A Knave of the First Rate

"Be judge yourself, I'll bring it to the test,

Which is the basest creature, man or beast

Birds feed on birds, beasts on each other prey,

But savage man alone does man betray:

Pressed by necessity; they kill for food,

Man undoes man, to do himself no good.

With teeth and claws, by nature armed, they hunt

Nature's allowance, to supply their want.

But man, with smiles, embraces. friendships. Praise,

Inhumanely his fellow's life betrays;

With voluntary pains works his distress,

Not through necessity, but wantonness.

For hunger or for love they bite, or tear,

Whilst wretched man is still in arms for fear.

For fear he arms, and is of arms afraid:

From fear, to fear, successively betrayed.

Base fear, the source whence his best passions came.

His boasted honour, and his dear-bought fame.

The lust of power, to whom he's such a slave,

And for the which alone he dares be brave;

To which his various projects are designed,

Which makes him generous, affable, and kind.

For which he takes such pains to be thought wise,

And screws his actions, in a forced disguise;

Leads a most tedious life in misery,

Under laborious, mean hypocrisy.

Look to the bottom of his vast design,

Wherein man's wisdom, power, and glory join:

The good he acts. the ill he does endure.

'Tis all from fear, to make himself secure.

Merely for safety after fame they thirst,

For all men would be cowards if they durst.

And honesty's against all common sense,

Men must be knaves, 'tis in their own defence.

Mankind's dishonest: if you think it fair

Among known cheats to play upon the square,

You'll be undone.

Nor can weak truth your reputation save,

The knaves will all agree to call you knave.

Wronged shall he live, insulted o'er, oppressed,

Who dares be less a villain than the rest.

Thus sir, you see what human nature craves,

Most men are cowards, all men should be knaves;

The difference lies, as far as I can see.

Not in the thing itself, but the degree;

And all the subject matter of debate

Is only, who's a knave of the first rate"

~ Lord John Wilmot, excerpted from A Satyre Against Mankind (1675).

"Murder! Murder!"

The Newgate Calendar recounts in great detail those grisly events of February 23, 1807, where throngs of people came to watch a series of public executions outside Newgate prison in London and, in a somewhat ironic twist, inadvertently condemned many of their fellow spectators to death: 

