ON DOLPHINS AS BOY-LOVERS
There have been stories of warm friendship between people and animals throughout recorded history. In antiquity, however, these were occasionally stories of eros: animals falling passionately in love with humans. Amongst them, dolphins stand out strongly in two ways.
First, there are many more such stories surviving about dolphins than any other species, ten in total, versus five each for elephants and snakes, three geese, two dogs and one each for six other species, totalling thirty-one.[1] One thing that helps explain this would seem to be the friendliness of dolphins to mankind, as described by Pliny the elder, Athenaios and others.[2]
Secondly, it is at least as remarkable that in every single one of the ten instances recorded in the surviving literature of a dolphin falling in love with a human, his beloved was a boy and not a woman (never mind a man, though dolphins sometimes helped them out of appreciation of their music, of which dolphins were fond, or out of gratitude). In this too they differed from the other animals recorded as falling in love with humans: male elephants, dogs, geese and snakes fell in love about equally with both, while there are only single instances of loving humans recorded for other species.
The explanation for dolphins’ apparently exclusive taste for boys is much less obvious. No ancient in surving texts thought it worth remarking on. It was not that dolphins were thought to have a general preference for their own sex. Aristotle, for example, says they “live together in pairs, male and female” and Pliny the elder that “they usually roam about in couples, husband and wife.”[3] However, opportunity may have been an important consideration: dolphins in antiquity probably encountered many more boys than women in the sea. Otherwise, the answer should presumably be sought in their general temperament: intelligence and playfulness come to mind as characteristics commonly mentioned by the ancients and which they may perhaps have considered relevant..
Particularly to the sceptical reader, it should be pointed out that none of the stories presented here were from mythology or remote history.[4] A few retellings aside, they were all recent history when narrated, in two cases (Apion and Pausanias) actually witnessed by the writer. Moreover, the writers include some of the profoundest thinkers in antiquity (or indeed in all of history), men who were anxious to claim nothing for which they had no good evidence.
It is also worth pointing out that one would expect that what survives represents a mere fraction of all the stories that circulated in antiquity, whether orally or in lost writings. Of the authors to be quoted here, for example, Aristotle says there were “many stories” of dolphins in love with boys, while Pliny the elder says there were “unlimited instances” of it.
Presented here in chronological order are all the references in surviving ancient literature to dolphins loving boys in the sense of eros, that is to say love underpinned by sexual desire. To these accounts are added two where the nature of the love is not clear, but becomes clear in others’ accounts of the same stories. Where the English translation does not make clear what is manifest about the love in the Greek or Latin, this is commented on. In all the translations, the Latinisation of names used by most has been undone in favour of transliteration of the Greek.
Aristotle, History of Animals VIII 48 (631a-631b)
The History of Animals Τῶν περὶ τὰ ζῷα ἱστοριῶν, an immense study of the differences between over five hundred kinds of animals, was written by the great philosopher Aristotle of Stageira (384-322 BC) around 350 BC. The translation is by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson, published as Aristotle’s Historia Animalium by the Clarendon Press in Oxford in 1910. His translation of ἔρωτες καὶ ἐπιθυμίαι as “passionate attachment”could be more accurately rendered as “erotic longing” and leaves not the slightest doubt as to the sexual underpinning of dolphins’ love of boys.
| Among the sea-fishes many stories are told about the dolphin, indicative of his gentle and kindly nature, and of manifestations of passionate attachment to boys, in and about Taras[5], Caria[6], and other places. | τῶν δὲ θαλασσίων πλεῖστα λέγεται σημεῖα περὶ τοὺς δελφῖνας πραότητος καὶ ἡμερότητος, 0καὶ δὴ καὶ πρὸς παῖδας ἔρωτες καὶ ἐπιθυμίαι καὶ περὶ Τάραντα καὶ Καρίαν καὶ ἄλλους τόπους. |
Philon of Alexandria, On Whether Dumb Animals Possess Reason 67
Philo Φίλων (ca. 20 BC – ca. AD 50) was a Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. His dialogue On Whether Dumb Animals Possess Reason was written near the end of his life. The passage presented here concerns the “unleashed sexual indulgence” of men compared with animals. Its content suggest it is yet another version of the most widely-reported dolphin/boy-love story, that of the 4th-century BC boy of Iasos, in which case “Achaia” is presumably being used in a vague sense of “Greek lands.”
The original Greek text was lost in mediaeval times, leaving only a 5th/6th century translation into classical Armenian. The translation from that into English is by Abraham Terian in Philonis Alexandrini De Anmalibus published by Scholars Press in Chico, Califonia in 1981.
It is told in Achaia that once upon a time a dolphin fell passionately in love with a boy who had a very beautiful face. Many times it carried him from the shore to the deep sea to ride on its back, on the crests of waves. Many times it carried him deeper still and safely brought him to the shore after covering a long distance. But when the boy died in youth - as was his lot in life - the dolphin grieved over him and gave up its own spirit when its tense respiratory tract was severed because of the strain on its body.
Plutarch, Whether Land or Sea Animals are Cleverer, Moralia 984e-f
Plutarch’s Whether Land or Sea Animals are Cleverer was a dialogue written in the 70s AD and published in his eclectic Moralia. The translation is by Harold Cherniss and W. C. Helmbold for the Loeb Classical Library volume 406, published by the Harvard University Press in 1957.
| And the goodwill and friendship of the dolphin for the lad of Iasos[7] was thought by reason of its greatness to be eros[8]. For it used to swim and play with him during the day, allowing itself to be touched; and when the boy mounted upon its back, it was not reluctant, but used to carry him with pleasure wherever he directed it to go, while all the inhabitants of Iasos flocked to the shore each time this happened. Once a violent storm of rain and hail occurred and the boy slipped off and was drowned. The dolphin took the body and threw both it and itself together on the land and would not leave until it too had died, thinking it right to share a death for which it imagined that it shared the responsibility. And in memory of this calamity the inhabitants of Iasos have minted their coins with the figure of a boy riding a dolphin. | [e] Ἡ δὲ πρὸς τὸν Ἰασέα παῖδα τοῦ δελφῖνος εὔνοια καὶ φιλία δι᾿ ὑπερβολὴν ἔρως ἔδοξε· συνέπαιζε γὰρ αὐτῷ καὶ συνενήχετο καθ᾿ ἡμέραν καὶ παρεῖχεν ἐν χρῷ ψαυόμενος· ἔπειτα περιβαίνοντος οὐκ ἔφευγεν, ἀλλ᾿ ἔφερε χαίρων, πρὸς ὃ ἔκαμπτε κλίνων, ὁμοῦ πάντων Ἰασέων ἑκάστοτε συντρεχόντων ἐπὶ τὴν θάλατταν. ὄμβρου δέ ποτε πολλοῦ μετὰ χαλάζης ἐπιπεσόντος, [f] ὁ μὲν παῖς ἀπορρυεὶς ἐξέλιπεν, ὁ δὲ δελφὶν ὑπολαβὼν ἄμα τῷ νεκρῷ συνεξέωσεν αὐτὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν καὶ οὐκ ἀπέστη τοῦ σώματος ἕως ἀπέθανε, δικαιώσας μετασχεῖν ἧς συναίτιος ἔδοξε γεγονέναι τελευτῆς. καὶ τοῦ πάθους ἐπίσημον Ἰασεῦσι τὸ χάραγμα τοῦ νομίσματός ἐστι, παῖς ὑπὲρ δελφῖνος ὀχούμενος. |
Pliny the elder, Natural History IX 25-28
Natural History, an unrivaled encyclopaedia of Roman knowledge in thirty-seven books, the largest single work to survive frm the Roman Empire and the only surviving work of Pliny the elder, author, governor successively of four Roman provinces and friend of the Emperor Vespasian, was written in AD 77-79 and posthumously published by his nephew. Note that Pliny did not hesitate to call stories fables when that is what he believed they were, which was thus not the case in the following narrative. The translation is by H. Rackham for the Loeb Classical Library volume 330, published by William Heinemann Ltd. in London in 1938.
