The Dolphin in the Mirror (5 page)

Human esteem for dolphins reached its zenith in ancient Greece, where dolphins were viewed as being closer to the gods than any other creature, half divine themselves, and messengers between the human and divine realms. "Diviner than the Dolphin is nothing yet created," wrote Oppian in 200
C.E.
, "for indeed they were aforetime men and lived in cities along with mortals." Killing a dolphin in these times was therefore a sacrilege against the gods and was punishable by death. (By contrast, slaves could be killed with impunity.) Images of dolphins—on coins, seals, bronze statues, floor and wall mosaics, and vases—were as much a part of the iconography of Greek culture as marble temples and philosophers in white togas. A common image is of a boy, sometimes resembling Apollo, astride a dolphin and playing a lyre, symbolic of bringing wisdom and the arts of civilization from the sea to the land.

Apollo, one of the more powerful deities in the Greek pantheon, is famous for establishing the oracle of Delphi on Mount Parnassus. The story of how this came about has many versions, as is common in Greek (and Roman) mythology. As the sun god, Apollo was also the epitome of music, poetry, beauty, youthfulness, and grace. Because he loved humanity, he decided he would bestow upon the Earth his wisdom and insights, which would be imparted through his oracle at Delphi.

To this end, one evening Apollo made himself visible to a group of Cretan businessmen sailing in the Gulf of Corinth. He assumed the form of a dolphin, leaped high above their ship, landed on its deck, and changed into the form of a golden youth. He announced to the astonished and fearful group, "Behold, I am Apollo Delphinus!" He told them of his grand plan, and soon the ship's sails filled with wind, the rudder set a new course of its own accord, and the ship surged forth with steadfast purpose. It was clear to the men that there was something greater than mere mortals at work. Apollo resumed the form of a dolphin for the rest of the journey and lay regally shimmering on the deck.

Soon the ship arrived at a port on the southwestern spur of Mount Parnassus. The men disembarked, and Apollo, once again a golden youth, led them to the temple of the oracle of Python, where they were met by Pythia, the chief priestess of a sisterhood that had maintained the oracle for many years. Pythia was displeased at the aggressive intrusion, and she challenged Apollo to a duel. Apollo prevailed, but rather than killing her, as was his right, he honored her for her bravery and for the years she and her sisters had tended the temple. He declared that henceforth, Pythia and her sisters would take on a new role: the voices of the new oracle of Delphi. Inscribed on the walls of the Temple of Apollo at sacred Delphi were words of righteousness and wisdom, the most famous of which was
Know Thyself.

It is thought that the dolphin god arrived around 1000
B.C.E.,
and his influence, via the voices of the oracle at Delphi, persisted for almost a millennium and a half, the most powerful political and spiritual presence of the time. There is a link between
Delphi
and
dolphin:
Delphi
is the Greek word meaning "womb," nurturing source of life;
delphis
(dolphin) loosely translated means "womb fish"—dolphins, unlike other fish, give birth to their young.

There are several versions of the origin of dolphins in Greek mythology, all of which involve Dionysus, the god of wine and wildness; some are said to have occurred when he was a boy; others when he was an adult. Here is one version.

Dionysus, who had great good looks and grand demeanor, disguised himself as an ordinary traveler and hired a ship and crew to take him from the island of Ikaria to the island of Naxos, the largest island of the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. The crew, who were pirates of sorts, believed Dionysus to be a prince and so plotted to kidnap him and profit by some means. They sailed the ship past Naxos and on toward Asia. Dionysus realized that he had been tricked, and he used his divine powers: the masts sprouted branches, the men's oars became snakes, and strange flute music sounded throughout the ship. The men realized that their captive was in fact a god with terrible powers, and they flung themselves into the sea. Poseidon, god of the sea, promptly changed them into dolphins and ordered them to be servants of mankind forever and exemplars of virtue and kindness.
^*

The first to benefit from the newly created dolphins' selflessness was Poseidon himself, even though he was a god and not of mankind. Poseidon was in pursuit of the beautiful sea goddess Amphitrite, but she was being coy and hid from her pursuer in a cavern under the sea. Dolphins discovered the location of the reluctant bride and told Poseidon where she was hiding. He found her and took her for his wife. To show his gratitude, Poseidon conferred upon dolphins the highest of honors: he created the constellation of the dolphin, Delphinus, which can be seen in the northern skies close to the celestial equator.