The crowd which assembled to witness this execution was unparalleled, being, according to the best calculation, nearly forty thousand; and the fatal catastrophe which happened in consequence will for long cause the day to be remembered. By eight o'clock not an inch of ground was unoccupied in view of the platform. The pressure of the crowd was such that, before the malefactors appeared, numbers of persons were crying out in vain to escape from it; the attempt only tended to increase the confusion. Several females of low stature who had been so imprudent as to venture among the mob were in a dismal situation; their cries were dreadful. Some who could be no longer supported by the men were suffered to fall, and were trampled to death. This also was the case with several men and boys. In all parts there were continued cries of "Murder! Murder!" -- particularly from the females and children among the spectators, some of whom were seen expiring without the possibility of obtaining the least assistance, everyone being employed in endeavours to preserve his own life.
       The most affecting scene of distress was seen at Green Arbour Lane, nearly opposite the debtors' door. The terrible occurrence which took place near this spot was attributed to the circumstance of two piemen attending there to dispose of their pies. One of them having had his basket overthrown, which stood upon a sort of stool with four legs, some of the mob, not being aware of what had happened, and at the same time being severely pressed, fell over the basket and the man at the moment he was picking it up, together with its contents. Those who once fell were never more suffered to rise, such was the violence of the mob. At this fatal place a man of the name of Harrington was thrown down, who had by the hand his youngest son, a fine boy about twelve years of age. The youth was soon trampled to death; the father recovered, though much bruised, and was amongst the wounded in St Bartholomew's Hospital. A woman who was so imprudent as to bring with her a child at the breast was one of the number killed. Whilst in the act of falling she forced the child into the arms of the man nearest to her, requesting him, for God's sake, to save its life. The man, finding it required all his exertion to preserve himself, threw the infant from him, but it was fortunately caught at a distance by another man, who, finding it difficult to ensure its safety or his own, got rid of it in a similar way. The child was again caught by a man, who contrived to struggle with it to a cart, under which he deposited it until the danger was over, and the mob had dispersed. In other parts the pressure was so great that a horrible scene of confusion ensued, and seven persons lost their lives by suffocation alone. It was shocking to behold a large body of the crowd, as one convulsive struggle for life, fight with the most savage fury with each other; the consequence was that the weakest, particularly the women, fell a sacrifice. A cart which was overloaded with spectators broke down, and some of the persons who fell from the vehicle were trampled underfoot, and never recovered. During the hour that the malefactors hung, little assistance could be afforded to the unhappy sufferers; but after the bodies were cut down, and the gallows removed to the Old Bailey Yard, the marshals and constables cleared the street where the catastrophe occurred, and, shocking to relate, there lay nearly one hundred persons dead, or in a state of insensibility, strewed round the street! Twenty-seven dead bodies were taken to St Bartholomew's Hospital, four to St Sepulchre's Church, one to the Swan, on Snow Hill, one to a public-house opposite St Andrew's Church, Holborn; one, an apprentice, to his master's; Mr Broadwood, pianoforte maker, to Golden Square. A mother was seen carrying away the body of her dead boy; Mr Harrison, a respectable gentleman, was taken to his house at Holloway. There was a sailor-boy killed opposite Newgate, by suffocation; he carried a small bag, in which he had some bread and cheese, and was supposed to have come some distance to behold the execution. After the dead, dying and wounded were carried away, there was a cartload of shoes, hats, petticoats and other articles of wearing apparel picked up. Until four o'clock in the afternoon most of the surrounding houses had some person in a wounded state; they were afterwards taken away by their friends on shutters, or in hackney- coaches. The doors of St Bartholomew's Hospital were closed against the populace. After the bodies of the dead were stripped and washed they were ranged round a ward on the first floor, on the women's side; they were placed on the floor with sheets over them, and their clothes put as pillows under their heads; their faces were uncovered. There was a rail along the centre of the room: the persons who were admitted to see the shocking spectacle went up on one side of the rail, and returned on the other. Until two o'clock the entrances to the hospital were beset with mothers weeping for sons, wives for their husbands and sisters for their brothers, and various individuals for their relatives and friends.
       The next day (Tuesday) a coroner's inquest sat in St Bartholomew's Hospital, and other places where the bodies were, on the remains of the sufferers. Several witnesses were examined with respect to the circumstances of the accident, which examination continued till Friday, when the verdict was, "That the several persons came by their death from compression and suffocation."

A wonderful digitized version of the Newgate Calendar can be found HERE, and a more sordid look at the history of Newgate prison may be found in J.A. Brooks' splendid work, the Ghosts of London (Jarrold Publishing, Norwich: 1982).

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Fear of Contagion

The wonderful Miss Shade has been posting excerpts from John Kelly's The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time on her blog Materies Morbi, and I've been so intrigued that I simply had to buy the book and get in on the action:

The pestilence's magisterial pace also gave Parisans ample time to contemplate the meaning of love and duty and honor in a time of plague. What would they do if a loved one was afflicted? What would the loved one do if they were afflicted? The fear of contagion makes the psychology of plague different from the psychology of war. In plague, fear acts as a solvent on human relationships; it makes everyone an enemy and everyone an isolate. In plague every man becomes an island -- a small, haunted island of suspicion, fear, and despair. (page 177)

Philip Daileader: St. Valentine's Day - A Medieval Origin

Yeah, yeah... it's a month late, but fascinating nonetheless. 

Over-delegation

People often remark on the decline of civilizations with something to the effect of "an empire is never truly destroyed from without, but rather decays from within." I tend to agree with this sentiment. The process of such self-destruction is not always obvious to contemporaries, however. A policy of decay often unfolds in shades of subtlety, where threads of indolence, abandonment, and contraction intertwine. The actors doggedly play out their parts in this grand pratfall, seemingly ignorant to the larger geopolitical context which envelops them. As one historian aptly notes, with regard to Rome:  

What is genuinely striking about the process of the 'Fall of the Roman Empire', to which it is necessary rapidly to add 'in the West', as its eastern half was to survive for another 1000 years, is the haphazard, almost accidental nature of the process. From 410 onwards successive western imperial regimes just gave away or lost control of more and more of the territory of the former Empire. At the same time, it must be appreciated, no emperor or Master of the Soldiers would have thought they were actually abandoning or putting outside the Empire the various provinces that they thus surrendered. In terms of constitutional theory practical authority in areas of administration and defence were being delegated to imperial appointees in the persons of the Germanic kings. These remained in theory subordinate to the higher authority of the emperors, even though the latter ceased to obtain material benefit from or to exercise direct control over the provinces. In this way the western Empire delegated itself out of existence.

