Part 1

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The Dolphin in History

_Papers delivered by Ashley Montagu and John C. Lilly at a symposium at the Clark Library, 13 October 1962_

WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY _University of California, Los Angeles 1963_

_Foreword_

Recently the dolphin has become the focus of much scientific interest and investigation which have led to flattering pronouncements about its remarkable intelligence, amiability, and astonishing friendliness towards man. It was in consequence of such activities that a symposium was held at the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library to consider the background to contemporary studies of the dolphin. The presentations of Dr. Ashley Montagu and Dr. John C. Lilly were received so favorably that it was decided to make them more widely available in the present form.

As will be readily apparent to any reader, Dr. Montagu has demonstrated conclusively that had the writings of the ancients been heeded we should long since have paid proper respect to this intelligent mammal, and Dr. Lilly has reinforced such classical appreciation by an account of his own astonishing observations of dolphin behavior. It is to be hoped that these two accounts will contribute to a lasting appreciation of our remarkable aquatic friend.

C.D. O’Malley

DIVISION OF MEDICAL HISTORY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

THE HISTORY OF THE DOLPHIN

_by_ Ashley Montagu

_The friendly_ Dolphin, _while within the maine, At libertie delightes, to sport and play, Himselfe is fresh, and doth no whit retaine The brinish saltnes of the boundless Sea Wherein he lives. Such is the secret skill Of Nature working, all thinges at her will._ Henry Peacham, _Minerva Britanna_, 1612

_The History of the Dolphin_

By ASHLEY MONTAGU

_I have met with a story, which, although authenticated by undoubted evidence, looks very like a fable._ _Pliny the Younger_

The history of the dolphin is one of the most fascinating and instructive in the historiography and the history of ideas in the western world. Indeed, it provides one of the most illuminating examples of what has probably occurred many times in human culture—a virtually complete loss of knowledge, at least in most segments of the culture, of what was formerly well understood by generations of men. “Not in entire forgetfulness” in some regions of the world, but certainly in “a sleep and a forgetting” in the most sophisticated centers of the western world.

Dolphins are mammals. They belong in the order Cetacea, suborder Odontoceti, family Delphinidae. Within the Delphinidae there are some twenty-two genera and about fifty-five species. The count includes the Killer Whale, the False Killer Whale, the White Whale, and the Pilot Whale, all of which are true dolphins. There are two subfamilies, the Delphinapterinae, consisting of the two genera _Monodon monocerus_, the Narwhal, and _Delphinapterus leucas_, the White Whale or Beluga. These two genera are distinguished by the fact that none of the neck vertebrae are fused, whereas in all remaining genera, embraced in the subfamily Delphininae, at least the first and second neck vertebrae are fused.

It was Aristotle in his _History of Animals_ (521b) who first classified whales, porpoises, and dolphins as Cetacea,τὰ κήτη οῖον δελφις καὶ φωκαὶνα καὶ φάλαινα. Aristotle’s account of the Cetacea was astonishingly accurately written, and quite evidently from firsthand knowledge of these animals.

While most dolphins are inhabitants of the seas, there are some that live in rivers, and quite a few that are denizens of fresh-water rivers removed many miles from the sea. With one exception the diet of dolphins is principally fish. The one exception is _Sotalia teuszii_, which lives in the Kamerun River, and is believed to feed exclusively on vegetable matter. The Ting Ling dolphin (_Lipotes vexillifer_) lives in Ting Ling Lake, six hundred miles up the Yang-tse-Kiang. Another dolphin, the Susu or Ganges dolphin (_Platanista gangetica_) of Brahmapootra, the Ganges, and the Indus, has lenseless eyes and is almost blind. The fresh-water dolphins belong in the family Platanistidae.

It is of interest to note that, in connection with the vegetable feeding habits of the Kamerun dolphin, Lycophron, in his _Alexandra_, makes his dolphins feed on trees, and Ovid, in the _Metamorphoses_ (III, 1, 202), describes a flood in which the dolphins take possession of the woods. Nonnus Panopolitanus, in the _Dionysiaca_ (VI, 265-266), also describes dolphins as feeding on trees.