| In the reign of the late lamented Augustus[9] 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,[10] 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,[11] 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[12], 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 the 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.[13] Before these occurrences a similar story is told about a boy in the city of Iasos, 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.[14] Hegesidemus writes that in the same city of Iasos 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. Theophrastos records that exactly the same thing occurred at Naupaktos too.[15] Indeed there are unlimited instances: the people of Amphilochus and Taranto[16] tell the same stories about boys and dolphins; | [25] divo Augusto principe Lucrinum lacum invectus pauperis cuiusdam puerum ex Baiano Puteolos in ludum litterarium itantem, cum meridiano immorans appellatum eum simonis nomine saepius fragmentis panis quem ob iter ferebat adlexisset, miro amore dilexit—pigeret referre ni res Maecenatis et Fabiani et Flavi Alfii multorumque esset litteris mandata,—quocumque diei tempore inclamatus a puero quamvis occultus atque abditus ex imo advolabat pastusque e manu praebebat ascensuro dorsum, pinnae aculeos velut vagina condens, receptumque Puteolos per magnum aequor in ludum ferebat simili modo revehens pluribus annis, donec morbo extincto puero subinde ad consuetum locum ventitans tristis et maerenti similis ipse quoque, quod nemo dubitaret, desiderio expiravit. [26] alius intra hos annos Africo litore Hipponis Diarruti simili modo ex hominum manu vescens praebensque se tractandum et adludens nantibus impositosque portans unguento perunctus a Flaviano proconsule Africae et sopitus, ut apparuit, odoris novitate fluctuatusque similis exanimi caruit hominum conversatione ut iniuria fugatus per aliquot menses; mox reversus in eodem miraculo fuit. iniuriae potestatum in hospitales ad visendum venietium Hipponenses in necem eius compulerunt. [27] ante haec similia de puero in Iaso urbe memorantur, cuius amore spectatus longo tempore, dum abeuntem in litus avide sequitur, in harenam invectus expiravit; puerum Alexander Magnus Babylone Neptunio sacerdotio praefecit, amorem illum numinis propitii fuisse interpretatus. in eadem urbe Iaso Hegesidemus scribit et alium puerum Hermian nomine similiter maria perequitantem, cum repentinae procellae fluctibus exanimatus esset, relatum, delphinumque causam se1 leti fatentem non reversum in maria atque in sicco expirasse. hoc idem et Naupacti accidisse Theophrastus tradit. [28] nec modus exemplorum: eadem Amphilochi et Tarentini de pueris delphinisque narrant; |
Pliny the younger, Letters IX 33
Gaius Plinius Caecilius (61-ca. 113), known by the suffix Secundus to distinguish him from his eminent uncle, was a suffect consul and governor of Roman provinces whose 247 surviving letters are a priceless source of information about life in the early Roman Empire.
Note that the word Pliny uses for the “love” described in this story is amor and its derivatives, which need not be eros (erotically-inspired love). The only reason it is included here is that Oppian, retelling the story seventy years later (as quoted below) interpreted the amor as eros.
The translation is by Betty Radice for the Loeb Classical Library volume 59 published by the Harvard University Press in 1969.
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To Caninius Rufus[17] I have come across a true story which sounds very like fable, and so ought to be a suitable subject for your abundant talent to raise to the heights of poetry. I heard it over the dinner table when various marvellous tales were being circulated, and I had it on good authority—though I know that doesn’t really interest poets. However, it was one which even a historian might well have trusted. The Roman colony of Hippo[18] is situated on the coast of Africa. Near by is a navigable lagoon, with an estuary like a river leading from it which flows into the sea or back into the lagoon according to the ebb and flow of the tide. People of all ages spend their time here to enjoy the pleasures of fishing, boating, and swimming, especially the boys who have plenty of time to play. It is a bold feat with them to swim out into deep water, the winner being the one who has left the shore and his fellow-swimmers farthest behind. In one of these races a particularly adventurous boy went farther out than the rest. A dolphin met him and swam now in front, now behind him, then played round him, and finally dived to take him on its back, then put him off, took him on again, and first carried him terrified out to sea, then turned to the shore and brought him back to land and his companions. |
C. Plinius Caninio Suo S. [i] Incidi in materiam veram sed simillimam fictae, dignamque isto laetissimo altissimo planeque poetico ingenio; incidi autem, dum super cenam varia miracula hinc inde referuntur. Magna auctori fides: tametsi quid poetae cum fide? [ii] Is tamen auctor, cui bene vel historiam scripturus credidisses. Est in Africa Hipponensis colonia mari proxima. Adiacet navigabile stagnum; ex hoc in modum fluminis aestuarium emergit, quod vice alterna, prout aestus aut repressit aut impulit, nunc infertur mari, nunc redditur stagno. [iii] Omnis hic aetas piscandi navigandi atque etiam natandi studio tenetur, maxime pueri, quos otium lususque sollicitat. His gloria et virtus altissime provehi: victor ille, qui longissime ut litus ita simul natantes reliquit. [iv] Hoc certamine puer quidam audentior ceteris in ulteriora tendebat. Delphinus occurrit, et nunc praecedere puerum nunc sequi nunc circumire, postremo subire deponere iterum subire, trepidantemque perferre primum in altum, mox flectit ad litus, redditque terrae et aequalibus. |
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The tale spread through the town; everyone ran up to stare at the boy as a prodigy, ask to hear his story and repeat it. The following day crowds thronged the shore, watched the sea, and anything like the sea, while the boys began to swim out, among them the same boy, but this time more cautious. The dolphin punctually reappeared and approached the boy again, but he made off with the rest. Meanwhile the dolphin jumped and dived, coiled and uncoiled itself in circles as if inviting and calling him back. This was repeated the next day, the day after, and on several more occasions, until these people, who are bred to the sea, began to be ashamed of their fears. They went up to the dolphin and played with it, called it, and even touched and stroked it when they found it did not object, and their daring increased with experience. In particular the boy who first met it swam up when it was in the water, climbed on its back, and was carried out to sea and brought back; he believed it knew and loved him, and he loved it. Neither was feared nor afraid, and the one grew more confident as the other became tamer. Some of the other boys used to go with him on either side, shouting encouragement and warnings, and with it swam another dolphin (which is also remarkable), but only to look on and escort the other, for it did not perform the same feats or allow the same familiarities, but only accompanied its fellow to shore and out to sea as the boys did their friend. It is hard to believe, but as true as the rest of the story, that the dolphin who carried and played with the boys would even let itself be pulled out on to the shore, dry itself in the sand, and roll back into the sea when it felt hot. Then, as is generally known, the governor’s legate, Octavius Avitus,[19] was moved by some misguided superstition to pour scented oil on the dolphin as it lay on the shore, and the strange sensation and smell made it take refuge in the open sea. It did not reappear for many days, and then seemed listless and dejected; but as it regained strength it returned to its former playfulness and usual tricks. All the local officials used to gather to see the sight, and their arrival to stay in the little town began to burden it with extra expense, until finally the place itself was losing its character of peace and quiet, It was then decided that the object of the public’s interest should be quietly destroyed. I can imagine how sadly you will lament this ending and how eloquently you will enrich and adorn this tale—though there is no need for you to add any fictitious details; it will be enough if the truth is told in full. |
[v] Serpit per coloniam fama; concurrere omnes, ipsum puerum tamquam miraculum adspicere, interrogare audire narrare. Postero die obsident litus, prospectant mare et si quid est mari simile. Natant pueri, inter hos ille, sed cautius. Delphinus rursus ad tempus, rursus ad puerum. Fugit ille cum ceteris. Delphinus, quasi invitet et revocet, exsilit mergitur, variosque orbes implicat expeditque. [vi] Hoc altero die, hoc tertio, hoc pluribus, donec homines innutritos mari subiret timendi pudor. Accedunt et adludunt et adpellant, tangunt etiam pertrectantque praebentem. Crescit audacia experimento. Maxime puer, qui primus expertus est, adnatat nanti, insilit tergo, fertur referturque, agnosci se amari putat, amat ipse; neuter timet, neuter timetur; huius fiducia, mansuetudo illius augetur. [vii] Nec non alii pueri dextra laevaque simul eunt hortantes monentesque. Ibat una (id quoque mirum) delphinus alius, tantum spectator et comes. Nihil enim simile aut faciebat aut patiebatur, sed alterum illum ducebat reducebat, ut puerum ceteri pueri. [viii] Incredibile, tam verum tamen quam priora, delphinum gestatorem collusoremque puerorum in terram quoque extrahi solitum, harenisque siccatum, [ix] ubi incaluisset in mare revolvi. Constat Octavium Avitum, legatum proconsulis, in litus educto religione prava superfudisse unguentum, cuius illum novitatem odoremque in altum refugisse, nec nisi post multos dies visum languidum et maestum, mox redditis viribus priorem lasciviam et solita ministeria repetisse. [x] Confluebant omnes ad spectaculum magistratus, quorum adventu et mora modica res publica novis sumptibus atterebatur. Postremo locus ipse quietem suam secretumque perdebat: [xi] placuit occulte interfici, ad quod coibatur. Haec tu qua miseratione, qua copia deflebis ornabis attolles! Quamquam non est opus adfingas aliquid aut adstruas; sufficit ne ea quae sunt vera minuantur. Vale. |
Pausanias, Description of Greece III 25 vii
Pausanias was a Greek geographer who wrote his lengthy Description of Greece in ca. AD 150. Nothing in his brief mention in what follows of the dolphin of Porosolene and his boy suggests eros between them. It is included here only because Oppian and Aelian, in their accounts of the same friendship, are emphatic that it was about eros.
