastern end of the Mediterranean, and none other than the skeleton of the monster to which Andromeda herself was exposed. In Book 9.4 (11), Pliny relates
that Marcus Scaurus, aedile in 58 B.C., brought the skeleton from Jaffa (Joppa) to Rome to be shown among other marvels collected during his aedileship. The beast-also referredL to as belua-was 40 ft. long, the height of the ribs exceeding the elephants of India, and spine being 1.5 ft. thick. The fact that this skeleton was brought from Jaffa is intriguing, because it was atJaffa that Andromeda was said to have been fettered, and it was at Jaffa that Jonah boarded a ship,'14 bound for Tarshish, in order to escape the Lord's command for him to go to Nineveh. Once at sea, the story is well known (fig. 23): "And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights" (Jonah 1:17). The small book ofJonah, unique among the prophetic books of the Old Testament, has as its principal figure an obscure Galilean prophet from Gathhepher who counseled Jeroboam II (786-746 B.C.). The "great fish" was not the principal item of the story; just like the tempest, the plant, and several other natural devices, it was an obedient agent of God's purpose. The word that is used for the animal in Hebrew is dag gadol, which is a rather generic reference to a big sea creature, usually taken to be a whale, with some justification.'4' There is not much development of Hebrew vocabulary for creatures of the sea. The generic word for fish (dag) is sometimes modified, as in the "big fish" of Jonah 1:17, but the Israelites' lack of firsthand familiarity with fish is reflected by the fact that not a single species name is preserved in the entire Old Testament. In Jonah, we are dealing with a large fish, probably a great whale. This is not, however, the Biblical Leviathan that looms large in the Old Testament, the archetypal sea monster found in different cultures throughout the world.142 According to John Day, Leviathan (Hebrew liwytn) is the name of a mythological sea serpent or dragon, personifying the chaos waters, mentioned in the Ugaritic texts, in the Old Testament, and in later Jewish literature.143 Leviathan appears six times in the Old Testament: Job 3:8, Job 40:15-24, Job 41:1-34, Psalms 74:14, Psalms 104:26 (cited above), Isaiah 27:1. In Job 41:1, the passage: "Can you draw out Leviathan with a fishhook, or press down his
"' Pliny's text continues: "and among the rest elephants, and ramswith only a white streakto resemble horns, and also 4.7 (532a, 4). For the sea-skolopendra e.g., Arist.Hist. an. see, 2.14 (505b, 13), which is different to the sea snake; 621a, 6;
Ael. NA 7.26; Oppian, Halieutica 2.424. many Nereids" (Rackham translation). 1's For the land version, see Arist. Hist. an. 1.5 (489b, 22);
Mayor 2000, 264, no. 10. 1987, 77; Mayor 2000, 138-9. 141 We are grateful to Professor William Schniedewind for assistance with the Biblical passages cited in this paper. See Thompson 1955. 142 14"3 Day 1992a, 295; with further details in Day 1985. Etymologically, the name means "twisting one," as befits a serpent.
140Boardman
"'
214
[AJA 106
Fig. 23. '"Jonahand the Whale," shown as a great fish. Persia, Herat, ca. 1425. New York, the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, PulitzerBequest Fund, 1933. (Courtesyof the MetropolitanMuseum of Art) tongue with a cord?" is often equated with a crocodile. Similarly, the Behemoth in Job 40:15-24, "he who eats grass like an ox," is usually understood as a hippopotamus, but there are good reasons against these identifications, particularly the equation of Leviathan with crocodile.144 The fact, for example, that Leviathan breathes out fire and smoke (Job 41:19-21), coupled with his seven heads in later Jewish literature, suggests a mythcreature. The Leviathan in Psalms ological 104:25-26 is often supposed to be the whale, but again, Day believes that it is rather a mythological creature that is in view.145 The discovery of the Ugaritic mythological texts also allude to a conflict between Baal or Anat and Leviathan, this in addition to the more detailed account of Baal's defeat of the sea-god Yam. The Ugaritic texts point to a possible Canaanite background to Leviathan.146 A related Biblical creature is Rahab (Hebrew rahab), a mythological sea serpent or the "boisterous one"-that dragon-literally functions similarly to Leviathan.147 Rahab appears a number of times in the Old Testament in two distinct contexts: as the sea monster defeated at the time of creation and as a metaphorical name for Egypt.148 There is also in the Bible Tannim (Hebrew tnyn), first appearing in Genesis 1:21, often translated as "dragon," but sometimes as "sea monster, serpent," occasionally as a snake (as in Exodus 7:9-12), and sometimes associated with Rahab. In Isaiah 27:1 this serpent is mentioned in parallel to Leviathan: "In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea." Whatever the precise nature of the Biblical Leviathan (and Rahab and Tannim), the narrative of the Old Testament required, at various points, particularly in Jonah and in Psalms 104:26, the Mediterranean to be infested with creatures of enormous proportions. As we have seen above, the Mediterranean was no stranger to more gentle leviathans every bit as real as fin and sperm whales.
144Day
145
1992a, 296.
Day 1992a, 296. 146 Gunkel (1895) argued that the Biblical allusions to a conflict betweenYahwehand the dragon and the sea constituted an Israeliteappropriationof the Babylonianmyth, re-
counted in Enuma Elish, of Marduk'svictory over the sea monster Tiamat. Day (1985) points to the Canaanitebackground suggested by the Ugaritictexts. See 147 Day 1985;Day 1992b for a useful summary.
148Job9:13, 26:12; Psalms 87:4, 89:10; Isaiah 30:7, 51:9.
2002]
TRYING THE

TO PICTURE THE WHALE: SEA MONSTERS ICONOGRAPHY OF GREEK
215
great Rembetissa Sotiria Bellou, about dying on a ship. The second stanza of the song goes: "Av-r,odv neW06veo6 P~S ( piTlE o6 ytCA6, c Kapdflt,tdpta KC(dpTup6 ECvC M 6 civie, v6 }I Ua6pCa vwp6-4Pav, a1P6v. Ah, if I die on the boat, throw me into the sea So that the black fish and the salt water can eat me, Aman! Aman!152 The waters of the sea were not for cheerful swimming, unless they were not much more than ankle-deep; "a hero might step into the waves to wash the worst of his sweat off, as Odysseus and Diomedes do at the end of the Doloneia, but only as far as the hip-joint and thigh."'15 It was this frightening aspect of the sea-a sea full of cooperating sea monsters ready to mete out death in a determines and defines the single gulp-that iconography of kete, generically, in classical art. This is nowhere better captured than in the scene of a capsized ship and drowning men on the well known Late Geometric krater from Pithekoussai (fig. 24), painted just over a century after the Agora whalebone was discarded.'54 Two of the men
The power of the sea, as Emily Vermeule noted so well, to swallow and conceal a human completely and the numerous flesh-eating creatures under its the and voiceless hunters-made surface-stealthy sea a focus for poetic death in Greek tradition.'49 The poetic phrase "food for fishes" was, as Vermeule explains, "worse than for birds and dogs, because it is harder to find the body again, and bury it properIn ly."150 one of his weaker moments Homer's wily hero Odysseus laments: I fear that once again the whirlwind will snatch me and carry me out on the sea where the fish swarm, groaning heavily, or else the divinity from the deep will let loose against me of whom Amphitrite keeps so a sea monster
many.151
(KqofO),
A few millennia later a similar sentiment pervaded modern Greek Rembetika-the once underground songs of love, sorrow, and hashish-and nowhere more evocatively than a song, first recorded by Katsaros and later immortalized by the
Fig. 24. Late Geometric krater from Pithekoussai, inv. 168813, depicting capsized ship and sailors drowning, some swallowed by fish. (After Buchner and Ridgway 1993)
149Vermeule 1979, 179-209, esp. 184-5. 150Vermeule 1979, 184. 151 5.419-422, Richmond Lattimore translation. See Odyssey also Odyssey 14.133-6; 15.477-80; Combellack 1952-1953, 25960. 152 Petropoulos 1979, 159 (with annotations for the Greek
text); the English translation follows that of Holst 1975, 85. 153Vermeule1979,183. See further Couch 1935-1936; Scott 1936-1937; Combellack 1952-1953, with references to the earlier literature; Brown 1968; Hall 1994. 154 Buchner 1953-1954; Brunnsviker 1962; Buchner and Ridgway 1993, 695, pls. CCIV-CCV, 231.
216
[AJA106
immediately under the capsized ship, those with arms bent in different directions, appear to be alive, as if trying to swim. Of the drowned men, one has lost his head, another is in the process of losing his; some of the men appear to have lost their genitals. All around swarm fish-over 20 of them-ranging in size from man-eaters to "little spectators.""55The scene on this fragmentary krater could have served as a useful illustration of Herodotos's account of the plight of Darius's men wrecked by the storm off Mount Athos some 200 years later. In the mythological and heroic realms only the occasional Ubermensch,such as a Herakles (see below) or Perseus (figs. 19-21), stood any chance against the creatures that the sea could summon. So while classical natural historians like Aristotle and Pliny described a variety of whales, sometimes quite accurately, Greek artists never depicted a clearly recognizable whale, though a few representations come close. The relative rarity of whale sightings and strandings in the Mediterranean (most sightings offer only partial glimpses of whales, while the flesh of stranded animals decays rather quickly), coupled with the fact that whales were never actively hunted in the Greek and Roman worlds, was not conducive to artistic photorealism. The iconography of the classical sea monster (ketos) has been a popular subject of modern scholarship, and there is no shortage of useful overviews of Greek, Etruscan, and Roman representations.'"6 Our purpose here, therefore, is not to review what is a rich iconographic tradition that has been much commented on, but rather to point to certain salient aspects of that tradition, with particular referlack thereof-of ence to the iconography-or whales. We have already illustrated a number of Archaic, Classical, and Roman kete. By the time that Aristotle and Pliny were writing there was no shortage of fantastic dragon-like monsters with all sorts of hideous addenda that appear on later Classical through Roman representations of the Andromeda story (fig. 20), beasts that any St. George would be proud to slay.15' But in essence all Classical kete, however fabulous, were depicted in one of several characteristic ways. The first is the most straightforward and least imaginative: a large fish, such as the dag gadol of the Old Testament. This is the easiest
way of rendering a large sea monster, such as a maneating fish on the Pithekoussai krater (fig. 24), or the 15th-century A.D. Persian Jonah in the mouth of the "whale," shown as a large scaly fish (fig. 23). A related representation is that of the man-eating ketos (misspelled Ki-LOalong the lower border) on a Roman sarcophagus in the Konya Museum, miles from any sea (fig. 25). The center of the sarcophagus is occupied by a wreath that encloses a cruciform object, conceivably a ship's mast, with sails (?) suspended from the horizontal beam; the base of the vertical beam splays out to form two foot-like projections, each of which appears to be nibbled at by a fish. Below, and to one side, an enormous fish has engulfed the head of Jonah (the inscription below reads: KITOE KIK2NAZ, one way of writing Jonah in Greek) who is about to be swallowed whole. Although about a millennium later than the Pithekoussai krater, the Konya (Iconium) ketos carries on tradition. The representation a well-established does not allow for species identification-shark, tuna, whale?-nor does it matter: image and word combine to convey ketos. An alternative manner of representing the ketos is as a large serpent-like creature: a snake by any other name. Like the big fish, a suitably massive snake was one, relatively straightforward, way of giving iconographic substance to a massive sea creature that was, above all else, mysterious and frightening. One of the earliest such representations, dating to ca. 520 B.C., is that on the Athenian blackfigure cup in Taranto showing Herakles fighting a sea monster with mouth wide open; Hesione stands behind the hero, out of harm's way, while he dangerously clutches the tongue of the beast, as if ready to cut it off (fig. 26).'58 Scholars have attempted to see elements of certain land animals on this monster's head, but we are essentially dealing with a large serpent. A clearly identifiable snake's head, albeit one with a curly nose, is found on the fourthcentury B.C. Etruscan red-figure krater in Perugia (fig. 27), the name vase of the Hesione Painter.15"' Here the hero proceeds solo, without the damsel (Hesione or Andromeda) in distress, although he does appear in the company of Hesione on the other side of the vase. In another place and time, Herakles or Pereus could easily replace Marduk (fight-
Vermeule 1979, 184. '55 156Among many others, see, in particular, Shepard 1940; Vermeule 1979, 179-209; Boardman 1987, 1997; von Blanckenhagen 1987, all with further references. See also Rumpf 1939, esp. 112-20; Keller 1909, 409-14; Thompson 1947; Lattimore 1976; Boosen 1986.
For these see Boardman 1987, esp. pls. XXI-XXIII; von '7 Blanckenhagen 1987, pl. XXVII. inv. 52155; see Boardman 1987, 80, n. 49 (with 1"'58Taranto, full references). 159Beazley1947, 124, no. 1; Boardman 1987, 80-1, pl. XXV, fig. 16.
2002]
217
Roman sarcophagus,KonyaMuseum. (Photo by Sarah Fig. 25. Ketos andJonah (inscribed:Kioco Ktvcvaq). Morris) ing the sea monster Tiamat), or Baal or Anat (doing battle with the sea-god Yam or Leviathan) or Yahweh pitted against the dragon and the sea. The kete on the Taranto and Perugia pots are all the more frightening for their gaping mouths and, especially on the Taranto cup, scaly bodies, as befit both a snake of the land and a large sea creature. These are worthy opponents for a Herakles or a Perseus, and their association with such heroes has the effect of removing them to an otherworldly realm. However much they resemble the serpentine bodies of real creatures of the sea, such as the
Fig. 26. Athenian black-figurecup, ca. 520 B.C., showing Herakles clutching the tongue of the sea monster, with Hesione behind him. Taranto,Museo Nazionale, inv. 52155. (After Boardman 1987, pl. XXV:15)
218
[AJA 106
at hand.16' The ketos has a pointed muzzle, hornlike ears resembling fins, and sharp glittering teeth, picked out in added white. Its body, however, lacks scales, and the animal enjoys a number of features that seem-to quote Shakespeare (Hamlet, act III, scene II)-"very like a whale." These include cetacean-like flippers, one prominent on either side of the body, and flukes, plus what looks suspiciously like a whale fin about two-thirds down the body.'62 The overall effect, however, is not of a real whale, and the contrast between the mythological and natural worlds seem all the more stark on account of the careful rendering of the dolphins, octopus, and seal. Indeed, the vase painter has gone to great lengths to draw these smaller creatures as accurately as possible, and it is worth stressing that this is one of the very few representations of the seal in all of Classical art.'63 Generally speaking, Greek and
Fig. 27. Etruscanred-figurekrater,name vase of the Hesione Painter,Perugia, Museo Archaeologico Nazionale (Museo del Palazzone all'Ipogeo dei Volumni), from Perugia. (Courtesyof the Museo Archaeologico Nazionale) oarfish (Regaleus glesne) about 2 m long caught in Sydney harbor in June 1954 or that illustrated by Vermeule,160 mythological kete could not be caught by average mortal hands. Among the numerous serpentine sea creatures in Greek art, one of the most menacing is the ketos on the Caeretan hydria dating to ca. 520-510 B.C. or Perseus or (fig. 28). The naked hero-Herakles the monster seems esagainst Anonymous-pitted pecially focused, particularly as his weapon of choice, a small sickle, seems grossly inadequate for the task
Fig. 28. Caeretanhydria,ca. 520-510 B.C.,privatecollection, behind the showing hero fighting ketos, with a seal (phoke) sea monster.