The normal range of length of dolphins is from 5 to 14 feet; the larger species, the whales, are considerably longer. Brain weight is between 1600 and 1700 grams in the familiar dolphins, and reaches 9200 grams and more in the whales. The large brain is associated with what, all observers familiar with these animals agree, is a quite considerable intelligence.

Here we must pause to make a plea for the proper usage of common names. The term “porpoise” refers to the small, beakless Delphinidae, which have a triangular dorsal fin and spade-shaped teeth. The name “dolphin” embraces all other members of the family, except the larger forms, which are called whales. The porpoises mostly belong in the genus _Phocaena_, the best known species of which, the Common Porpoise (_Phocaena phocaena_), never reaches a length exceeding 6 feet and weighs 100 to 120 pounds. There are some six species. The finless black porpoise constitutes the only other genus with a single species _Neomeris phocaenoides_.

All porpoises are dolphins. The Bottle-Nosed Dolphin, _Tursiops truncatus_, is sometimes called a porpoise. This is incorrect. _Tursiops_ is a true dolphin, and should not be called what it is not.

Here we shall be principally concerned with the Bottle-Nosed Dolphin and with the Common Dolphin. The Bottle-Nosed Dolphin has a short, well-defined snout two or three inches long, and is characterized by a prominent fin in the middle of the back. Coloration is dark above and light below. Gestation lasts some ten months, birth is monotocous, and the young are suckled for about 18 months. The tail is delivered first, and the infant, about three feet long and weighing about twenty-five pounds, is immediately quite active, though much in need of the care of its devoted mother. The infant will eventually grow to be between 11 and 12 feet in length, and weigh about 300 kilograms. _Tursiops_ has an enormously wide range, being commonest along the Atlantic coast of America, from Maine to Florida, and occurs in the Bay of Biscay, in the Mediterranean Sea, and as far south as New Zealand.

The Common Dolphin, _Delphinus delphis_, is readily recognized by its well-defined narrow beak and distinctive coloration. The beak is some 5 to 6 inches narrower and finer than in the Bottle-Nosed Dolphin, and is sharply marked off by a deep V-shaped groove from the low reclining forehead. The Common Dolphin reaches a length up to 8½ feet. Its range of distribution is very wide, for it may be met in any temperate or warm sea throughout the world, and occurs at times in vast schools.

Whether the dolphin of classical antiquity is _Delphinus_ or _Tursiops_ is not usually determinable, although each undoubtedly played its independent role in the stories told of dolphins. From the recorded evidence available to us it is clear that, except for the larger species, the whales, all dolphins appear to be characterized by playfulness and friendliness toward man. There are, however, differences which appear to express themselves mostly in captivity. At least, _Tursiops_ adjusts much better to captivity than does _Delphinus_. At marine studios _Tursiops_ has established itself as a highly intelligent, playful, and friendly performer. _Delphinus_, on the other hand, while naturally all these things, in captivity tends to be timid and not very playful.

The Common and Bottle-Nosed Dolphins are those best known to the western world, but many of the traits which have recently been rediscovered concerning these creatures have been well known to other peoples for millennia. It is only a certain segment of the western world, its more sophisticated representation, and particularly the learned world, which dismissed as myths the tales told about dolphins in classical antiquity. And this is the real burden of the story I have to tell you. Some of these antique tales may have been myths, but as we shall see, many of them were not, and undoubtedly a number of the myths were based on real events partially embroidered by the imagination and improved, like good wine, by time. But good wine needs no bush, and I shall sample this wine as palatably as I find it.

The earliest representation of a dolphin I have been able to find is from a pictographic seal from Crete, estimated to date from 3500 to 2200 B.C. The earliest _painting_ of a dolphin thus far recovered is from the ancient Peloponnesian city of Tiryns. The date is about 1600 B.C. In that city it is also represented in stucco floors. Several good examples of dolphins are furnished by seventh century Corinthian art. The dolphin is also well represented in Minoan art. In Cyprus it is frequently represented in Late Helladic vases, shards, amphorae, in metalwork, engravings, and in stucco floors as at Tiryns. Among the importations from Crete into Helladic art appear to have been certain stylized forms of the dolphin.