Although classical Greece saw the height of human reverence for dolphins in origin mythology, the sentiment has a very long history. Paintings and engravings in prehistoric caves in Europe have long intrigued modern scholars, although their exact meaning will, of necessity, remain elusive. Most agree, however, that Paleolithic people were not simply making visual and tactile records of the various animals of the day—horses, bison, bears, mastodons, and so on. Rather, the depictions likely held some symbolic value, perhaps a kind of ritual relating to the hunt or an encapsulation of their cosmology, their origin myths. It is therefore significant that in the Nerja caves of southern Spain, deep in a barely accessible corner, there are images of three dolphins, two males and one female. And engravings of dolphins are said to be in Ice Age caves in the French Pyrenees. Such images aren't common, yet that they exist at all is remarkable. Exactly what they mean, we cannot know. They are tantalizing threads of evidence that mankind's close identification with dolphins stretches back ten thousand, twenty thousand years, and possibly more.

But we can know some of what was in the minds of a people in a different part of the world many thousands of years ago, because their stories have been passed on through countless generations. These people are the Australian Aborigines, a highly diverse group living over vast territories and whose history goes back perhaps fifty millennia. Throughout their diversity is one commonality: a reverence for dolphins, for their sacredness, their wisdom, their spiritual guidance. This special connection between humans and dolphins among Australian Aborigines may well be the oldest one of all of human societies. Stories of dolphins are an integral part of the Aborigines' Dreamtime—that is, the time of the creation of the world in Aboriginal mythology.

Here is just one example. The Wanungamulangwa people live on Groote Eylandt, off the north coast of Australia, and their ancestry goes deep into Dreamtime. Their earliest forebears were said to be dolphins, the Indjebena, who lived in the deep waters between the islands of Chasm and Groote. At that time, the Earth was inhabited by spirit beings in the form of animals, birds, and fish. In the stories of Dreamtime, the Indjebena had a carefree and joyful life, with plenty to eat and plenty of time to play.

Dinginjabana, the leader of the dolphins, was swift, bold, and, it has to be said, more than a little arrogant. His wife, Ganadja, by contrast, was timid and kind. Ganadja was friendly with the Yakuna, a type of shellfish that built a strong shell and had a single muscular foot. In what is a long and quite complicated story, Dinginjabana exhorted his fellow male dolphins to sport with the Yakuna, and they tossed them around with disdain and derision, taunting them for having to stay in the coral, unable to move swiftly like the Indjebena. A mistake, as it turned out, because the Yakuna had powerful friends—the tiger sharks, deadly enemy of the Indjebena.

Baringgwa, the leader of the Yakuna, called upon his shark friends for help, and before long every one of the Indjebena had been sliced and mangled in their ferocious jaws. Every one, that is, but Ganadja; she was given refuge by her friends the Yakuna, who shielded her with their hard shells. After many months of loneliness, Ganadja gave birth to a son, whom she named Dinginjabana, after his father. He grew much larger than his forebears and was no longer at the mercy of the tiger sharks. The young Dinginjabana was the first of the tribe of dolphins that thrived around Groote Eylandt and in the world's oceans, the dolphins we see today.

According to the stories of Dreamtime, the souls of Dinginjabana the elder and the rest of the Indjebena became hard and dry, and after many years they were reborn as humans on Groote Eylandt, the first humans in the world. Meanwhile, Ganadja lovingly raised her son but remained lonely and missed her errant husband. One night, under a full moon, Ganadja swam near the shore and saw her husband, who was now a two-legged man. Overcome with excitement and longing, she thrust herself ashore, dragged herself over the sands with her flippers, and rested in front of Dinginjabana. When he recognized his wife, he gave a great shout of joy; Ganadja joined him in voicing elation, and she promptly took on human form. Ganadja and Dinginjabana lived a very long time and produced many children, who populated the island of Groote. They are the only ones who remember that dolphins are the ancestors of the entire human race. However, the dolphins in all the oceans, the offspring and descendants of the great mother Ganadja, have never forgotten that the people of Groote are their two-legged cousins. That is why, they say, dolphins are so eager to approach and play with their human kin, as they did in the days of Dreamtime.
¹

The Maoris, the Aboriginal people of New Zealand and geographical neighbors of the Australian Aborigines, also have a long and sacred relationship with dolphins. To the Maoris, dolphins are a source of spiritual guidance and a font of wisdom in difficult times. Dolphins, in these people's world, are known as humans of the sea.