August2000,120. A somewhatlargerexample,photographed at Yarmouthin 1897, was published in Vermeule 1979, 183, fig. 5. Oarfishcan growto a length of over 12 m and weigh as much as 650 lbs.;specimens up to 17 m in length have been reported.Oarfisharefound worldwidein all tropicaland temperatewaters. 161 Hemelrijk1983, 45-6, no. 29, pls. 103-4; Isler 1983, 1828, figs. 1-11; Boardman 1987, 80, pl. XXIV,fig. 14; Boardman 1997,732,no. 26;Marangou1995,124-33.Althoughboth Heraklesand Perseushave been suggested,it is possible that
See the photograph published in NationalGeographic, 160
the scene is related to a myth, lost from tradition,of the city nymph of Phokaia, personified by the seal (phoke)and the anonymoushero. 162 As Leatherwoodet al. (1983, 13) explain, the horizontallyflattenedtailflukesof cetaceanshaveno skeletalsupport, while the rearthird of the body is a powerfultail (tailstockor caudal peduncle) that is laterallycompressedto reduce drag duringswimming. 163 This is the only representationof the seal in Greek art on thatwe knowof, apartfrom the seal (phoke) the coinage of Phokaia,for which see Kraay1976, pl. 3, no. 70.
2002]
219
Roman artists were very careful to depict a variety of sea creatures, including different species of fish, octopus, kalamari, various crustaceans, and so on, as accurately as possible on diverse media ranging from red-figure fish-plates to mosaics.164 As for the Caeretan hydria, do we have here, like Coleman's literary analysis of Manilius's sea monster, the core of a real whale, with the addition of nightmarish elements for artistic effect? The third manner of representing kete in Classical art was to place the head of a clearly-sometimes land animal onto a fishy less clearly-recognizable or scaly body. Such an ingenious scheme led to a great deal of variety, and, once established, there was no shortage of other bodily parts that could be added, as individual artists saw fit. The animal-headed beast depicted in figure 19, identified in the idiosyncratic epichoric alphabet of Corinth as "ketos," appears on the left; Andromeda stands on the far right, while Perseus, at center stage, hurls stones at the monster. We already know that the action takes place atJaffa. The head of this ketos is typical of one of several distinctive ways that Greek artists represented sea monsters with the head of a terrestrial animal. John Boardman has discussed this type at some length.'"" There appear to be a variety of different quadruped heads: lion or dog are often identified, or thus claimed, and occasionally the head is that of a boar, such as the fragmentary ketos on the west pediment of the Parthenon, which accompanies Amphitrite.166 In some representations the head resembles that of a crocodile, in others we find kete with multiple heads, of whatever animal.'67 Occasionally, a well-established ketos in Greek art has been partly deconstructed, or shown for what it really is. The best example is the late Corinthian columnkrater depicting Herakles and Hesione confronting the legendary monster on the coast of Troy, near Sigeion (Sigeum), now in Boston. As Adrienne Mayor has shown, rather than a scary white monster's head painted by a naive artist, the "Monster of Troy
vase" is a more realistic expose of a large fossil skull emerging from the earth.'68 In contrast to it, the ketos in figure 19 is not only more fleshy and alive, it clearly emerges out of water. This third category of iconographic representations, quadruped head on a fish-like body, is in many ways the most interesting: part land animal, part sea creature, what else is a whale? In 1859 a confident Charles Darwin discussed his Leviathan thus: "I can see no difficulty in a race of bears being rendered, by natural selection, more aquatic in their structure and habits, with larger and larger mouths, till a creature was produced as monstrous as a whale."'169 To pose the question differently, how would a Greek artist depict a whale, especially given the rarity of large cetacean sightings in the Mediterranean? The vast majority of the assembled representations of kete show the creature either alone, usually stressing its frightening attitude, or in some context, such as with Perseus and mythological Andromeda, with Herakles (with or without Hesione), with Thetis and the Nereids, or with Poseidon, Amphitrite, Skylla, Triton, or Eros, to mention only some.170 Among this wealth of representations, there is, however, one that stands alone, outside the established canon. It is an Athenian red-figure cup, attributed to the manner of the Epeleios Painter, now in the Allard Pierson museum in Amsterdam (fig. 29).1~7 Dating to about 500 B.C., it depicts a young man or boy climbing onto the head of a ketos, which is partly in the water. This is not a menacing ketos of myth, but an evidently benign animal. If anything, the iconography of the scene appears to be related to a number of genre scenes, such as an early fifth-century B.C. Athenian cup by the Ambrosios Painter showing a boy perched on a rock fishing.'72 Although the head resembles the muzzle of a land animal, as some scholars suggest, it also resembles the heads of a number of beaked whales of the genus Mesoplodon, some of which occur in the Mediterranean.'73 The size of the crea-
164 fish-plates,see McPhee and Trendall 1987; for fish For mosaics,see, e.g., Meyboom 1977-1978 (withreferences);for mosaicswith real, aswell as unreal, creaturesof the deep, see, e.g., Szabados2000. For a glossaryof Greekfish, see Thompson 1947. Boardman 1987, esp. 81; see also Boardman 1997. 65 1984, pls. 28-9. 166Yalouris For '67 the crocodile headed ketos, see Boardman1987, 81; for kete withmultipleheadssee Boardman1997, 731, nos. 1-2. The vase is Museum of 168 Mayor2000, 158-162, figs. 4.1-3. Boardman1987,pl. XXIV, FineArts,Boston,63.420;see further fig. 10; 1997, 732, no. 24. Darwin1859;quoted and furtherexplainedinJones 1999, "9 in xxvi. By the sixth edition of On theOrigin theSpecies 1872, of
addedan apologetic"almostlikewhale." a Darwin AsJones(1999, 17) goes on to explain, the extant fossil evidence suggeststhat the distant ancestors of whales were hyena-likebeasts called mesonychids, scavengersfor carrion and hunters of fish. 170See the useful overview mythologicalrepresentations of in Boardman1997. Inv. 3702: Para 336; Boardman 1997, 732, no. 27. '71 172ARV2, 173. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 01.8024; Vermeule 1979, 180, fig. 1. For later, Hellenistic, representations of fishermen, see Laubscher 1982.
173 See Leatherwood et al. 1983, 122-51, especially Gervais's Beaked Whale (131-2), with a close-up detail of a stranded creature published in Connor and Micklethwaite Peterson 1994, color pl. 4 (top).