An early literary reference to the dolphin occurs in Aesop’s fable, “The Monkey and the Dolphin.” During a violent storm a ship was capsized, and among those thrown into the water was a monkey. Observing its distress a dolphin came to its rescue, and taking the monkey upon its back the dolphin headed for shore. Opposite Piraeus, the harbor of Athens, the dolphin inquired of the monkey whether he was an Athenian. “Oh, yes,” replied the monkey, “and from one of the best families.” “Then you know Piraeus,” said the dolphin. “Very well, indeed,” said the monkey, “he is one of my most intimate friends.” Whereupon, outraged by so gross a deceit, the dolphin took a deep dive and left the monkey to its fate.

I take it that ever since that day monkeys have very sensibly refrained from speech. It is far better to remain silent even at the risk of being taken for a fool or a rogue, than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.

Aesop flourished about 600 B.C. His story suggests a considerable knowledge of the ways of dolphins, and this indicates that knowledge of the dolphin was already old in his time.

There are several variant Greek myths on the origin of the dolphin. All of them relate to Dionysos. In one version Dionysos is an adult, in another he is a child. The first group of legends represent the epiphany of Dionysos, symbolizing the battle between winter and summer. Winter is represented by the death of Dionysos who disappears into the water, from which he is brought back on the top of a dolphin as the returning springtime (Apollodorus, III, 5, 3). Another version has Dionysos, whether as child or adult varies, being conveyed by ship to Naxos by Tyrrhenian mariners. The latter conceive the idea of kidnaping him. Dionysos senses their treachery, and bidding his companions strike up on their musical instruments, he produces a Bacchic wild dance in the mariners who throw themselves overboard and are changed into dolphins.

The popular belief in antiquity in the human intelligence of dolphins and their kindly feeling toward man was explained by the ancient writers in the light of the transformation of the Tyrrhenian pirates into dolphins. (See Lucian, _Marine Dialogues_, 8; Oppian, _Halieutica_, I, 649-654, 1098, V, 422, 519f; Porphyry, _De Abstinentia_, III, 16.) As Oppian (I, 1089) in his _Halieutica_ has it, in William Diaper’s charming translation:

So _Dolphins_ teem, whom subject Fish revere, And show the smiling Seas their Infant-Heir. All other Kinds, whom Parent-Seas confine, _Dolphins_ excell; that Race is all divine. _Dolphins_ were Men (Tradition hands the Tale) Laborious Swains bred on the _Tuscan_ Vale: Transform’d by _Bacchus_, and by _Neptune_ lov’d, They all the Pleasures of the Deep improv’d. When new-made Fish the God’s Command obey’d, Plung’d in the Waves, and untry’d Fins displayed, No further Change relenting _Bacchus_ wrought, Nor have the _Dolphins_ all the Man forgot; The conscious Soul retains her former Thought.

The god of the golden trident who rules over the seas, Poseidon, would not have prospered in his wooing of Amphitrite if it had not been for the assistance of a dolphin, who apprized Poseidon of her hiding-place. For this service, as is well-known, Poseidon set the dolphin among the stars in the constellation which bears its name to this day.

It is interesting in this connection that in a modern Greek folktale from Zacynthos, Poseidon changes a hero who has fallen into the sea into a dolphin until such time as he should find a maiden ready to be his wife. After some time the dolphin rescues a shipwrecked king and his daughter, the princess by way of reward takes him for her husband, and the spell is broken (Bernhard Schmidt, _Das Volksleben der Neugriechen_, p. 135).

The cult of Apollo Delphinus was initiated, so legend has it, by Icadius who, leaving his native land of Lycia, which he had named for his mother, set out for Italy. Shipwrecked on the way, he was taken on the back of a dolphin, which set him down near Mount Parnassus, where he founded a temple to his father Apollo, and called the place Delphi after the dolphin. For this reason the dolphin became among the things most sacred to Apollo (Servius, _Commentarii in Vergilii Aeneidos_, III, 332; also Cornificius Longus, _De Etymis Deorum_).