The translation is by W. H. S. Jones in the Loeb Classical Library volume CLXXXVIII (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1926).
| I have seen the dolphin at Poroselene that rewards the boy for saving his life. It had been damaged by fishermen and he cured it. I saw this dolphin obeying his call and carrying him whenever he wanted to ride on it. | τὸν δὲ ἐν Ποροσελήνῃ δελφῖνα τῷ παιδὶ σῶστρα ἀποδιδόντα, ὅτι συγκοπέντα ὑπὸ ἁλιέων αὐτὸν ἰάσατο, τοῦτον τὸν δελφῖνα εἶδον καὶ καλοῦντι τῷ παιδὶ ὑπακούοντα καὶ φέροντα, ὁπότε ἐποχεῖσθαί οἱ βούλοιτο. |
Oppian Ὀππιανός was a Greek writer from Cilicia. His Halieutika Ἁλιευτικά, a didactic poem on fishing, was written between 176 and the death in 180 of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, to whom it is dedicated.
The translation is by by A. W. Mair for the Loeb Classical Library volume 219, published by the Harvard University Press in 1928.
| And one knows, methinks, by hearsay the love of the Libyan boy[20] whom as he herded his sheep a Dolphin loved with a burning love and played with him beside the shores and for delight in his shrill pipe[21] was fain to live among the very sheep and to forsake the sea and come to the woods. Nay, nor has all Aiolis[22] forgotten the love of a youth—not long ago but in our own generation—how a Dolphin once loved an island boy and in the island it dwelt and ever haunted the haven where ships lay at anchor, even as if it were a townsman and refused to leave its comrade, but abode there and made that its house from the time that it was little till it was a grown cub, like a little child nurtured in the ways of the boy. But when they came to the fullness of vigorous youth, then the boy excelled among the youths and the Dolphin in the sea was more excellent in swiftness than all others. Then there was a marvel strange beyond speech or thought for strangers and indwellers to behold. And report stirred many to hasten to see the wondrous sight, a youth and a Dolphin growing up in comradeship, and day by day beside the shore were many gatherings of those who rushed to gaze upon the mighty marvel. Then the youth would embark in his boat and row in front of the embayed haven and would call it, shouting the name whereby he had named it even from earliest birth. And the Dolphin, like an arrow, when it heard the call of the boy, would speed swiftly and come close to the beloved boat, fawning with its tail and proudly lifting up its head fain to touch the boy. And he would gently caress it with his hands, lovingly greeting his comrade, while it would be eager to come right into the boat beside the boy. But when he dived lightly into the brine, it would swim near the youth, its side right by his side and its cheek close by his and touching head with head. Thou wouldst have said that in its love the Dolphin was fain to kiss and embrace the youth: in such close companionship it swam. But when he came near the shore, straightway the youth would lay his hand upon its neck and mount on its wet back. And gladly and with understanding it would receive the boy upon its back and would go where the will of the youth drave it, whether over the wide sea afar he commanded it to travel or merely to traverse the space of the haven or to approach the land: it obeyed every behest. No colt for its rider is so tender of mouth and so obedient to the curved bit; no dog trained to the bidding of the hunter is so obedient to follow where he leads; nay, nor any servants are so obedient, when their master bids, to do his will willingly, as that friendly Dolphin was obedient to the bidding of the youth, without yoke-strap or constraining bridle. And not himself alone would it carry but it would obey any other whom his master bade it and carry him on its back, refusing no labour in its love. Such was its friendship for the boy while he lived; but when death took him, first like one sorrowing the Dolphin visited the shores in quest of the companion of its youth: you would have said you heard the veritable voice of a mourner—such helpless grief was upon it. And no more, though they called it often, would it hearken to the island townsmen nor would it accept food when offered it, and very soon it vanished from that sea and none marked it any more and it no more visited the place. Doubtless sorrow for the youth that was gone killed it, and with its dead comrade it had been fain to die. | [453] καί πού τις Λίβυος κούρου πόθον οἶδεν ἀκούων, τοῦ ποτε ποιμαίνοντος ἐράσσατο θερμὸν ἔρωτα [455] δελφίς, σὺν δ᾿ ἤθυρε παρ᾿ ᾐόσι, καὶ κελαδεινῇ τερπόμενος σύριγγι λιλαίετο πώεσιν αὐτοῖς μίσγεσθαι πόντον τε λιπεῖν ξυλόχους τ᾿ ἀφικέσθαι. ἀλλ᾿ οὐδ᾿ ἠϊθέοιο πόθους ἐπὶ πᾶσα λέλησται Αἰολίς· οὔτι παλαιόν, ἐφ᾿ ἡμετέρῃ δὲ γενέθλῃ· [460] δελφὶς ὥς ποτε παιδὸς ἐράσσατο νησαίοιο· νήσῳ δ᾿ ἐνναίεσκεν, ἀεὶ δ᾿ ἔχε ναύλοχον ὅρμον, ἀστὸς ὅπως, ἕταρον δὲ λιπεῖν ἠναίνετο θυμῷ, ἀλλ᾿ αὐτοῦ μίμναζε παρέστιος ἐξέτι τυτθοῦ, σκύμνος ἀεξηθείς, ὀλίγον βρέφος, ἤθεσι παιδὸς [465] σύντροφος· ἀλλ᾿ ὅθ᾿ ἵκοντο τέλος γυιαλκέος ἥβης, καί ῥ᾿ ὁ μὲν ἠϊθέοισι μετέπρεπεν, αὐτὰρ ὁ πόντῳ ὠκύτατος δελφὶς ἑτέρων προφερέστατος ἦεν, δή ῥα τότ᾿ ἔκπαγλόν τε καὶ οὐ φατὸν οὐδ᾿ ἐπίελπτον θάμβος ἔην ξείνοισι καὶ ἐνναέτῃσιν ἰδέσθαι· [470] πολλοὺς δ᾿ ὤρορε φῆμις ἰδεῖν σέβας ὁρμηθέντας, ἠΐθεον δελφῖνι συνηβώοντας ἑταίρους· πολλαὶ δ᾿ ἠϊόνων ἀγοραὶ πέλας ἦμαρ ἐπ᾿ ἦμαρ ἱεμένων ἵσταντο σέβας μέγα θηήσασθαι. ἔνθ᾿ ὁ μὲν ἐμβεβαὼς ἄκατον κοίλοιο πάροιθεν [475] ὅρμου ἀναπλώεσκε, κάλει δέ μιν οὔνομ᾿ ἀΰσας κεῖνο, τό μιν φήμιξεν ἔτι πρώτης ἀπὸ φύτλης· δελφὶς δ᾿ ἠΰτ᾿ ὀϊστός, ἐπεὶ κλύε παιδὸς ἰωήν, κραιπνὰ θέων ἀκάτοιο φίλης ἄγχιστος ἵκανε, σαίνων τ᾿ οὐραίῃ κεφαλήν τ᾿ ἀνὰ γαῦρος ἀείρων, [480] παιδὸς ἐπιψαῦσαι λελιημένος· αὐτὰρ ὁ χερσὶν ἦκα καταρρέζεσκε, φιλοφροσύνῃσιν ἑταῖρον ἀμφαγαπαζόμενος, τοῦ δ᾿ ἵετο θυμὸς ἱκέσθαι αὐτὴν εἰς ἄκατον παιδὸς πέλας· ἀλλ᾿ ὅτ᾿ ἐς ἅλμην κοῦφα κυβιστήσειεν, ὃ δ᾿ ἐγγύθι νήχετο κούρου, [485] αὐτῇσι πλευρῇσιν ἀνὰ πλευρὰς παρενείρων, αὐτῇσι γενύεσσι πέλας γένυν, ἠδὲ καρήνῳ ἐγχρίμπτων κεφαλήν· φαίης κέ μιν ἱμείροντα κῦσσαι καὶ στέρνοισι περιπτύξαι μενεαίνειν ἠΐθεον· τοίῃ γὰρ ὀπάονι νήχετο ῥιπῇ. [490] ἀλλ᾿ ὅτε καὶ πελάσειε παρ᾿ ᾐόσιν, αὐτίκα κοῦρος ἁψάμενος λοφιῆς διερῶν ἐπεβήσατο νώτων· αὐτὰρ ὅ γ᾿ ἀσπασίως παιδὸς δέμας ἔμφρονι θυμῷ δεξάμενος φοίτασκεν, ὅπῃ νόος ἠϊθέοιο ἤλαεν, εἴτ᾿ ἄρα πόντον ἐπ᾿ εὐρέα τῆλε κελεύοι [495] στέλλεσθ᾿, εἴθ᾿ αὔτως λιμένος διὰ χῶρον ἀμείβειν, ἢ χέρσῳ πελάειν, ὁ δ᾿ ἐπείθετο πᾶσαν ἐφετμήν. οὔτε τις ἡνιόχῳ πῶλος τόσον ἐν γενύεσσι μαλθακὸς εὐγνάμπτοισιν ἐφέσπεται ὧδε χαλινοῖς, οὔτε τις ἀγρευτῆρι κύων ἐθὰς ὀτρύνοντι [500] τόσσον ὑπεικαθέων ἐπιπείθεται, ᾗ κεν ἄγῃσιν, οὔτ᾿ ἔτι κεκλομένοιο τόσον θεράποντες ἄνακτος πειθόμενοι ῥέζουσιν ἑκούσιον ἔργον ἑκόντες, ὅσσον ὑπ᾿ ἠϊθέῳ δελφὶς φίλος ὀτρύνοντι πείθετ᾿ ἄνευ ζεύγλης τε βιαζομένων τε χαλινῶν. [505] οὐ μέν μιν μοῦνον φορέειν θέλεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄλλῳ πείθετο, τῷ μιν ἄνωγεν ἄναξ ἑός, ἀν δ᾿ ἐκόμιζε νώτοις, οὔτινα μόχθον ἀναινόμενος φιλότητι. τοίη μὲν ζωῷ φιλίη πέλεν· ἀλλ᾿ ὅτε παῖδα πότμος ἕλε, πρῶτον μὲν ὀδυρομένῳ ἀτάλαντος [510] δελφὶς ἠϊόνεσσιν ἐπέδραμεν, ἥλικα κοῦρον μαστεύων· φαίης κεν ἐτήτυμον ὄσσαν ἀκούειν μυρομένου· τοῖόν μιν ἀμήχανον ἄμπεχε πένθος· οὐδ᾿ ἔτι κικλήσκουσιν ἐπείθετο πολλάκις ἀστοῖς νησαίοις, οὐ βρῶσιν ὀρεγνυμένην ἐθέλεσκε [515] δέχνυσθαι, μάλα δ᾿ αἶψα καὶ ἐξ ἁλὸς ἔπλετ᾿ ἄϊστος κείνης, οὐδέ τις αὐτὸν ἐπεφράσατ᾿, οὐδ᾿ ἔτι χῶρον ἵκετο· τὸν μέν που παιδὸς πόθος οἰχομένοιο ἔσβεσε, σὺν δὲ θανόντι θανεῖν ἔσπευσεν ἑταίρῳ. |
Aulus Gellius, Attic Nights VI 8
Noctes Atticae (Attic Nights), so-called from having been begun during the long nights of a winter spent in Attica, is a commonplace book in which the otherwise unknown Roman author Aulus Gellius (born AD 125/8) jotted down miscellaneous information of unusual interest he had read or heard. It was published in or soon after 177. Gellius was openly sceptical of much of what he read as “unbelievable”, yet accepted the historical truth of the account he quotes here of the much earlier Apion, which is the most remarkable of all the dolphin stories in being an eye-witness of one unambiguously in (erotic) love with a boy.
The translation is by J. C. Rolfe for the Loeb Classical Library volume 200, published by the Harvard University Press in 1927.
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An incredible story about a dolphin which loved a boy. That dolphins are affectionate and amorous is shown, not only by ancient history, but also by tales of recent date. For in the sea of Puteoli, during the reign of Augustus Caesar, as Apion[23] has written, and some centuries before at Naupaktos, as Theophrastos tells us, dolphins are positively known to have been ardently in love. And they did not love those of their own kind, but had an extraordinary passion, like that of human beings, for boys of handsome figure, whom they chanced to have seen in boats or in the shoal waters near the shore. I have appended the words of that learned man Apion, from the fifth book of his Egyptian History, in which he tells of an amorous dolphin and a boy who did not reject its advances, of their intimacy and play with each other, the dolphin carrying the boy and the boy bestriding the fish; and Apion declares that of all this he himself and many others were eye-witnesses. “Now I myself,” he writes, “near Dikaiarchia[24] saw a dolphin that fell in love with a boy called Hyakinthos.[25] For the fish with passionate eagerness came at his call, and drawing in his fins, to avoid wounding the delicate skin of the object of his affection, carried him as if mounted upon a horse for a distance of two hundred stadia. Rome and all Italy turned out to see a fish that was under the sway of Aphrodite.” To this he adds a detail that is no less wonderful. “Afterwards,” he says, “that same boy who was beloved by the dolphin[26] fell sick and died. But the lover, when he had often come to the familiar shore, and the boy, who used to await his coming at the edge of the shoal water, was nowhere to be seen, pined away from longing[27] and died. He was found lying on the shore by those who knew the story and was buried in the same tomb with his favourite.” |
[i] Res ultra fidem tradita super amatore delphino et puero amato. Delphinos venerios esse et amasios non modo historiae veteres, sed recentes quoque memoriae declarant. [ii] Nam et sub Caesare Augusto in Puteolano mari, ut Apion scriptum reliquit, et aliquot saeculis ante apud Naupactum, ut Theophrastus tradidit, amatores flagrantissimi delphinorum cogniti compertique sunt. [iii] Neque hi amaverunt quod sunt ipsi genus, sed pueros forma liberali in naviculis forte aut in vadis litorum conspectos miris et humanis modis arserunt. [iv]Verba subscripsi Ἀπίωνος, eruditi viri, ex Aegyptiacorum libro quinto, quibus delphini amantis et pueri non abhorrentis consuetudines, lusus, gestationes, aurigationes refert eaque omnia sese ipsum multosque alios vidisse dicit: [v] Αὐτὸς δ᾿ αὖ εἶδον περὶ Δικαιαρχίας παιδός—Ὑάκινθος ἐκαλεῖτο—πόθοις ἐπτοημένον δελφῖνα. προσσαίνει τὴν φωνὴν αὐτοῦ τὴν ψυχὴν πτερούμενος ἐντὸς τάς τε ἀκάνθας ὑποστέλλων, μή τι τοῦ ποθουμένου χρωτὸς ἀμύξῃ φειδόμενος, ἱππηδόν τε περιβεβηκότα μέχρι διακοσίων ἀνῆγε σταδίων. ἐξεχεῖτο ἡ Ῥώμη καὶ πᾶσα Ἰταλία τῆς Ἀφροδίτης ξυνορῶντες ἡνιοχούμενον ἰχθύν. [vi] Ad hoc adicit rem non minus mirandam. “Postea,” inquit, “idem ille puer δελφινερώαενος morbo adfectus obit suum diem. [vii] At ille amans, ubi saepe ad litus solitum adnavit et puer, qui in primo vado adventum eius opperiri consueverat, nusquam fuit, desiderio tabuit exanimatusque est et in litore iacens inventus ab his qui rem cognoverant, in sui pueri sepulcro humatus est.” |
Athenaios, The Learned Banqueters 606b-d
The Greek rhetorician Athenaios Ἀθήναιος of Naukratis in Egypt wrote his Deipnosophistai Δειπνοσοφισταί (The Learned Banqueters) around the late 2nd century AD. Presented as an account of conversations at a series of banquets, it is an immense repository of varied information about antiquity that would otherwise be lost. The translation is by Charles Burton Gulick for the Loeb Classical Library, published by William Heinemann Ltd. in London in 1937.