220
[AJA 106
Fig. 29. Athenian red-figurecup, ca. 500 B.C., attributedto the manner of the Epeleios Painter,now in the Allard Pierson Museumin Amsterdam,depicting a young man or boy climbing onto the head of a ketos. (Courtesyof the AllardPiersonMuseum) ture precludes the possibility of a dolphin: this is no boy-on-a-dolphin. Rather than a ketos, this picture could be one of the very rare representations of a phallaina-a whale-painted at about the same time that the word first appears in Greek literature. Thus far we have been concerned with historic representations of kete in the Classical world, but what of older, prehistoric, pictures of the ketos or phallaina? The Aegean Bronze Age is full of images of all sorts of wondrous sea creatures, despite the fact that there is nothing referring to any fish or sea mammals in the extant corpus of Linear B tablets, with the exception of a solitary squid. It ap(that is, polupodeikwe,referring pears as po-ru-po-de-qe tb its many legs) mentioned in a tablet (Ta 722.1); this squid, however, was not a living creature, but part of an inlaid ornament on a sitting stool.174 Some of the most enduring images of dolphins, cephalopods, a wide variety of fish, not least of which are the flying-fish, come from the prehistoric Aegean, whether depicted on palace or house walls, on pottery (not just the Late Minoan "Marine Style"), on engraved gems, or on other media. In addition to what could be called the commonly edible species, there are representations of more frightening sea creatures, such as dragons, crocodiles, and possible sharks."75Some of these creatures, such as the crocodile, are not native to the Aegean, and point to the movement of people, commodities, and ideas between the Aegean, Egypt, and the Levant. In discussing the Minoan and Homeric Skylla, Spyridon Marinatos illustrated an intriguing Minoan sealing from Knossos (fig. 30),176 showing a man on a boat threatened by the emerging head of a sea monster,
are '74We grateful to Tom Palaimafor this information. Ventrisand Chadwick the (1973,345,Pylos246), translate word as "octopus," Palaima but preferssquid. For and 175 "dragons" crocodiles,see Poursat1976;for a like-
ly Minoan representationof a shark,see Marinatos1926, 61, fig. 4. 1926, 58, fig. 2:1;Marinatos1927-1928, 53'76Marinatos 4, figs. 1-2.
2002]
221
Fig. 30. Drawing of a Minoan clay sealing from Knossos depicting a creature of the water pitted against a man on a boat. (After Marinatos 1927-1928) described as a dog-headed beast originally (KuvoK"4)xAOV -pcxq), and anticipating later representations, such as some of those discussed above. In hindsight, and with a better drawing, Marinatos reinterpreted this beast as a hippopotamus, but the image of sea monster pitted against man is a familiar story. The name of the Minoan-looking man on the boat confronting the creature is not known, and if the animal is a hippopotamus,'77 then we can place the action-the story--on the Nile. Like later natives of the Aegean-Herakles who fought the ketos on the Anatolian coast near Troy, and Perseus who saved Andromeda on the Levantine coast at Jaffa-this Minoan fought a fabulous creature in a foreign context, a worthy prehistoric ancestor of Herakles and Perseus. Although this Minoan sealing anticipates later Classical representations, and despite numerous realistic renderings of fish and other creatures of the sea in the Bronze Age Ae-
gean, the rich iconography of the Minoan and Mycenaean worlds has failed to produce any clearly recognizable whales. In this, too, the prehistoric Aegean anticipates iconographic developments in the historic period. There is, however, one Mycenaean image that cannot go unmentioned: the scene on a Pictorial Style krater from a tomb in Enkomi, Cyprus, depicts charioteers chased by (or hauling) a strange large-eyed creature on either side of the vessel (fig. 31).178What creature, real or imaginary, the potter had in mind, we do not know, but it is reasonably clear that a terrestrial quadruped was never intended. Occupying the available space below each of the handles, the creatures on this Mycenaean vase look distinctly like sea mammals. The fluke-like tail, albeit diminutive, the stumpy legs suggesting flippers or fins, the beaked head with striations (an allusion to baleen?) and streamlined body, all seem suggestive. The words for sea mammals such as dolphins, whales, and seals, have not survived in Linear B, but as Kquog is used more than once in Homer, a good case can be made for the existence of the word in the Late Bronze Age Aegean. As for the prehistoric and historic images, they were drawn, painted, or engraved by artisans whose knowledge of whales would have been, at best,"very limited. Many of the ancient kete illustrated or discussed above are not all that different to some later representations of whales. The ketos on the Caeretan hydria (fig. 28), for example, is in essence not that far removed to what seems, at first sight, like a similarly menacing creature on the map of Iceland in the Theatrum OrbisTerrarum the Flemish cartographer Abraby ham Ortelius, first published in 1570 (fig. 32).'79 The
Fig. 31. MycenaeanPictorialStyleamphoroid kraterfrom Enkomi, Cyprus,tomb 11, no. 33. (AfterSj6qvist1940, fig. 20, no. 1)
The "'77 possibilitythat the monster's head represents the prowor ramof a ship seems, in the case of this sealing,unlikely. For kete as ship's ramsfrom the laterArchaicthrough Roman periods,see Boardman1997, 734-5. 1940,fig. 20, no. 1.;Vermeule1972,pl. XXXII:B. 178 Sj6qvist Detail takenfrom the 1603 edition of Ortelius1570.For 17'9
and a lucidandcompellingaccountof seamonsters otherimagsee inary-and real-creatures in modern cartography, Harof Miinvey2000, esp. ch. 2, includingan illustration Sebastian ster'sfantasticsea monsterspublished in the 1550 edition of Cosmographia.
222
[AJA 106
Fig. 32. Detail of the Steipereidur,"thetamest of the whales,"by AbrahamOrtelius,FlemiShcartographer,from his map of Iceland in Theatrum Orbis first Terrarum, published in 1570 (this detail taken from the 1603 edition). (Photo courtesy of the Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Mass.) accompanying text, in Latin, proclaims that this is the Steipereidur, tamest of whales (the word in Latthe in is cetus), which "fights other whales on behalf of fishermen. Public laws forbid anyone to harm it. It is a hundred cubits long." This rather fabulous-looking whale of the 16th century A.D. was never depicted as a mythological creature, but a purportedly "known" type of whale, illustrated only a few decades before Hendrick Goltzius and his followers were illustrating accurately rendered sperm whales (fig. on 13). The Steipereidur Ortelius's map warns us that what may seem to modern eyes-who know whales and other cetaceans from cinema, television, and a a representation of a variety of documentaries-as rather fantastic sea creature was, in the context of its own time, an image rendered after a real animal.
CODA
ries.180 It derived
The fin whale scapula thrown into a ninth-century B.C. well in the area that was to become the Athenian Agora has a complex and extraordinary cultural biography and the potential to tell many sto-
from the carcass of a young beached whale, where exactly we cannot tell, but the bone had been worn by the action of waves, and perhaps further bleached by the sun and wind (cf. figs. 13-14). Picked up, it was brought to Athens, perhaps directly, conceivably indirectly, a large and unusual bone. Once there it was put to use, probably as a cutting surface, perhaps supported by legs, thus forming a small table of sorts, and conceivably used for leatherworking in an area that was, at the time, an industrial district, surrounded by several cemeteries. We do not know precisely how long the bone saw service, but it is difficult to imagine any significant length of time, particularly as the bone was used as a cutting surface. As for its deposition, this can be pinpointed with greater precision: sometime in the course of the Early Geometric period (ca. 850 B.C.), a large fragment of the broken scapula was thrown into its not-so-ultimate resting place in the fill of a well. Sightings of whales, together with stranded cetaceans on the vast coastlines of the Aegean and Ion-
180 variouspapersin Appadurai1986, and esp. Kopytoff1986. Cf.