~ Colins, Roger. Early Medieval Europe, 300-1000. Palgrave Macmillan: London. 2010.

Le Cholera

   It must be apparent to those who have been at all familiar with cholera, and other epidemic diseases, that the imagination has a large share in producing individual cases. It is a well-known fact that excess of joy will affect the circulation, sorrow will disturb the digestion, passion will inflame the system, and fright will chill; and it is equally true that not only are these transient effects produced through the influence of the mind, but special and positive diseases are, under certain circumstances, the result of mental impressions.

     This fact, illustrated in the history of the epidemics succeeding the fourteenth century, should be borne in mind in treating the great pestilence of the present age. Those who may doubt the truth of the statement that cholera is frequently engendered through fear, will here see the evidence of positive disease produced by no other cause than mental excitement.^[1]

1. Collins, G.T. The Cholera: A familiar treatise on its history, causes, symptoms and treatment, with the most effective remedies, and Proper mode of their administration, without the aid of a physician, the whole in language free from medical terms, especially adapted for the use of the public generally. Also containing a history of the epidemics of the Middle Ages. J.R. Hawley & Company: Cincinnati. 1866.

More Pride

     I believe that ambitious men in democracies are less engrossed than any others with the interests and the judgment of posterity; the present moment alone engages and absorbs them. They are more apt to complete a number of undertakings with rapidity than to raise lasting monuments of their achievements; and they care much more for success than for fame. What they most ask of men is obedience, what they most covet is empire. Their manners have, in almost all cases, remained below their station; the consequence is, that they frequently carry very low tastes into their extraordinary fortunes, and that they seem to have acquired the supreme power only to minister to their coarse or paltry pleasures.

. . .

Moralists are constantly complaining that the ruling vice of the present time is pride. This is true in one sense, for indeed every one thinks that he is better than his neighbor, or refuses to obey his superior; but it is extremely false in another, for the same man who cannot endure subordination or equality, has so contemptible an opinion of himself that he thinks he is born only to indulge in vulgar pleasures. He willingly takes up with low desires, without daring to embark in lofty enterprises, of which he scarcely dreams.

Thus, far from thinking that humility ought to be preached to our contemporaries, I would have endeavors made to give them a more enlarged idea of themselves and of their kind. Humility is unwholesome to them; what they most want is, in my opinion, pride. I would willingly exchange several of our small virtues for this one vice.

~ Tocqueville, Alexis de. Democracy in America (Volume II). Sever and Francis: Cambridge. 1862.

Iphigenia

[1]

     The sacrifice of the Argive princess, besides its general human interest, is a striking testimony to the fact, that even among the most cultivated peoples of the ancient world, human sacrifice prevailed at an early period of their history. There are certain principles in the human heart which, at a certain stage of civilisation, seem to make such a practice a sort of moral necessity. That this practice existed even in the most polished age of Athens in a modified form is certain---vide the dictionaries, in voce Φαρμακός. The idea of the substitution of the stag by Diana, in order to save the virgin's life, and the conveyance of the destined victim of a bloody devotion to the barbarous service of a grim idol in the Crimea, was an afterthought---one of those beautiful lies with which the legendary lore of old Hellas is replete.^[2]

[3]

1. Fresco found in Pompei, based on the 4th-century B.C. painting by Timanthus.

2. Blackie, John Stuart. Lays and legends of ancient Greece. 
        William Blackwood and Sons: Edinburgh. 1880.

3. Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista. The Sacrifice of Iphigenia. Fresco. 1757.