| What is more, dumb animals have fallen in love with human beings: […] There is a story in Iasos that a dolphin fell in love with a boy, as Douris records in his ninth book.[28] He is talking about Alexander, and his account follows: “He summoned also the boy of Iasos. For near this city lived a boy named Dionysios who, in company with the other boys of the wrestling-school[29], went to the seashore and began to dive in. A dolphin came up to him out of the sea, and taking him on his back swam off with him a very great distance, setting him down again safely on the shore.” | [b] Καὶ ἄλογα δὲ ζῷα ἀνθρώπων ἠράσθη. […c] δελφῖνα δ᾿ ἐν Ἰασῷ παιδὸς ἐρασθῆναι λόγος, ὡς ἱστορεῖ Δοῦρις ἐν dτῇ ἐνάτῃ. [d] ὁ δὲ λόγος ἐστὶν αὐτῷ περὶ Ἀλεξάνδρου καὶ λέγει οὕτως· μετεπέμψατο δὲ καὶ τὸν ἐκ τῆς Ἰασοῦ παῖδα· περὶ γὰρ τὴν πόλιν ταύτην Διονύσιός τις ἦν παῖς, ὃς μετὰ τῶν ἄλλων ἐκ παλαίστρας παραγινόμενος ἐπὶ τὴν θάλατταν ἐκολύμβα. δελφὶς δὲ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐκ τοῦ πελάγους ἀπήντα καὶ ἀναλαμβάνων ἐπὶ τὰ νῶτα ἔφερεν ἐπὶ πλεῖστον νηχόμενος καὶ πάλιν ἀποκαθίστα εἰς τὴν γῆν. |
Aelian, On the Nature of Animals
Claudius Aelianus (ca. 175-235), a Roman writer in Greek, wrote his Περὶ ζῴων ἰδιότητος On the Nature of Animals, a collection of facts and beliefs about the behaviour of animals in seventeen books, in the early 3rd entury AD. In this work he introduced himself as a “scholar” and “ardent lover of truth” who would not tell “falsehoods.”
The translation is by A. F. Scholfield for the Loeb Classical Library volume 446, published by the Harvard University Press, 1958.
Note as of critical importance that in the following account Aelian speaks of reciprocal eros (“ἐς ἔρωτα ἀλλήλων”) between the dolphin and the boy, and calls the boy the dolphin’s “paidika” (a common expression for a boy in a love affair with a man).
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The Dolphin’s love of music and its affectionate nature are a constant theme, the former with the people of Corinth (with whom the Lesbians concur), the latter with the inhabitants of Ios. The Lesbians tell the story of Arion of Methymna; what happened in Ios with the beautiful boy and his swimming[30] and the Dolphin is told by the inhabitants of Ios. A certain Byzantine, Leonidas by name, declares that while sailing past Aiolis he saw with his own eyes at the town called Poroselene[31] a tame Dolphin which lived in the harbour there and behaved towards the inhabitants as though they were personal friends. And further he declares that an aged couple fed this foster-child, offering it the most alluring baits. What is more, the old couple had a son who was brought up along with the Dolphin, and the pair cared for the Dolphin and their own son, and somehow by dint of being brought up together the man-child and the fish gradually came without knowing it to love one another, and, as the oft-repeated tag has it, ‘a super-reverent counter-love[32] was cultivated’ by the aforesaid. So then the Dolphin came to love Poroselene as his native country and grew as fond of the harbour as of his own home, and what is more, he repaid those who had cared for him what they had spent on feeding him. And this was how he did it. When fully grown he had no need of being fed from the hand, but would now swim further out, and as he ranged abroad in his search for some quarry from the sea, would keep some to feed himself, and the rest he would bring to his ‘relations.’ And they were aware of this and were even glad to wait for the tribute which he brought. This then was one gain; another was as follows. As to the boy so to the Dolphin his foster-parents gave a name, and the boy with the courage born of their common upbringing would stand upon some spot jutting into the sea and call the name, and as he called would use soothing words. Whereat the Dolphin, whether he was racing with some oared ship, or plunging and leaping in scorn of all other fish that roamed in shoals about the spot, or was hunting under stress of hunger, would rise to the surface with all speed, like a ship that raises a great wave as it drives onward, and drawing near to his loved one would frolic and gambol at his side; at one moment would swim close by the boy, at another would seem to challenge him and even induce his favourite to race with him. And what was even more astounding, he would at times even decline the winner’s place and actually swim second, as though presumably he was glad to be defeated. These happenings were noised abroad, and those who sailed thither reckoned them among the excellent sights which the city had to show; and to the old people and to the boy they were a source of revenue. |