2002]
223
ian Seas, as well as waterworn bones found on a beach, not unlike our scapula, inspired natural historians like Aristotle, and later Pliny, among many forebears of Carolus Linnaeus and others-the Charles Darwin-to enquire into the nature of whales and other cetaceans. In time, they learned of the character and habits of these gentle leviathans, and preferred to refer to them, in certain or ballaena, instead of ketos. contexts, as U6AAcXtva Stories of large animals inhabiting the Mediterranean inspired a rich oral and literary tradition extending from the Old Testament and the earlier Ugaritic mythological texts, to Ovid and Vergil, and in the Greek world from Homer to Procopius and far beyond. Well before many of these stories were ever written down, Aegean artists were depicting fabulous sea creatures, monsters of the deep, worthy opponents of Herakles, Perseus, Marduk, Baal, and Yahweh. This was the beginning of what was to develop into a rich iconographic tradition in the Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods, a tradition that extended far beyond Late Antiquity into the modern era. Occasionally, a sighted or stranded whale may have inspired a more realistic rendering of the creatures that have enjoyed a special place in human cultural history and memory, not only of maritime communities. As we have seen, the literary and iconographic traditions of kete in the Greek world and in the greater Mediterranean beyond were not totally human creations that inhabited an imaginary realm: they were very much the product of a fascination with living creatures of the sea. As one of the largest and best dated whalebone finds in the Aegean-indeed, one of the very rare examples of a whalebone in a good archaeological context anywhere in the Mediterranean-the significance of the Agora whalebone lies in the fact that it provides a cogent link between the material remains of real animals and their representations in art and literature, which form the basis of this study. The date of the Agora whalebone-and of the short life of the young fin whale from which it derived-was to coincide with one of the most experimental and formative periods of Greek art, a period when Greek artists were to forge a renewed interest in human and animal figures. Moreover, the whalebone dates a century or so before the traditional date of Homer, precisely at the time when the Greeks were adopting and adapting the Phoenician alphabet to create an enduring literature of epic,
mythology, human and natural history, as well as scientific enquiry. The wonder and allure of whales continue to this day.18' We will never know what the Early Iron Age inhabitants of Athens who came across this bone thought of it; we can only recall our own wonder and astonishment when we first sighted it, through a dusty vitrine, on the first floor of the Stoa of Attalos above the Agora Museum.
DEPARTMENT UNIVERSITY OF CLASSICS AND OF ARCHAEOLOGY LOS ANGELES OF CALIFORNIA,
THE COTSEN INSTITUTE
A2 10 FOWLER
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90095-1510
JKP@HUMNET.UCLA.EDU
DEPARTMENT WASHINGTON OF ANTHROPOLOGY UNIVERSITY
CAMPUS BOX 1114 ONE BROOKINGS DRIVE ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
63130-4899
DRUSCILL@ARTSCI.WUSTL.EDU
Works Cited
Aharoni,J. 1944. "Animals Hitherto Unknown to or Little Known from Palestine." Bulletin of the Zoological SocietyofEgyptSuppl. 6:40-1. Appadurai, A., ed. 1986. The Social Life of Things. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ashe, G. 1962. Land to the West:St. Brendan's Voyageto America.New York:Viking. Kaz Baltogianne, C., ed. 1997. Azqdvza apdPcia Bvyavzvi` ozo Movaeio. Athens: Greek Ministry of Culture. Bauer, K. 1978. "Cuvier's Schnabelwal Ziphius cavirostris Cuvier 1823 im 6stlichen Mittelmeer." Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museumsin Wien81:267-72. Oxford: ClarBeazley,J.D. 1947. Etruscan Vase-Painting. endon. Bielefeld, E. 1966. "Ein unteritalisches Vasenbild." Pantheon24:252-5. Boardman, J. 1987. "'Very Like a Whale': Classical Sea Monsters." In Monstersand Demons in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: PapersPresentedin Honor ofEdithPorada, edited by A.E. Farkas, P.O. Harper, and E.B. Harrison, 73-84. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern. .1997. "Ketos."LIMC8:731-6. Meeresmischwesen: UntersuchunBoosen, M. 1986. Etruskische und gen zu Typologie Bedeutung.Rome: Bretschneider. Brann, E.T.H. 1961. "Late Geometric Well Groups from the Athenian Agora." Hesperia30:93-146. Brongers,J.A. 1995. Walvissenen stadhuizen.Amsterdam: Amersfoort.
181 See, most recently, Dick Russell's (2001) sympathetic whales from Baja,Califoraccount of the migrationof the gray
nia, to the Arcticwatersof Alaskaand Siberia.
224
JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS
AND DEBORAH RUSCILLO
[AJA 106
Brown, J.P. 1968. "Cosmological Myth and the Tuna of Gibraltar." TAPA99:37-62. Brunnsaker, S. 1962. "The Pithecusan Shipwreck: A Study of the Late Geometric Picture and Some Basic Aesthetic Concepts of the Geometric Figure-Style." 4:165-242. OpRom Bryan, B. 1970. Archaeological Explorationson San Nicolas Island. Southwest Museum Paper 22. Los Angeles: Southwest Museum. Buchner, G. 1953-1954. "Figfirlich bemalte spditgeometrische Vasen aus Pithekussai und Kyme." RM 60/ 61:37-55. Buchner, G., and D. Ridgway. 1993. PithekoussaiL La Tombe 1-723. Scavatedal 1952 al 1961. Rome: necropoli: Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei. Campbell, E. 1991. "Excavations of a Sheelhouse and Other Structures at Sollas, North Uist by R.J.C.Atkinson in 1956." Proceedings the Societyof Antiquariesof of Scotland121:117-73. Campbell, W.D. 1899. AboriginalCarvingsof PortJackson and BrokenBay. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of New South Wales. Ethnological Series 1. Sydney: W.A. Gullick. Carpentieri, P., M. Corsini, and L. Marini. 1999. "Contribute to the Knowledge of the Presence and Distribution of Cetaceans in the Aegean Sea." Atti della societa italiana di scienzenaturali e del Museo Civico di StoriaNaturale in Milano 140:65-75. Childe, V.G. 1931. SkaraBrae:A Pictish Villagein Orkney. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. . 1935. ThePrehistory Scotland.Edinburgh: Kegof an Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co. BoneCollections the UnitedStates. in Chou, H-h. 1976. Oracle Berkeley: University of California Press. Clark, G. 1947. "Whales as an Economic Factor in Prehistoric Europe." Antiquity21:84-104. A Geometric Coldstream, J.N. 1968. Greek Pottery: Surveyof and TheirChronology. TenLocalStyles London: Methuen. . 