What caught my eye while reading the latest section of Moby-Dick, was Ismael's discussion of the use of mythology in chapter 82. I have always enjoyed mythology and this was an interesting look at particular myths/stories from Greek mythology, Hindu mythology, British legends, and The Bible.
Ishmael goes through the myths one by one beginning with Perseus and ending with Vishnu (which Melville spells "Vishnoo). Ishmael claims that Perseus is the first "whaleman" (284). He then goes on to relate the tale of Perseus saving Andromeda from Leviathan - the whale. Ishmael's point seems to be to tie all of these tales to the tale of Jonah in The Bible. He says, "For in ancient Joppa...on the Syrian coast...there stood for many ages the vast skeleton of a whale, which the city's legends and all the inhabitants asserted to be the identical bones of the monster that Perseus slew...What seems most singular and suggestively important in the story, is this: it was from Joppa that Jonah set sail" (285).
From Perseus he continues on to St. George from British legend. St. George slew a dragon, but Ishmael seems to think it was not a dragon, but a whale. "Which dragon I maintain to have been a whale; for in many old chronicles whales and dragons are strangely jumbled together, and often stand for each other" (285). Ishmael soon leaves St. George behind in favor of Hercules. Hercules was once swallowed and thrown up by a whale. Once again Ishmael ties Greek mythology to the tale of Jonah: "this Grecian story of Hercules and the whale is considered to be derived from the still more ancient Hebrew story of Jonah and the whale; and vice versa; certainly they are very similar" (286).
Lastly Ishmael speaks of Vishnoo whom he calls the "grand master" (286). Vishnoo became a whale in order to gain possession of the Vedas (mystical books which contain scared Hindu writings). Ishmael says that in Vishnoo becoming a whale he is the greatest of whalemen in the fact that a man who rides a horse is a horseman.
To end the chapter Ishmael says, "Perseus, St. George, Hercules, Jonah, and Vishnoo! there's a member-roll for you! What club but the whalman's can head off like that?" (286). This mythology seems to be embedded throughout the novel and it seems to be foreshadowing what is eventually going to happen to the crew. Maybe Ishmael is on to something by telling all of these strange, yet connected, stories.
I think Ishmael is definitely foreshadowing the conclusion of the story, as you speculated in your own concluding thought. There is evidence throughout the entire story of the crew's foreboding future, not just in these mythological parallelisms, but in the symbols Melville is constantly employing. For example, Queequeg's coffin is a massive symbol of their impending doom. As a coffin it symbolizes death, but it also represents resurrection and survival, as Queequeg rose out of it, and eventually it became the savior of Ishmael himself.
ReplyDeleteThere are also many 'signs' that should show the crew the treachery they're facing, for example the black hawk that steals the hat without returning it, or the number of ships The Pequod encounters just before finding the White Whale that carry sadness and warning. The Pequod is basically sailing into a tunnel with DO NOT ENTER signs hanging from every wall around every corner.