Τὴν τῶν δελφίνων φιλομουσίαν καὶ τὸ τῶν αὐτῶν ἐρωτικόν, τὸ μὲν ᾄδουσι Κορίνθιοι, καὶ ὁμολογοῦσιν αὐτοῖς Λέσβιοι, τὸ δὲ Ἰῆται· τὰ μὲν Ἀρίονος τοῦ Μηθυμναίου ἐκεῖνοι, τά γε μὴν ἐν τῇ Ἴῳ ὑπὲρ τοῦ παιδὸς τοῦ καλοῦ καὶ τῆς νήξεως αὐτοῦ καὶ τοῦ δελφῖνος οἱ ἕτεροι. λέγει δὲ καὶ Βυζάντιος ἀνήρ, Λεωνίδης ὄνομα, ἰδεῖν αὐτὸς παρὰ τὴν Αἰολίδα πλέων ἐν τῇ καλουμένῃ Ποροσελήνῃ πόλει δελφῖνα ἠθάδα καὶ ἐν λιμένι τῷ ἐκείνων οἰκοῦντα καὶ ὥσπερ οὖν ἰδιοξένοις χρώμενον τοῖς ἐκεῖθι. καὶ ἐπί γε τούτῳ ὁ αὐτὸς λέγει πρεσβῦτίν τινα καὶ γέροντα δὲ συνοικοῦντα αὐτῇ ἐκθρέψαι τόνδε τὸν τρόφιμον δελέατά οἱ προτείνοντας καὶ μάλα γε ἐφολκά. καὶ μέντοι καὶ ὁμότροφός οἱ ἦν ὁ τῶν πρεσβυτῶν υἱός, καὶ ἐτιθηνοῦντο ἄμφω τὸν δελφῖνα καὶ τὸν παῖδα τὸν σφέτερον, καί πως ἐκ τῆς συντροφίας ἐλαθέτην ἐς ἔρωτα ἀλλήλων ὑπελθόντε ὅ τε ἄνθρωπος καὶ τὸ ζῷον, καί, τοῦτο δὴ τὸ ᾀδόμενον, ὑπέρσεμνος ἀντέρως ἐτιμᾶτο ἐν τοῖς προειρημένοις. ὁ τοίνυν δελφὶς ὡς μὲν πατρίδα ἐφίλει τὴν Ποροσελήνην, ὡς δὲ ἴδιον οἶκον ἠγάπα τὸν λιμένα, καὶ δὴ καὶ τὰ τροφεῖα τοῖς θρεψαμένοις ἀπεδίδου. καὶ τοῦτων γε ἐκεῖνος ἦν ὁ τρόπος. τέλειος ὢν τῆς ἀπὸ χειρὸς τροφῆς ἐδεῖτο ἥκιστα, ἤδη γε μὴν καὶ περαιτέρω προνέων καὶ περινηχόμενος καὶ σκοπῶν ἄγρας ἐναλίους τὰ μὲν ἑαυτῷ δεῖπνον εἶχε, τὰ δὲ τοῖς οἰκείοις ἀπέφερεν· οἱ δὲ ᾔδεσαν τοῦτο καὶ μέντοι καὶ ἀνέμενον τὸν ἐξ αὐτοῦ φόρον ἀσμένως. καὶ μία μὲν ἦν ἥδε ἡ πρόσοδος, ἐκείνη δὲ ἄλλη. ὄνομα τῷ δελφῖνι ὡς τῷ παιδὶ οἱ θρεψάμενοι ἔθεντο· καὶ ὁ παῖς τῇ συντροφίᾳ θαρρῶν, τοῦτο αὐτὸν ἐπί τινος προβλῆτος στὰς τόπου ἐκάλει, καὶ ἅμα τῇ κλήσει καὶ ἐκολάκευεν· ὁ δέ, εἴτε πρὸς εἰρεσίαν ἡμιλλᾶτό τινα, εἴτ᾿ ἐκυβίστα τῶν ἄλλων ὅσοι περὶ τὸν χῶρον ἐπλανῶντο ἀγελαῖοι κατασκιρτῶν, εἴτ᾿ ἐθήρα ἐπειγούσης τῆς γαστρὸς αὐτόν, ἐπανῄει καὶ μάλα γε ὤκιστα δίκην ἐλαυνομένης νεὼς πολλῷ τῷ ῥοθίῳ, καὶ πλησίον τῶν παιδικῶν γενόμενος συμπαίστης τε ἦν καὶ συνεσκίρτα, καὶ πῇ μὲν τῷ παιδὶ παρενήχετο, πῇ δὲ ὁ δελφὶς οἷα προκαλούμενος εἶτα μέντοι ἐς τὴν ἅμιλλαν τὴν πρὸς αὑτὸν τὰ παιδικὰ ὑπῆγε. καὶ τὸ ἔτι θαῦμα, ἀπέστη καὶ τῆς πρώτης ποτὲ καὶ δὴ καὶ ὑπενήξατο αὐτῷ, οἷα νικώμενος ἡδέως δήπου. ταῦτα τοίνυν ἐκεκήρυκτο, καὶ τοῖς πλέουσιν ὅραμα ἐδόκει σὺν καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις ὅσα ἡ πόλις ἀγαθὰ εἶχε, καὶ τοῖς πρεσβύταις καὶ τῷ μειρακίῳ πρόσοδος ἦν. |
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The story of a Dolphin’s love for a beautiful boy at Iasos[33] has long been celebrated, and I am determined not to leave it unrecorded; it shall accordingly be told. The gymnasium at Iassos is situated close to the sea, and after their running and their wrestling the youths in accordance with an ancient custom go down there and wash themselves. Now while they were swimming about, a Dolphin fell passionately in love with a boy of remarkable beauty. At first when it approached, it frightened the boy and completely scared him; later on however, through constant meeting, it even led the boy to conceive a warm friendship and kindly feelings towards it. For instance, they began to sport with one another; and sometimes they would compete, swimming side by side in rivalry, sometimes the boy would mount, like a rider on a horse, and be carried proudly along on the back of his lover. And to the people of Iassus and to strangers the event seemed marvellous. For the Dolphin would go a long way out to sea with its darling[34] on its back and as far as it pleased its rider; then it would turn and bring him close to the beach, and they would part company and return, the Dolphin to the open sea, the boy to his home. And the Dolphin used to appear at the hour when the gymnasium was dismissed, and the boy was delighted to find his friend expecting him and to play together. And besides his natural beauty, this too made him the admired of all, namely that not only men but even dumb animals thought him a boy of surpassing loveliness. |
Ἔρωτα δελφῖνος ἐν Ἰασῷ ἐς μειράκιον καλὸν πάλαι ᾀδόμενον ἄμοιρον μνήμης τῆς ἐξ ἐμοῦ ἀπολιπεῖν οὔ μοι δοκεῖ, καὶ διὰ ταῦτα εἰρήσεται. τὸ γυμνάσιον τὸ τῶν Ἰασέων ἐπίκειται τῇ θαλάττῃ, καὶ οἵ γε ἔφηβοι μετὰ τοὺς δρόμους καὶ τὰς κονίστρας κατιόντες ἐνταῦθα ἀπολοῦνται κατά τι ἔθος ἀρχαῖον. διανηχομένων οὖν αὐτῶν ἑνὸς τοῦ τὴν ὥραν ἐκπρεπεστάτου ἐρᾷ δελφὶς ἔρωτα δριμύτατον. καὶ τὰ μὲν πρῶτα πλησίον γενόμενος ἐφόβησέ τε καὶ ἐξέπληξεν αὐτόν, εἶτα μέντοι τῇ συνηθείᾳ φιλίαν τινὰ καὶ εὔνοιαν ἐς ἑαυτὸν ἐκ τοῦ παιδὸς ἰσχυρὰν ἐπηγάγετο. ἀθύρειν γοῦν μετ᾿ ἀλλήλων ὑπήρξαντο, καὶ πῇ μὲν ἡμιλλάσθην παρανηχομένω τε καὶ ἐρίζοντε, πῇ δὲ ὁ παῖς ἀναβαίνων ὡς πῶλον ἱππότης, ὑπονηχομένου τοῦ ἐραστοῦ γαῦρος ἐφέρετο. καὶ ἦν τοῖς Ἰασεῦσι καὶ τοῖς ξένοις τὸ πραττόμενον ἀξιόζηλον. προῄει μὲν γὰρ τὰ παιδικὰ ὁ δελφὶς φέρων ἐπὶ πλεῖστον τῆς θαλάττης καὶ ἐς ὅσον τῷ παιδὶ εἶχεν ὀχουμένῳ καλῶς· εἶτα ὑπέστρεφεν καὶ ἦγε τοῦ αἰγιαλοῦ πλησίον, καὶ ἀλλήλων διαλυόμενοι ὁ μὲν ἐς τὸ πέλαγος, ὁ δὲ ἐς τὰ οἰκεῖα ἐπανῄεσαν. ἀπήντα δὲ ὁ δελφὶς ἐς τὸν καιρὸν τῆς τῶν γυμνασίων ἀφέσεως, ὅ τε παῖς ἥδετο τῇ προσδοκίᾳ τῇ τοῦ φίλου καὶ τῇ σὺν αὐτῷ παιδιᾷ, καὶ πρὸς τῷ κάλλει τῷ φυσικῷ περίβλεπτος ἦν, οἷα δήπου μὴ μόνον τοῖς ἀνθρώποις, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς ἀλόγοις δοκῶν ὡραιότατος. |
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In a little while however even this requited love[35] was destroyed by Envy.[36] Thus, it happened that the boy exercised himself too vigorously, and in an exhausted state threw himself belly downwards on to his mount, and as the spike on the Dolphin’s dorsal fin chanced to be erect it pierced the beautiful boy’s navel.