1995. "The Rich Lady of the Areiopagos and -Her Contemporaries: A Tribute in Memory of Evelyn Lord Smithson." Hesperia64:391-403. Coleman, K.M. 1983. "Manilius' Monster." Hermes 111:226-32. Combellack, F. 1952-1953. "Homer's Savage Fish." CJ 48:257-61. Connor, R.C., and D. Micklethwaite Peterson. 1994. The Lives of Whalesand Dolphins.New York: Holt. Palermo: NoveConsolo, V., et al. 1991. MuseoMadralisca. cento. Couch, H.N. 1935-1936. "Fishing in Homer." CJ31:30314. Darwin, C. 1859. On the Origin of the Speciesby Means of Natural Selection,or thePreservation FavouredRacesin of theStruggleforLife. 1st ed. London:John Murray. The and Davidson,J. 1997. Courtesans Fishcakes: Consuming Passions of Classical Athens.London: Harper Collins. Dawson, P.C. 2001. "Interpreting Variability in Thule Inuit Architecture: A Case Study from the Canadian High Arctic." AmerAnt66:453-70. Day, J. 1985. God's Conflictwith the Dragon and the Sea. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. -. 1992a. "Leviathan." In The Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 4, edited by D.N. Freedman, 295-6. New York: Doubleday. - . 1992b. "Rahab." In The AnchorBibleDictionary,
vol. 5, edited by D.N. Freedman, 610-1. New York: Doubleday. Den Broeder, F. 1972. HendrikGoltzius and thePrintmakers Haarlam. Hartford: Museum of Art, University of of Connecticut. Duguy, R., and D. Vallon. 1977. "Le rorqual commun physalus) en Mediterrande occidentale: (Balaenoptera Etat actuel des observations." Rapports etproces-verbaux desreunionsCommission Internationale pour l'exploration de 24 scientifique la MerMIditerrande (5):21-4. Durand, J.-L. 1979. "Figurativo e processo rituale." DialArchn.s. 1:16-31. Ellis, R. 1998. The Searchfor the Giant Squid: The Biology and Mythologyof the World'sMost Elusive Sea Creature. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Evans, P.G.H. 1987. TheNatural Historyof WhalesandDolphins. London: Helm. Fischer, P. 1881. "Cetac6sde sud-ouest de la France."Actes de la Socidtd Linnienne deBordeaux4th Ser.,35:5-219. Flower, S.S. 1932. "Notes on the Recent Mammals of Egypt, with a List of Species Recorded from the Kingdom." Journal of Zoology, London 1932:369-450. Gardiner, M. 1997. "The Exploitation of Sea-Mammals in Medieval England: Bones in Their Social Context." ArchJ154:173-95. Greenfield, H.J. 1999. "The Origins of Metallurgy: Distinguishing Stone from Metal Cut-Marks on Bones from Archaeological Sites."JAS 26:797-808. Gunkel, H. 1895. Schoipfungund Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit.G6ttingen: Vandenhoeck und Ruprecht. Habu,J., andJ.M. Savelle. 1994. "Construction, Use and Abandonment of a Thule Whale Bone House, Somer33:1-18. set Island, Arctic Island." Quaternary Research Hall, E. 1994. "Drowning by Nomes: The Greeks, Swimming and Timotheus' Persians."In TheBirthofEuropean Identity:TheEurope-AsiaContrastin GreekThought, 490-322 B.C., edited by H.A. Khan, 44-80. Nottingham: University of Nottingham Press. Hallen, Y. 1994. "The Use of Bone and Antler at Foshigarry and Bac Mhic Connain, Two Iron Age Sites in North Uist, Western Isles." Proceedings the Societyof of of Antiquaries Scotland124:189-231. at Shetland. Hamilton,J.R.C. 1968. Excavations Clickhimin, Edinburgh: H.M.S.O. Harvey, M. 2000. The Island of Lost Maps: A TrueStoryof Crime. New York:Random House. Cartographic Hedges, J.W. 1987. Bu, Gurnessand the Brochsof Orkney, pt. 2. BAR-BS163-5. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. Held, J.S. 1980. The Oil Sketches PeterPaul Rubens:A of Critical Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress. Catalogue. Hemelrijk, J.M. 1983. CaeretanHydriae.Mainz: Philipp von Zabern. Henshilwood, C., andJ. Sealy. 1997. "Bone Artifactsfrom the Middle Stone Age at Blombos Cave, Southern 38:890-5. Anthropology Cape, South Africa." Current Hershovitz, P. 1966. CatalogueofLiving Whales. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. SubMusic of a Greek Holst, G. 1975. Road to Rembetika: Culture. Songs of Love, Sorrow,and Hashish. Athens: Anglo-Hellenic Publishing. Huxley, G.L. 1975. Pindar's Vision of the Past. Belfast: Queen's. from the Jenkins,J.T. 1971. A Historyof the WhaleFisheries,
_.
1979. "Bones for Orestes." GRBS 20:145-8.
2002]
225
Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Day. Port Washington, N.Y.:
Kennikat. Originally published 1921.
Thule Whale Bone Houses." In Thule Eskimo Culture: An Anthropological Retrospective, edited by A.P. McCart-
ney, 301-24. Ottawa: National Museums of Canada.
Jones, S. 1999. Almost Like a Whale: 'The Origin of the Species' Updated. London: Doubleday. Joyce, P.W. 1903. A Social History of Ancient Ireland. Lonel - Land and Nature 5:81.
don and New York: Longmans, Green and Co. Ilani, G. 1980. "Beaked Whale in Cleopatra's Pool." IsraIsler, H.P. 1983. "Drei neue Geffisse aus der Werkstatt der Caeretaner Hydrien." Jd198:15-56.
Keller, 0. 1909-1913. Die antike Tierwelt, 2 bd. (Bd. I, 1909;
Totowa, NewJersey: Barnes and Noble. McPhee, I., and A.D. Trendall. 1987. Greek Red-Figured Fish-Plates. Antike Kunst Beiheft 14. Basel: Antike Kunst.
Maggio, T. 2000. Mattanza: Love and Death in the Sea of
MacGregor, A. 1985. Bone, Antler, Ivory and Horn: The Technology of Skeletal Materials Since the Roman Period.
Sicily.Cambridge, Mass.: Perseus.
II, 1913). Leipzig: W. Engelmann. Kershaw, P., P. Scott, and H.E. Welch. 1995. "The Shelter Characteristics of Traditional-Styled Inuit Houses." Arctic49:328-38. Kinzelbach, R. 1985. "Der Cuvier-Schnabelwal (Ziphius
cavirostris) im 6stlichen Mittelmeer."
Stavros Niarchos. S. Athens: N.P. Goulandris Foundation. Marchessaux, D. 1980. "AReview of the Current Knowledge of the Cetaceans in the Eastern Mediterranean
Sea." Vie Marine 2:59-66.
Marangou, L.I. 1995. Ancient GreekArt from the Collection of
50:314-6.
Middle East 1:15-7.
Sdugetierkunde
Marchessaux, D., and R. Duguy. 1979. "Note preliminaire sur les c6taces de la M6diterran~e orientale." ran&e 25/26:147-9. Marinatos, S.N. 1926. "Mlvo0YK1 6opq Ka~ XC." piKl EZKU
ArchDelt 10:51-62.
in alus, in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea." Zoology the 1986b. "First Record of Risso's Dolphin, Gram?. pidelphis griseus, in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea." Kopytoff, I. 1986. "The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process." In The Social Life of Things, edited by A. Appadurai, 64-91. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kraay, C.M. 1976. Archaic and Classical Greek Coins. BerZoology in the Middle East 1:17-9.