Herodotos, writing of Periander (fl. 600 B.C.) tyrant of Corinth, tells one of the most famous of all stories of the dolphin (it is mentioned by Shakespeare in the first act of _Twelfth Night_). “In his time,” writes Herodotos (b. 484 B.C.), “a very wonderful thing is said to have happened. The Corinthians and the Lesbians agree in their account of the matter. They relate that Arion of Methymna, who, as a player on the lyre, was second to no man living at that time, and who was, so far as we know, the first to invent the dithyrambic measure, to give it its name, and to conduct in it at Corinth, was carried to Taenarum on the back of a dolphin.

“He had lived, it is said, at the court of Periander, when a longing came upon him to sail across to Italy and Sicily. Having made rich profits in those parts, he wanted to recross the seas to Corinth. He therefore hired a vessel, the crew of which were Corinthians, thinking that there was no people in whom he could more safely confide; and, going on board, he set sail from Tarentum. The sailors, however, when they reached the open sea, formed a plot to throw him overboard and seize upon his riches. Discovering their design, he fell on his knees, beseeching them to spare his life, and making them welcome to his money. But they refused; and required him either to kill himself outright, if he wished for a grave on the dry land, or without loss of time to leap overboard into the sea. In this strait Arion begged them, since such was their pleasure, to allow him to mount upon the quarter-deck, dressed in his full costume, and there to play and sing, and promising that, as soon as his song was ended, he would destroy himself. Delighted at the prospect of hearing the very best singer in the world, they consented, and withdrew from the stern to the middle of the vessel: while Arion dressed himself in the full costume of his calling, took his lyre, and standing on the quarter-deck, chanted the Orthian [a very high-pitched lively and spirited song]. His strain ended, he flung himself, fully attired as he was, headlong into the sea. The Corinthians then sailed on to Corinth. As for Arion, a dolphin, they say, took him upon his back and carried him to Taenarum, where he went ashore, and thence proceeded to Corinth in his musician’s dress, and told all that had happened to him. Periander, however, disbelieved the story, and put Arion in ward, to prevent his leaving Corinth, while he watched anxiously for the return of the mariners. On their arrival he summoned them before him and asked them if they could give him any tidings of Arion. They returned for answer that he was alive and in good health in Italy, and that they had left him at Tarentum, where he was doing well. Thereupon Arion appeared before them, just as he was when he jumped from the vessel: the men, astonished and detected in falsehood, could no longer deny their guilt. Such is the account which the Corinthians and Lesbians give; and there is to this day at Taenarum an offering of Arion’s at the shrine, which is a small figure in bronze, representing a man seated upon a dolphin.” (_The History of Herodotus_, Clio, I, 23-24.)

Commenting on this tale the poet Bianor, in _The Greek Anthology_ (_Declamatory Epigrams_, 308), remarks, “So the sea presumably contains fish whose righteousness exceeds that of mankind.”

Coins of Methymna, in Lesbos, Arion’s birthplace, show him riding a dolphin. In one form or another the dolphin is represented on the coins of some forty Greek cities, and doubtless most Greeks knew the reason why.

Pliny the Elder, in his _Natural History_ (IX, 8, 24-28), writes as follows:

