Ancient and Medieval Whales

Whales in the ancient and medieval worlds were sources of fascination and fear for their size. They signified two traditions of humanity’s relationship to nature: one of subjugation allowing for exploitation, and another that found symbolic meaning in natural phenomena. Ancient Rome found in whales a useful symbol, derived from their fear of the uncontrollable deep sea, on which to perform their dominion through rhetorical battle. Medieval Christianity moralized that fear through two legends of the whale as a devilish creature, a symbol of the soul’s temptations. Saints who ventured across the ocean tamed the whale and its habitat. The Antwerp flensing group inherited these associations, explaining in part their iconography.