. - 1986a. "The Sperm Whale, Physeter macroceph-
Rapports et procks-verbaux des reunions Commission Internationale pour l'exploration scientifique de la Mer Mediter-
1927-1928. ""AnaEiFi nEpi ptVWYiKqr EKUXhac." ArchDelt 11:53-4. Mathiassen, T. 1927. Archaeology of the Central Eskimos. Vol. 2, The Thule Culture and Its Position within the Eskimo Culture.Copenhagen: Gyldendal.
. - 1928. Report of the Fifth Thule Expedition 19211924. Vol. 6, pt. 1, Material Culture of the Iglulik Eskimos.
keley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. the World. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
S. 1976. The Marine Thiasos in GreekSculpture.
Kurlansky, M. 1997. Cod:A Biography of theFish that Changed Lattimore,
Copenhagen: Gyldendal. . - 1935. "Blubber Lamps in the Erteb6lle Culture?"

ActaArch 6:139-52.
Monumenta Archaeologica 3. Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology.
Laubscher, H.P. 1982. Fischer und Landleute: Studien zur hellenistischen Genreplastik. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
Lauwerier, R.C.G.M. 1983. "Walviskakenop het droge."

Westerheem 32(4):236-9.
Mattusch, C.C. 1977. "Bronze- and Ironworking in the Area of the Athenian Agora." Hesperia46:340-79. Mayne, A., and S. Lawrence. 1999. "Ethnographies of Place: A New Urban Research Agenda." UrbanHistory 26:325-48.
Mayor, A. 2000. The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times. Princeton: Princeton Univer-
Lawrence, S. 1998. "An Integrated Approach to the Lawrence and M. Staniforth, 111-5. Canberra: The Australasian Society of Historical Archaeology and the Australian Institute of Maritime Archaeology.
Archaeology of Whaling." In Archaeology of Whaling in Southern Australia and New Zealand, edited by S.
sity Press.
Melville, H. 1851. Moby Dick or The Whale (based on the
University Books. Original edition, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1909. Leatherwood, S., R.R. Reeves, and L. Foster. 1983. The cisco: The Sierra Club. Lestocquoy,J. 1948. "Baleine et raitaillement au Moyen Lister, A., and P. Bahn. 1994. Mammoths.NewYork: Macmillan.
Little, G.A. 1945. Brendan the Navigator. Dublin: M.H. Age." Revue de Nord 30:39-43. Sierra Club Handbook of Whales and Dolphins. San Fran-
Lawson, J.C. 1964. Reprint. Modern Greek Folklore and Ancient GreekReligion: A Study in Survivals. New York:
Newberry Library Edition, Northwestern University Press 1988, with introduction by A. Delbanco and glossary by T. Quirk) (1992). Harmondsworth: Penguin. Meyboom, P.G.P. 1977-1978. "A Roman Fish Mosaic from Populonia." BABesch 52-53:209-20. Monks, G.G. 2001. "Ouit Blubbering: An Examination of Nuu'chah'nulth (Nootkan) Whale Butchery." InMorris, S.P. 1984. "Hollow Lakedaimon." HSCP88:1-11. Mulville,J. 2002. "The Role of Cetaceans in Prehistoric and Historic Atlantic Scotland." InternationalJournal
of Osteoarchaeology 12:34-48. ternational ournal of Osteoarchaeology. 11:136-49.
Musset, L. 1964. "Quelqu-s notes sur les baleiniers Normands de Xe au XIIIe sidcle." Revue d'Histoire Economique et Sociale 42:147-61. Mylonas, P.M. 1963. O 'AOo xaz za zov lovaaOrpzalcd
Gill and Son. McCarthy, F.D. 1941-1947. "Records of Rock Engravings in the Sydney District." Mankind 3:42-56, 16171, 217-25, 266-72, 322-9. - . 1954-1962. "Records of the Rock Engravings of the Sydney District." Mankind5:8-32, 201-8, 385-400. McCartney, A.P. 1979. "A Processual Consideration of
piEo' (pya rgjvrc. z6pldtara and nawej axoypetec uaw A Stzaapolirov: 963yzZdidpovy evta/zxd yzaZuv jZipwtIa 1963. Athens: I. Makris Papadiamantopoulou.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Nigg, J. 1999. The Book of Fabulous Beasts: A Treasury of Writings from Ancient Times to the Present. Oxford and Nordmann, V. 1936. Menneskets Indvandring til Norden.
226
[AJA 106
Danmarks Geologiske Undersogelse III raekke 27. Copenhagen: Geological Survey of Denmark. Notarbartolo di Sciara, G., and M. Demma. 1994. Guida Padova: Franco dei mammiferi marini del Mediterraneo. Muzzio. AntwOrbisTerrarum. Ortelius, A. 1603. Reprint. Theatrum erp: loannis Keerbergii. Original edition, Antwerp, 1570. Panucci-Papadopoulou, M.-A., I. Siokou-Frangou, A. Theocharis, and D. Georgopoulos. 1992. "Zooplankton Vertical Distribution in Relation to the Hydrology in the NW Levantine and SE Aegean Seas (Spring Acta 15:365-81. 1986)." Oceanologica Papadopoulos,J.K. 1996. "The Original Kerameikos of Athens and the Siting of the Classical Agora." GRBS 37:107-28. . 1998. "A Bucket, by Any Other Name, and an Athenian Stranger in Early Iron Age Crete." Hesperia 67:109-23. Redivivus: TheEarlyIronAgePot. 2002. Ceramicus ters'Fieldin theArea of the ClassicalAthenianAgora.Hesperia Suppl. Princeton: American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Papadopoulos,J.K., and S.A. Paspalas. 1999. "Mendaian as Chalkidian Wine." Hesperia68:161-88. Papastratou, N. 1990. Paper Icons: GreekOrthodoxReligious Engravings 1665-1899. 2 vols. Athens: Papastratos, Recklinghausen and Bongers. Paulus, M. 1966. "Les balenopteres de la Mdditerranee: Balenoptere commun (Balaenoptera physalus L.) echoue aux Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer en 1963." Bullenaturellede Marseilles 26:117-39. tin du Museed'histoire Pernier, L. 1935. II1 palazzo minoicodi Festos:Scavi e studi italiana a Creta,I. Rome: Lidella missionearcheologica breria dello stato. Athens: Kedros. Petropoulos, E. 1979. Peltn~uwca Tpayovi/ta. Pfuhl, E. 1923. Malerei und Zeichnung der Griechen,III. Munich: F. Bruckmann. Philbrick, N. 2000. In theHeartof theSea: TheTragedy the of Essex.New York:Viking. Whaleship Pilleri, G., and 0. Pilleri. 1982. "Cetacean Records in the 14:49-63. on Mediterranean Sea." Investigations Cetacea . 1987. "Records of Cetaceans in the Mediterranean Sea and North Atlantic Ocean in the Period on 20:267-80. 1982-1986." Investigations Cetacea Poursat, J.-C. 1976. "Notes d'iconographie prehellenique: Dragons et crocodiles." BCH 100:461-74. Price, L. 1988. Masterpieces from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection.Los Angeles: County Museum of Art. Pritchett, W.K. 1956. "The Attic Stelai, Part II." Hesperia 25:178-317. Reese, D.S. 1984. "Shark and Ray Remains in Aegean and Cypriote Archaeology." OpAth15:188-92. - . 1991. "Whales and Shell Purple-dye at Motya (Sicily, Italy)." Unpublished report. Renfrew, J.M., P.H. Greenwood, and P.J. Whitehead. 1968. "Appendix VIII. The Fish Bones." In Excavations at Saliagos Near Antiparos,edited byJ.D. Evans and C. Renfrew, 118-21. BSASuppl. 5. Oxford: British School at Athens. Reynolds,J.N. 1932. MochaDick, or,the WhiteWhaleof the Pacific.NewYork and London: Charles Scribner's Sons. Ridgway, S.H., and R. Harrison. 1985. TheSireniansand Baleen Whales, vol. 3. Handbook of Marine Mammals.