[37] Whereupon certain veins were severed; there followed a gush of blood; and presently the boy died. The Dolphin perceiving this from the weight—for the boy lay heavier than usual, as he could not lighten himself by breathing—and seeing the surface of the water crimson with blood, realised what had happened and could not bear to survive its darling. And so with all the gathered force of a ship dashing through the waves it made its way to the beach and deliberately cast itself upon the shore, bringing the dead body with it. And there they both lay, the boy already dead, the Dolphin breathing its last. (But Laios,[38] my good Euripides, did not act so in the case of Chrysippos, although, as you yourself and the common report tell me, he was the first among the Greeks to inaugurate the love of boys.) And the people of Iasos to requite the ardent friendship between the pair built one common tomb for the beautiful youth and the amorous Dolphin, with a monument at the head. It was a handsome boy riding upon a Dolphin. And the inhabitants struck coins of silver and of bronze and stamped them with a device showing the fate of the pair, and they commemorated them by way of homage to the operation of the god[39] who was so powerful. And I learn that at Alexandria also, in the reign of Ptolemy II,[40] a Dolphin was similarly enamoured; at Puteoli also, in Italy. So, had these facts been known to Herodotos, I think they would have surprised him no less than what happened to Arion of Methymna.[41] |
οὐ μέντοι μετὰ μακρὸν καὶ οὗτος ὁ ἀντέρως ἡττήθη τοῦ φθόνου. ἔτυχε γοῦν ὁ παῖς πλείω γυμνασάμενος, καὶ καμὼν ἑαυτὸν τῷ ὀχοῦντι κατὰ τὴν γαστέρα ἐπιβάλλει, καί πως ἔτυχεν ἡ τοῦ ζῴου ἄκανθα ἡ κατὰ τοῦ νώτου ὀρθὴ οὖσα, καὶ τῷ ὡραίῳ τὸν ὀμφαλὸν κεντεῖ. εἶτά τινες φλέβες ὑπορρήγνυνται, καὶ αἵματος ἔπειτα ῥοὴ πολλή, καὶ ὁ παῖς ἐνταῦθα ἀποθνήσκει. ὅπερ οὖν ὁ δελφὶς συναισθόμενος ἐκ τοῦ βάρους (ἐπέκειτο γὰρ οὐ συνήθως κοῦφος, ἅτε μὴ τῷ πνεύματι ἑαυτὸν ἐλαφρίζων) καὶ θεασάμενος πορφυροῦν ἐκ τοῦ αἵματος τὸ πέλαγος, τὸ πραχθὲν συνῆκεν καὶ ἐπιβιῶναι τοῖς παιδικοῖς οὐκ ἐτόλμησε. πολλῇ τοίνυν τῇ ῥύμῃ χρησάμενος, ὥσπερ οὖν ῥόθιον σκάφος, εἶτα ἑαυτὸν ἐς τοὺ αἰγιαλοὺς ἑκὼν ἐξέβρασε, καὶ τὸν νεκρὸν συνεξήνεγκε, καὶ ἔκειντο ἄμφω ὁ μὲν τεθνεώς, ὁ δὲ ψυχορραγῶν. Λάιος δὲ ἐπὶ Χρυσίππῳ, ὦ καλὲ Εὐριπίδη, τοῦτο οὐκ ἔδρασε, καίτοι τοῦ τῶν ἀρρένων ἔρωτος, ὡς λέγεις αὐτὸς καὶ ἡ φήμη διδάσκει, Ἑλλήνων πρώτιστος ἄρξας. ἀμειβόμενοι δὲ Ἰασεῖς τὴν φιλίαν ἐκείνων τὴν ἰσχυράν, ἀπέφηναν τάφον κοινὸν ὡραίου μειρακίου καὶ δελφῖνος ἐρωτικοῦ, καὶ στήλην ἐπέστησαν. καλὸς παῖς ἱππεύων ἐπὶ δελφῖνος ἦν. καὶ νόμισμα δὲ ἀργύρου καὶ χαλκοῦ εἰργάσαντο, καὶ ἐνέθλασαν σημεῖον τὸ ἀμφοῖν πάθος, καὶ μνήμῃ παρέδοσαν ἔργον τοῦ τοσούτου θεοῦ τιμῶντες οἱ ἐκεῖθι. πυνθάνομαι δὲ καὶ ἐν τῇ Ἀλεξάνδρου πόλει κατὰ τὸν Πτολεμαῖον τὸν δεύτερον ἐρασθῆναι δελφῖνα ἔρωτα παραπλήσιον καὶ ἐν Δικαιαρχίᾳ τῆς Ἰταλίας. ἅπερ οὖν εἰ Ἡρόδοτος ἔγνω, οὐκ ἂν ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν ἐθαύμασε τῶν ἐπ᾿ Ἀρίονι τῷ Μηθυμναίῳ ἧττον αὐτά. |
[1] For everything in this introduction concerning the statistical occurrence of human/animal love affairs, as well as valuable insights, see the excellent article by historian Craig A. Williams, “When A Dolphin Loves A Boy: Some Greco-Roman and Native American Love Stories” in Classical Antiquity, Vol. 32, No. 1 (April 2013), pp. 200-242. Williams, like the present article, was only concerned with stories which “human love which do not explicitly use the language of eros in Greek and the imagery of Venus, flames, or the like in Latin” (his footnote 9). [Website footnote]
If one excludes the repetition of three different animals falling in love with the same woman, then dolphin/boy sories account for ten out of twenty-nine animal/human love stories. [Website footnote]
[2] Pliny the elder, Natural History IX 24 and Athenaios, The Learned Banqueters 606d.
Anyone, unaware perhaps of the hypersexual character of the dolphin, who doubts that the friendliness of dolphins towards humans can take on an erotic dimension should read, for example, the story of Alan Cooper, whose trial for "sexually abusing" a dolphin in England in 1990 attracted national headlines. The dolphin habitually hooked Cooper's arm with his cock when they swam together, leading to the misunderstanding that Cooper was wanking him, of which he was acquitted. See the article " ‘He swam, hooking my arm with his penis’: inside the dolphin sex scandal that outraged a nation" in the Guardian, amongst many other news reports.
A modern example involving a young woman, also in England, is that of Margaret Howe Lovat in the mid-1960s who, after an adloescent male dolphin had been habitally making obvious sexual advances on her, in her own words, "decided to satisfy the sexual urges of the dolphin manually," but, living in a more civilised era, was not accused of molestation. [Website footnote]
[3] Aristotle, History of Animals VIII 48 and Pliny, Natural History IX 21 [Website footnote].
[4] The ancients were aware themselves of the distinction between recently witnessed events and the remote mythological past when animals and trees could talk, as Plato put it in Phaidros 1.prol.5-7. [Website footnote]
[5] The eponymous founder of Taras (Latin: Tarentum; Italian: Taranto), a Greek city in Apulia, was a son of the sea god Poseidon rescued from a shipwreck by a dolphin and taken by him to the site of the future city. It is not known how the stories Aristotle had heard about dolphins loving boys there may have been related to this foundation story. [Website footnote].
[6] Caria was the region of south-western Asia Minor in which lay the city of Iasos, so presumably Aristotle is alluding to the stories set there which were recounted most thoroughly by Pliny the elder below. [Website footnote]
[7] Iasos was a Greek city on the coast of Caria.