“The dolphin is an animal that is not only friendly to mankind but is also a lover of music, and it can be charmed by singing in harmony, but particularly by the sound of the water-organ. It is not afraid of a human being as something strange to it, but comes to meet vessels at sea and sports and gambols round them, actually trying to race them and passing them even when under full sail. In the reign of the late lamented Augustus a dolphin that had been brought into the Lucrine Lake fell marvellously in love with a certain boy, a poor man’s son, who used to go from the Baiae district to school at Pozzuoli, because fairly often the lad when loitering about the place at noon called him to him by the name of Snubnose and coaxed him with bits of the bread he had with him for the journey,—I should be ashamed to tell the story were it not that it has been written about by Maecenas and Fabianus and Flavius Alfius and many others,—and when the boy called to it at whatever time of day, although it was concealed in hiding, it used to fly to him out of the depth, eat out of his hand, and let him mount on its back, sheathing as it were the prickles of its fin, and used to carry him when mounted right across the bay to Pozzuoli to school, bringing him back in similar manner, for several years, until the boy died of disease, and then it used to keep coming sorrowfully and like a mourner to the customary place, and itself also expired, quite undoubtedly from longing. Another dolphin in recent years at Hippo Diarrhytus on the coast of Africa similarly used to feed out of people’s hands and allow itself to be stroked, and play with swimmers and carry them on its back. The Governor of Africa, Flavianus, smeared it all over with perfume, and the novelty of the scent apparently put it to sleep: it floated lifelessly about, holding aloof from human intercourse for some months as if it had been driven away by insult; but afterwards it returned and was an object of wonder as before. The expense caused to their hosts by persons of official position who came to see it forced the people of Hippo to destroy it. Before these occurrences a similar story is told about a boy in the city of Iasus, with whom a dolphin was observed for a long time to be in love, and while eagerly following him to the shore when he was going away it grounded on the sand and expired; Alexander the Great made the boy head of the priesthood of Poseidon at Babylon, interpreting the dolphin’s affection as a sign of the deity’s favour. Hegesidemus writes that in the same city of Iasus another boy also, named Hermias, while riding across the sea in the same manner lost his life in the waves of a sudden storm, but was brought back to the shore, and the dolphin confessing itself the cause of his death did not return out to sea and expired on dry land. Theophrastus records that exactly the same thing occurred at Naupactos too. Indeed there are unlimited instances: the people of Amphilocus and Taranto tell the same stories about boys and dolphins; and these make it credible that also the skilled harper Arion, when at sea the sailors were getting ready to kill him with the intention of stealing the money he had made, succeeded in coaxing them to let him first play a turn on his harp, and the music attracted a school of dolphins, whereupon he dived into the sea and was taken up by one of them and carried ashore at Cape Matapan.”

A very similar but apparently quite independent account of these stories is given by the younger Pliny, in his _Letters_ (IX, 23).

The elder Pliny then goes on to tell of the manner in which dolphins assist fishermen, which corresponds closely with the accounts given by recent observers of this cooperative activity between fishermen and dolphins. (For accounts of these see Antony Alpers, _Dolphins_, 146 sq.)

There are numerous other stories similar to those given by the Plinys from classical antiquity, but it is quite impossible to recount them here.[1] What they all have in common is the friendliness of the dolphin for human beings, their rescue of them when they were thrown into the sea, their playfulness, especially with children, and their interest in almost any sort of sound. All these traits came to be regarded as mythical by later and more sophisticated ages, and Usener (_Die Sintfluthsagen_) comments on the effect that the prevalence of these tales had even upon the scientific thought of antiquity, making it difficult for such thinkers as Aristotle to get away from the belief in the dolphin’s ability to carry a rider, and in its capacity for human feeling (Aristotle, _History of Animals_, 631a). But Aristotle was right and Herr Usener wrong. The delightful thing about most of these myths is that they all appear to be based on solid fact, and not on the fancies attributed to the original narrators. Another typical modern gloss by a highly sophisticated writer, biologically not unknowledgeable, Norman Douglas, is the following: Commenting on the delphic mythology, he writes, “From these and many other sources, we may gather that there was supposed to exist an obscure but powerful bond of affection between this animal and humanity, and that it was endowed with a certain kindheartedness and man-loving propensity. This is obviously not the case; the dolphin cares no more about us than cares the haddock. What is the origin of this belief? I conjecture that the beast was credited with these social sentiments out of what may be called poetic reciprocation. Mankind, loving the merry gambols and other endearing characteristics of the dolphin, which has a playful trick of escorting vessels for its own amusement, whose presence signified fair weather, and whose parental attachment to its offspring won their esteem—quite apart from its fabled, perhaps real, love of music or at least of noisy sounds—were pleased to invest it with feelings akin to their own. They were fond of the dolphin; what more natural and becoming than that the dolphin should be fond of them?” (_Birds and Beasts of the Greek Anthology_, p. 161.)