New York:Academic Press. aufden antikenSarkophagreRumpf, A. 1939. Die Meerwesen V.1. Die antiken Sarkophagreliefs.Berlin: G. Grote. liefs, Russell, D. 2001. Eyeof the Whale: EpicPassagefromBaja to Siberia.New York: Simon and Schuster. Ryder, M.L. 1975. "Some Phoenician Animal Remains Studies:Papers of the from Sicily." In Archaeozoological 1974, Held at theBiologischArchaeozoological Conference Instituut of the State Universityof GroninArchaeologisch edited by A.T. Clason, 213-8. New York: Amerigen, can Elsevier. Savelle, J.M. 1997. "The Role of Architectural Utility in the Formation of Zooarchaeological Whale Bone Assemblages."JAS 24:869-85. Schauenburg, K. 1981. "Andromeda I." LIMCI:774-90. Scott, J.A. 1936-1937. "Homeric Heroes and Fish." CJ 32:171-2. Selmer, C. 1959. Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis,from Publications in Medieval StudEarlyLatin Manuscripts. ies 16. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. Shear, T.L. 1935. "The American Excavations in the Athenian Agora, Seventh Report: The Campaign of 1934." 4:340-70. Hesperia Shepard, K. 1940. The Fish-TailedMonster in Greekand EtruscanArt. New York: privately printed. BronzeAge. of Sj6qvist, E., 1940. Problems the Late Cypriot Stockholm: Swedish Cyprus Expedition. Smith, A.B., andJ. Kinahan. 1984. "The Invisible Whale." 16:89-97. WorldArch Smith, A.N. 1998. "The Worked Bone and Antler." In and A Scalloway: Broch,LateIronAgeSettlement Medieval in Cemetery Shetland, edited by N. Sharples, 110-11, 130-1, 137, 152-3, 157-8, 164-6. Oxford: Oxbow. Szabados, A.-V. 2000. "Le serpent de mer refait surface i t Carthage." In 'AyaO6bailtwv:Mytheset Cultes.Etudes en d 'iconographie I'honneurde Lilly Kahil, 465-75. BCH Suppl. 38. Paris: Ecole franCaise d'Athenes. Taylor,W.E. 1960. "A Description of Sadlermiut Houses Excavated at Native Point, Southampton Island, NationalMuseumof CanadaBulletin162:53-100. N.W.T." Fishes.Lonof Thompson, D'A.W. 1947. A Glossary Greek don: Oxford University Press. A ofFolk-Literature: ClassiThompson, S. 1955. Motif-Index fication of NarrativeElementsin Folktales,Ballads, Mythsm Fables, Medieval Romances,Exempla,Fabliaux, JestBooks and Local Legends.Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Honolulu: Bess. Tinker, S.W. 1988. Whalesof the World. Toynbee, J.M.C. 1973. Animals in Roman Life and Art. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. Vases Trendall, A.D. 1967. TheRed-Figured ofLucania, Campania and Sicily.Oxford: Clarendon. North Whales the Western True, F.W. 1904. TheWhalebone of Atlantic Comparedwith Those Occurring in European on Waters,with SomeObservations theSpeciesof theNorth Pacific.Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. True, M., and K. Hamma. 1994. A Passionfor Antiquities: Ancient Artfrom the Collectionof Barbaraand Lawrence Fleischman.Malibu: The J. Paul Getty Museum. Van den Brink, F.H. 1967. A Field Guideto theMammalsof Britain and Europe.Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Ventris, M., and J. Chadwick. 1973. Documentsin Mycenaean Greek. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. in Vermeule, E.T. 1972. Greece the BronzeAge. Chicago:
2002]

. 1979. Aspects ofDeath in Early GreekArt and Poetry.
227
University of Chicago Press. Berkeley: University of California Press. Von Blanckenhagen, P.H. 1987. "Easy Monsters." In
Oxford University Press. Webb, J.M. 1977. "A Scapula from Limassol-'KomissaiaArchaic Period,edited byV. Karageorghis, 74-80. Rome: Consiglio nazionale dell ricerche. 1.1985. "The Incised Scapulae." In Excavations at V. Karageorghis and M. Demas, 317-28. Nicosia: Department of Antiquities, Cyprus. Whittle, A. 2000. "'VeryLike a Whale': Menhirs, Motifs and Myths in the Mesolithic-Neolithic Transition of Northwest Europe." CAJ10:243-59. bury: Swan Hill. Yalouris, N. 1984. "Das Ketos des Parthenon-WestgieWiirtz, M., and N. Repetto. 1998. Whales and Dolphins: A Guide to the Biology and Behaviour of Cetaceans. Shrewsbels," In Parthenon-Kongress Basel: Referate und Berichte West, M.L. 1966. Hesiod, Theogony: Edited with Prolegomena and Commentary. Oxford: Clarendon. Kition. Vol. 5, The Pre-Phoenician Levels, pt. 2, edited by to'." In Two Cypriote Sanctuaries of the End of the Cypro-
the English People: A Historical Commentary. Oxford:
Monsters and Demons in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds: Papers Presented in Honor ofEdith Porada, edited by A.E.
Farkas, P.O. Harper, and E.B. Harrison, 85-94. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern.
Von Hammer,J. 1834. Narrative of Travels in Europe, Asia, and Africa in the Seventeenth Century by Evliya Effendi.
Translated by von Hammer. London: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. Vryonis, S., Jr. Forthcoming. "The Greeks and the Sea:
Yesterday and Tomorrow."
edited by S.P. Morris and S. Vassilakis, Journal of the
In Contours of Hellenism,
Hellenic Diaspora. Walker, E.F. 1952. Five Prehistoric Archaeological Sites in Los Angeles County, California. Los Angeles: Publications
of the Frederick Webb Hodge Anniversary Publication Fund. turesand Drawings. 16th ed. London: William Clowes and Sons.
Wallace Collection. 1968. Wallace Collection Catalogues: Pic-
Wallace-Hadrill,
J.M. 1988. Bede's Ecclesiastical History of
4. bis 8. April 1982, edited by E. Berger, 281-3. Mainz: Philipp von Zabern. Zeuner, F.E. 1952. "The Microlithic Industry of Langhnaj, Gujarat." Man 52:177-9.

An Archaeology of Whales and Sea Monsters in The Greek World

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

An Archaeology of Whales and Sea Monsters in The Greek World

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

A Ketos in Early Athens: An Archaeology of Whales and Sea Monsters in the Greek World Author(s): John K.

JOHN K. PAPADOPOULOS AND DEBORAH RUSCILLO

"The well is noted in Shear 1935, 362-3.