On the other side of the globe, the Chumash Indians of the south California coast tell a different story of their origins and the origin of dolphins. Hutash, the earth goddess, lived on the island of Limuw (known today as Santa Cruz Island), where she talked to the animals and the trees, which she cherished. But she was lonely and wanted other people to be with, to share with her the beauty of her beloved Limuw. So one day she climbed the highest mountain of Limuw, gathered poppy seeds, and strewed them over the land. The seeds germinated and matured and grew into men and women, young and old. These were the Chumash people, whom Hutash loved as her own. Hutash's husband, the Sky Snake (the Milky Way), gave the Chumash fire, and they thrived and multiplied on their beautiful island.

Before many years had passed, Limuw had become crowded and the Chumash too boisterous for Hutash's liking. She told them that half of their people must leave for the mainland, and that in three days she would construct a bridge for them that would go from the highest mountain on Limuw to the highest mountain across the water. She warned them that when they crossed it, they must not look down. When the third day came, the families that had elected to leave set out across the beautiful arc of colors that Hutash had constructed. Very soon, some of them became frightened that the bridge might prove too flimsy for their weight. Despite Hutash's warning, they looked down at the ocean, became unsteady, and tumbled into the waters below. Hutash heard their cries for help and transformed them into dolphins, who were forever to lead joyous lives in the seas.
²

These few stories give just a glimpse of origin myths involving dolphins, which are ubiquitous across the continents. Before we move from mythology to history, however, I will give just one more story, because it has special dimensions that have long puzzled anthropologists and astronomers. It concerns the Dogon people of sub-Saharan Africa in what is now Mali, whose roots reach back more than two thousand years.

The Dogon's origin myth, like that of the Wanungamulangwa people of Australia, has dolphinlike creatures as their ancestors. They came not from the sea, however, but from Sirius, the Dog Star, which is some 8.6 light-years distant. Two French anthropologists spent time with the Dogon in the 1930s and slowly pieced together their stories. The Dogon's knowledge of Sirius appeared to be astonishingly extensive given their lack of technology, and the story of their origins very complex and difficult to follow. Briefly, though, dolphinlike beings from Sirius, called the Nommo, arrived on Earth in starships, which Dogon drawings show landing on three legs. The Nommo populated the seas and became dolphins, and they created children to live on the land, the Dogon people, who were originally called Ogo. This story is found in the Dogon's oral tradition, as well as in symbols carved into doors, lintels, and masks, and in their paintings.
³

Mythology is, of course, not truth in the way we normally think of truth; that is, it does not generally report events that actually happened or facts that can be verified. But mythologies reach to a different, deeper kind of truth, one that relies on resonance, not on demonstrable evidence. Mythologies do not account for the origin of people or dolphins in the way that scientific theories do, but mythologies tell us something about who we believe ourselves to be, our values, and our place in the world in relation to all the other creatures of nature. Mythologies are, in a way, an expression of that Delphic counsel: Know Thyself.

Given these few legends I've just related, who can doubt the depth of humankind's positive and interdependent connection with the dolphins? These ancient myths represent our perception of dolphins as minds in the water—intelligent, wise, and compassionate. Few animals bear such numinousity. What is it about dolphins that prompts this kind of reaction, response, and perception?

***

After mythology comes history, the putative record of actual events. But distant history can sometimes shade into myth, especially when the record is penned many years after the supposed events, as was the case with "true" stories from ancient Greece. Whatever the stories' veracity, there were indeed many tales told from this era of dolphins coming to the aid of men and boys (females were rare in this arena) or simply joining in friendship with humans (usually boys), all of which were in the spirit of complete selflessness on the dolphins' part. Such events were often celebrated by the production of bronze statues of boys and men riding on the backs of dolphins and the minting of coins bearing the images of dolphins. At one point, more than forty cities had coins of this ilk; images of dolphins on coins were as familiar to the Greeks as lions and eagles are to us today.