July 23, 2019 - Chapters Seventy-nine and Eighty


These two chapters continue Ishmael’s dissection of the sperm whale into its parts – first the face and then the skull and spine. The former is packed with allusions to the phrenologists and other pseudoscientists of the day. Perhaps the most bizarre reference is this: “They deified the crocodile of the Nile, because the crocodile is tongueless.” Melville apparently refers here to an actual belief of the ancient Egyptians, one of whose Gods did not speak (and thus was considered without a tongue) and the crocodile (ditto). The reference was likely taken by Melville from Plutarch (referred to here).

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