The Dionysos Cup by Exekias, c. 540 B.C.
Staatliche Antikensammlungen, Munich. Photograph by Dr. Max Hirmer.
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 ofmuch scientific interest and investigation which have led toflattering pronouncements about its remarkable intelligence,amiability, and astonishing friendliness towards man. It was inconsequence of such activities that a symposium was held at theWilliam Andrews Clark Memorial Library to consider the backgroundto contemporary studies of the dolphin. The presentationsof Dr. Ashley Montagu and Dr. John C. Lilly were receivedso favorably that it was decided to make them morewidely available in the present form.
As will be readily apparent to any reader, Dr. Montagu hasdemonstrated conclusively that had the writings of the ancientsbeen heeded we should long since have paid proper respect tothis intelligent mammal, and Dr. Lilly has reinforced suchclassical appreciation by an account of his own astonishing observationsof dolphin behavior. It is to be hoped that these twoaccounts will contribute to a lasting appreciation of our remarkableaquatic 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 authenticatedby undoubted evidence, looks very like a fable.Pliny the Younger
The history of the dolphin is one of the most fascinatingand instructive in the historiography and the history ofideas in the western world. Indeed, it provides one of the mostilluminating examples of what has probably occurred manytimes in human culture—a virtually complete loss of knowledge,at least in most segments of the culture, of what was formerlywell understood by generations of men. “Not in entire forgetfulness”in some regions of the world, but certainly in “a sleepand a forgetting” in the most sophisticated centers of the westernworld.
Dolphins are mammals. They belong in the order Cetacea,s