[8] The translator obscures the meaning by using “true love” for eros, the Greek word actually used and here restored. [Website footnote]
[9] 30 or 27 BC to AD 14. The reference to the story having been written about by Maecenas means it must have happened before the latter died in 8 BC. It also means Maecenas was writing about something then very recent. Since Gellius (in the extract below) quotes Apion, born 30/20 BC and educated in his homeland of Egypt, as saying he had seen this dolphin and boy himself, it cannot have happened more than a few years before 8 BC. [Website footnote]
[10] The major port of Pozzuoli (Latin: Puteoli) and Baiae lay on the Gulf of Pozzuoli in Campania. The Lucrine Lake lay between them and close to the sea. [Website footnote]
[11] Dolphin’s fins are not retractable, though, interestingly, their cocks are hidden in a slit when not erect (B. Bagemihl, Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity. NewYork, 1999, pp. 339-359). [Website footnote]
[12] L. Tampius Flavianus was governor of this province, called Africa Proconsularis in full, probably in the early 70s, which fits with the story having been “recent” for Pliny. Pliny the younger, writing about thirty years later and quoted below, thought it was the governor’s legate who gave the order. [Website footnote]
[13] As there is no mention of either a boy or love in Pliny the elder’s account of the dolphin of Hippo Diarrhytus, it would not be included here were it not for Oppian’s elaboration of the story, quoted below, in which the dolphin’s passionate eros for a boy lies at its heart. [Website footnote]
[14] This makes it possible to determine the date of the story within a few years. Alexander captured Babylon in 331 BC and died there in 323 BC. [Website footnote]
[15] Theophrastos (ca. 371-ca. 287 BC) was a Lesbian philosopher and naturalist, most of whose works are lost. Naupaktos was a harbour town in Aitolia on the nothern coast of the Gulf of Corinth. [Website footnote]
[16] The association of Tarento (Greek: Taras; Latin: Tarentum) in Apulia with dolphin/boy love stories has already been mentioned by Aristotle. It is not known how these stories may have been related to the eponymous founder of Taras, who was a son of the sea god Poseidon rescued from a shipwreck by a dolphin and taken by him to the site of the future city. [Website footnote]
[17] Caninius Rufus, a landowner at Pliny’s hometown of Comum in Transpadane Gaul, was one of his literary friends. [Website footnote]
[18] The Roman colony of Hippo Diarrhytus on the north coast of Africa (and in the province of Africa Proconsularis). [Website footnote]
[19] According to the short version of the story given by Pliny the elder, Natural History IX 26, quoted above, it was the governor himself, L. Tampius Flavianus (probably ruling Africa Proconsularis in the early 70s), rather than his legate, who gave the order. The younger Pliny seems unaware his uncle had written about the story a generation earlier and only a few years after it happened. [Website footnote]
[20] As a story sufficiently well-known for “one” to have heard it “by hearsay” and concerning a Libyan boy, it is assumed to be that described in detail above (though without implications of erotic love) by Pliny the younger, who desribes it as taking place in the city of Hippo Diarrhytus in Libya. [Website footnote]
[21] Pliny the elder, Natural History IX 24 and Aelian, On the Nature of Animals XI 12 also describe dolphins’ love of music. [Website footnote]
[22] Aiolis was a region of coastal Asia Minor that included islands such as Porosolene, the scene of the story told by Aelian, On the Nature of Animals II 6 below. In addition, the strong similarity of that story makes it obvious it is another version of the same one. [Website footnote]
[23] Apion Ἀπίων (ca. 25 BC – ca. AD 47) was a Hellenised Egyptian writer who settled in Rome and whose works, all lost, were highly valued in antiquity. [Website footnote]
[24] As it is Apion’s Greek that is being quoted, the city is called Dikaiarchia, the early Greek name for the town near Naples Gellius has just referred to as Puteoli (Italian: Pozzuoli).
This is clearly the story told by Pliny the elder above, but Pliny did not make its erotic character clear, nor did he witness it himself. As explained in footnote 8 above, it must have haapened in 8 BC or no more than a few years earlier. [Website footnote]
[25] It is surely too coincidental to be true that the boy can really have shared the rare name of the boy famous for having been loved by the god Apollo and turned by him into a flower upon his accidental death (for which story see The Metamorphosis of Hyakinthos). Presumably it was the nickname given to the boy by those who saw how the dolphin loved him. [Website footnote]
[26] Apion’s language here is unambiguously that of erotic desire. Hyakinthos was the δελφινερώαενος, the dolphin’s eromenos, a word perhaps coined by Apion or perhaps the expression agreed on by the eyewitnesses as a whole. [Website footnote]
[27] The Latin word used, desiderio, implies erotic longing. [Website footnote]
[28] Douris of Samos wrote a lost history of Greece and especially Macedon 371-281 BC, which was mostly his own lifetime. Details given in Pliny the elder’s version quoted above show the boy was around between 331 and 323 BC, so Douris was writing about a contemporary story.. [Website footnote]
[29] The point here that a Greek reader of Douris would have understood at once is that males were naked in the palaistra (here translated as “wrestling-school”) and boys would almost certainly have gone on to the beach still naked, so Douris was underlining that the dolphin fell in love with Dionysios seeing him in that state. [Website footnote]
[30] Two manuscripts of Aelian (A and P according to Craig A. Williams, “When A Dolphin Loves A Boy: Some Greco-Roman and Native American Love Stories” in Classical Antiquity, Vol. 32, No. 1 (April 2013), p. 212, footnote 22) read μίξεως (copulation) rather than νήξεως (swimming). so for some scribes and readers down the ages, the dolphin’s love was not only reciprocated but consummated!
[31] Poroselene, island and town, the largest of the Hecatonnesi lying between Lesbos and Asia Minor [Translator’s footnote].
[32] The Greek word used for “counter-love” is ἀντέρως anteros, a critically important word for what has often been the boy’s feelings in a love affair with a man. Anteros (counter-love) was a brother of Eros in Greek mythology. The feelings are described by Plato in his Phaidros 255 as the boy’s deeply emotional response to finding himself loved. The sexual dimension, too indelicate to spell out for a Greek, would be the boy’s erotic excitement at discovering his power to arouse the man. [Website footnote]
[33] As already noted for Plutarch’s short version of the same story above, Iasos was a Greek city on the coast of Caria. Aelian briefly alludes to this dolphin/boy love affair again, VIII 10, but without adding anything, so there is no point in quoting it on this webpage. [Website footnote]
[34] The Greek word used, παιδικὰ, is usually reserved for the boy in a pederastic love affair. [Website footnote]
[35] The translator’s hopelessly weak and vague “mutual affection” has been replaced by “requited love”. The Greek word used for the boy’s feelings is ἀντέρως anteros, a critically important word for what has often been the boy’s feelings in a love affair with a man. Anteros (counter-love) was a brother of Eros in Greek mythology. The feelings are described by Plato in his Phaidros 255 as the boy’s deeply emotional response to finding himself loved. The sexual dimension, too indelicate to spell out for a Greek, would be the boy’s erotic excitement at discovering his power to arouse the man. [Website footnote]
[36] I.e. divine envy; cf. Soph. Ph. 776 [Translator’s footnote].
[37] Note the phallic imagery of the boy being pierced by his dolphin/lover’s erect fin. [Website footnote]
[38] Laios was a mythological King of Thebes of the early 13th century BC. The death of Chrysippos, the boy whom he abducted after falling in love with him, was the subject of a lost play of that name by the Athenian tragedian Euripides. In sharp contrast to the dolphin of this story, once he had had his way with him, Laios abandoned Chrysippos, who then killed himself [Website footnote].
[39] The God of Love [Translator’s footnote].
[40] Ptolemy II reigned over Egypt from 284 to 246 BC. [Website footnote].
[41] Herodotos told the story of how the cithara-player Arion was saved from drowning by a dolphin (but not for reasons of love) in his The Histories I 23-4. [Website footnote].
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