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Negroni

When it comes to cocktails, I generally prefer an Old-Fashioned (with rye whiskey) or a Dirty Martini (with Vodka). My tastes in a drink lean heavily towards bitter and salty rather than sweet and syrupy, so you won't see me pounding Appletinis or Chocolate Banana Banshees. About a year ago, while searching for new Old-Fashioned variations, I came across the Negroni. A rather obscure — almost forgotten — cocktail, the classic Negroni is made by combining one part Campari bitters, one part Gin, and one part sweet red Vermouth. The drink is stirred over ice, served in an Old-Fashioned glass, and garnished with an orange slice. What results is a citrusy, exceptionally bitter apéritif, which really makes the mouth pucker.

The Negroni was purportedly invented in 1919 as a modification of the Americano, when Count Camillo Negroni — a rodeo cowboy, no less! — requested that the club soda component be replaced by gin, to strengthen the drink.^[1]

As Eric Felten writes:

    Count Negroni was in the habit of drinking Americanos, but he found that it didn't have enough kick. The Americano is undeniably suave and continental; in addition to being favored by James Bond at Paris cafés, W. Somerset Maugham puts the drink in the hand of his spy hero, Ashenden, too. But for all its impeccable charm, the Americano is not a potent drink. Count Negroni was at his regular watering hole in Florence, the Caffe Casoni, when he asked bartender Fosco Scarselli to bolster his Americano with gin. The drink was a success, and it soon spread to other bars in Florence, and beyond.

     The Negroni is a bit obscure these days, but it is still a solid-enough standard in the cocktail canon that any bartender worthy of the title will know how to make it. Nor has the drink lost its vaguely illicit vibe — it keeps turning up in the hands of ne'er-do-wells. Don't look for any Negronis in the movie version of Thank You for Smoking, but in Christopher Buckley's original novel, Vodka Negronis are the drink of choice for tobacco lobbyist Nick Naylor. And just as the Contessa's Negroni seems to signal a certain corruption, Naylor's Negronis suggest an indulgent moral rot.

     What is it about the Negroni that makes it such a sinister accoutrement? There is the name, which is mysterious and exotic to American ears. And then there is the deep ruby color of the drink. Not only does the Contessa drink Negronis, everything in her flat—walls, sofas, curtains, lampshades—is that same infernal Campari crimson. You could say the drink is a red flag.^[2]

After reading about the Negroni (and seeing it ordered in the last episode of the Sopranos), my curiosity was piqued. I tried to order it in several local establishments, but the servers were clueless. It seems that most people in Northeast Ohio have never heard of the drink, or they don't have the Campari on-hand to make one. I'd nearly forgotten about the Negroni myself, until recently, when I was browsing the Gin selection in a local liquor agency and decided to make one at home.

The Negroni is certainly one of the more interesting cocktails I've tried. The drink's bitterness should not be underestimated. I make my Old-Fashioneds with a vigorous dose of Angostura, but was still caught off-guard by the acerbic bite of this cocktail. There are several other variations of the Negroni which I'd like to try. One can double the proportion of Gin, or substitute Vodka. The Campari can be swapped for another bitter apéritif, like Cynar. As with most other cocktails, possibilities for experimentation abound.



1. Regan, Gary. Negroni history lesson ends in a glass.   http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/03/27/FD8R1696QJ.DTL&type=food

2. Felten, Eric. How's Your Drink?: Cocktails, Culture, and the Art of Drinking Well.
     Agate Publishing. 2007.

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ὑγρὸν πῦρ -- "Liquid Fire"

One ancient version of napalm, or liquid fire (also commonly called "Greek Fire"), was utilized extensively by the Byzantine empire from the 6th through 13th century. Its invention is often attributed to Kallinikos, but historical record casts some doubt on this claim. The weapon itself is some mixture of flammable material which could burn on/in water, and was only extinguished through oxygen depletion or chemical reaction. The actual composition of Greek Fire remains an historical mystery. Liquid fire could be hurled in containers, a la the Molotov Cocktail, or sprayed through pressure-pumped cylinders and ignited in-stream, like a modern flamethrower.

   At what period the ancient Greek fire was invented has never been certainly determined. There are many writers who place the invention in a far antiquity. Historical details have been adduced pointing to the period of the earlier wars between the Greeks and Romans as the true era of the discovery. But we do not find any certain evidence of the use of Greek fire until the sieges of Constantinople, in the seventh and eighth centuries, though a Father of the Christian Church, writing in the fifth century, gave receipts for making a combustible substance of similar qualities from the compounds resin, sulphur, pitch, pigeon's dung, turpentine, and the juice of the herb 'all-heal.'

