Content area
Full Text
Diviner than the Dolphin is nothing yet created.
- Oppian of Silicia
Greek poet, 200 A.D.
No nonhuman animal has attained the mythological status of the dolphin. Much of the fascination comes from our recognition of the dolphin's deep intelligence and lively curiosity; in fact, modem science confirms ancient intuitions that dolphins and other cetaceans (aquatic, mainly marine mammals like whales) possess large and highly elaborated brains, sophisticated thought, demonstrable self-awareness, complex societies and multilayered cultures. Also, dolphins live in a mostly inaccessible and therefore mysterious environment, adding to their allure. And the dolphin "smile" - not a grin but merely the physical configuration of the jaw - leads some mistakenly to pronounce dolphins as interminably happy and benign.
These attributes fuel several prominent themes in dolphin mythology, all bound by the common mystical belief that dolphins hold an elevated position above all other animals and that dolphins share an inherent empathie bond with humans.
The dolphin as hero
Kinship and rescue scenarios, typically involving human redemption and literal rebirth, recur in dolphin legends from Australia to Papua New Guinea to Laos to the Greco-Roman empires to South America, to name just a few sources. For example, in ancient Greece, Taras, son of the sea god Poseidon, was said to be rescued from a shipwreck by a dolphin sent by his father, and historical coinage depicts him riding one. In modern times, stories abound about dolphins protecting humans from sharks or guiding ships across treacherous waters. One famous example over the past several years is JoJo, a wild Atlantic bottlenose dolphin from the Turks and Caicos Islands in the British West Indies, whom inhabitant Dean Bernal claims safeguards him from sharks. Bernal has turned his bond with JoJo into a full-time job.
The dolphin as enlightenment
Similarly, some people believe that dolphins are spiritually and morally superior to humans. The simplistic notion of dolphins as entirely peaceful, altruistic and moral in contrast to mainly violent, self-absorbed, immoral humans persists among many Western metaphysical movements. Dolphins double as the ultimate New Age icon, omnipresent in websites, books, music CDs and posters, representing unconditional love and, just as eons ago, a path toward transformation, and an entrance into utopia.
Indeed, in the most extreme New Age postulations,...