[1]Among the many well-known figures of classical mythology said to have been saved by dolphins from the sea are Eikadios, Enalos, Koiranos, Phalanthos, Taras, etc. In many other cases the corpses were brought ashore by a dolphin, which then expired on reaching land (similarly, with minor variations, was this so with Palaimon or Melikertes, Dionysios and Hermias of Iasos, Hesiod, and the boys already referred to from Baiae and Naupaktos). Similar incidents reappear in the writings of the hagiographers. Saints Martinianos of Kaisareia, Kallistratos of Carthage, Basileios the younger of Constantinople, were each saved from a watery grave by a couple of dolphins. The corpse of Saint Loukianos of Antioch was brought ashore by a large dolphin, which then expired on the sand. See Klement, Arion, 1-64, and Usener, Die Sintfluthsagen, 138-180.

[2]Euhemerus (circa second half of the fourth century B.C.) attempted a rationalistic explanation of the mythology prevailing in his time. The theory he propounded, in his novel of travel, Sacred History, was simply an extension of the current skeptical-scientific attitude to matters which until that time had been accepted without question. That theory was that the gods were merely men who because of their great exploits or beneficence had been accorded divine honors. In Crete, coming upon the remains of a tomb bearing the name of Zeus, Euhemerus argued that even Zeus had probably been no more than a great conqueror, who died and was buried in Crete, and afterwards deified. This creditable anthropological attempt to historicize mythology, though it failed to convince, is nevertheless worthy of great respect. As A. B. Cook wrote, if Euhemerus said that Zeus was a Cretan king when he ought to have said that Cretan kings played the part of Zeus, it is a pardonable error. (Zeus, I, 662.)

[3]“Saved by a Porpoise,” Natural History, LVIII (1949), 385-386.

[4]Winthrop N. Kellogg, Porpoises and Sonar, University of Chicago Press, 1962, p. 14.

[5]George G. Goodwin, “Porpoise—Friend of Man?” Natural History, LVI (1947), 337.

[6]F. Bruce Lamb, “The Fisherman’s Porpoise,” Natural History, LXIII (1954), 231-2.

REFERENCES

Aelian. On the Characteristics of Animals. Bk. VI, 15. Aesop. Fables. “The Monkey and the Dolphin.” Alpers, Antony. Dolphins: the Myth and the Mammal. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1961. Anderson, John. Anatomical and Zoological Researches: Comprising an Account of the Zoological Results of the Two Expeditions to Western Yunnan. London: Bernard Quaritch, 1878. Apollodorus. The Library. III, 5, 3. Apostolides, Nicholas. La Pêche en Grèce. Athens, 1907. Aristotle. History of Animals. Bk. I, 5; II, 1, 13, 15; III, 1, 7, 20; IV, 8-10; V, 5; VI, 12; VIII, 2, 13; IX, 48. Biedermann, Paul. Der Delphin in der dichtenden und bildenden Phantasie der Griechen und Roemer. Halle, 1881. Cook, Arthur B. Zeus: A Study in Ancient Religion. Cambridge, Eng.: The University Press, 1914, vol. 1, p. 662. Douglas, Norman. Birds and Beasts of the Greek Anthology. London: Chapman and Hall, 1928, p. 161. Euhemerus. Sacred History. Fairholme, J. K. E. “The Blacks of Moreton Bay, and the Porpoises,” Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, XXIV (1856), 353-354. Goodwin, George G. “Porpoise—Friend of Man?” Natural History, LVI (1947), 337. The Greek Anthology. Herodotos. History. Clio I, 23-24. Hill, Ralph N. Window in the Sea. New York: Rinehart, 1956. Kellogg, Winthrop N. Porpoises and Sonar. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961. Klement, Carl. Arion. Vienna, 1898. Lamb, F. Bruce. “The Fisherman’s Porpoise,” Natural History, LXIII (1954), 231-232. Llano, George A. Airmen Against the Sea. Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama; Arctic, Desert, Tropic Information Center [1955 or 1956], p. 74. Longman, Heber. “New Records of Cetacea,” Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, VIII (1926), 266-278. Longus, Cornificius. De Etymis Deorum. Lucian. Marine Dialogues. 8. Lycophron. Alexandra. Nonnus Panopolitanus. Dionysiaca. VI, 265-266. Norman, John R., and Fraser, F. C. Giant Fishes, Whales, and Dolphins. London: Putnam, 1937. Oppian. Halieutica. I, 649-654, 1089; V, 422, 519f. Ovid. Metamorphoses. III, 1, 202. Pliny the Elder. Natural History. IX, 8, 24-28. Pliny the Younger. Letters. IX, 23. Plutarch. On the Cleverness of Animals. Porphyry. De Abstinentia. III, 16. Rabinovitch, Melitta. Der Delphin in Sage und Mythos der Griechen. Dornach: Hybernia-Verlag, 1947. “Saved by a Porpoise,” Natural History, LVIII (1949), 385-386. Schmidt, Bernhard. Das Volksleben der Neugriechen. Leipzig, 1871. Servius. Commentarii in Vergilii Aeneidos. III, 332. Stebbins, Eunice B. The Dolphin in the Literature and Art of Greece and Rome. Menasha, Wisconsin: Banta Publishing Co., 1929. Usener, Hermann. Die Sintfluthsagen. Bonn: F. Cohen, 1899. Xenophon. Anabasis. V, 4, 28.

Modern Whales, Dolphins, and Porpoises, as Challenges to Our Intelligence

By JOHN C. LILLY