It is related that the true Greek fire was invented by a certain Callinicus, an architect of Heliopolis, in Syria (Baalbec), in 678. The secret of the composition of this artificial flame, and the art of directing its action, were imparted by Callinicus---who had deserted from the Caliph---to the Emperor of Constantinople. From this period until the year 1291 the use of Greek fire was an important element in the military power of the Byzantine empire. The progress of the Saracens was, more than once, decisively checked by the destructive action of this powerful and terrible flame. The important art of compounding the fire 'was preserved at Constantinople,' says Gibbon, 'as the palladium of the state: the galleys and artillery might occasionally be lent to the allies of Rome; but the composition of the Greek fire was concealed with the most zealous scruple, and the terror of the enemy was increased and prolonged by their ignorance and surprise.'

The accounts which have reached us respecting the properties of the Greek fire are such as to justify the high value attached by the Byzantine emperors to the secret of its composition. It was a liquid, which was propelled by various methods against the ships or engines of the enemy. So long as it was kept from the air, or remained in large masses, the liquid appears to have been perfectly safe from combustion; but as soon as it was poured forth it burned with an intense flame which consumed everything around---not merely burning upwards, but with equal fury downwards and laterally. Water not only failed to quench it, but made it burn with new ardour. To subdue the flames it was necessary to employ, in large quantities, either sand or vinegar. Various methods were employed for propelling the liquid fire towards the enemy. Sometimes it was enclosed in vessels made of some brittle substance, and these were flung at the enemy by means of suitable projectile machines. 'It was either,' says Gibbon, 'poured from the rampart in large boilers, or launched in red-hot balls of stone and iron, or darted in arrows and javelins, twisted round with flax and tow, which had deeply imbibed the inflammable oil.' But the effectual use of the destructive compound seems to have been best secured by means of a species of fire-ships specially constructed for the purpose. Copper and iron machines were placed in the fore-part of these ships. Long tubes, fantastically shaped, so as to resemble the mouth and jaws of savage animals, formed the outlet for a stream of liquid fire, which the engine---literally a fire- engine---propelled to a great distance. Hand-engines were also constructed by which the destructive compound could be spurted by the soldiers, Beckman tells us.

The secret, as we have said, was carefully kept by the Byzantines. The emperor Constantine suggested the answers which in his opinion were best fitted to elude the pertinacious questioning of the barbarians. 'They should be told that the mystery of the Greek fire had been revealed by an angel to the first and greatest of the Constantines, with the sacred injunction that this gift of Heaven---this peculiar blessing of the Romans---should never be communicated to any foreign nation; that the prince and subject were alike bound to religious silence under the temporal and spiritual penalties of treason and sacrilege; and that the infamous attempt would provoke the sudden and supernatural vengeance of the God of the Christians.' Gibbon adds that the secret thus religiously guarded was 'confined for above 400 years to the Romans of the East; and at the end of the eleventh century the Pisans to whom every sea and every art were familiar suffered the effects without understanding the composition of Greek fire.' ^[1] 

 1. Proctor, Richard A. The Universe of Suns and Other Science Gleanings. R. Worthington: New York. 1884.

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Xenophon and the Balance Factor

It would be too strange an omission to say nothing about that which, before Alexander's tremendous march, is the most familiar of all Greek adventures among the Barbarians; I mean that suffered and described by Xenophon the Athenian. Again we witness the triumph of a personality, although that is not the important thing about the Retreat of the Ten Thousand. The important thing is the triumph of the Greek character in a body of rascal mercenaries. The personality of the young gentleman who gained so much authority with them found its opportunity in a crisis among ignorant men, but it never became a great one. To the last it was curiously immature. Perhaps it would be an apter metaphor to say of Xenophon what some one said of Pitt---"He did not grow he was cast." His natural tastes were very much those of a more generous and incomparably greater man, Sir Walter Scott. They were the tastes of a country gentleman with a love of literature and history, especially with a flavour of romance. The Cyropaedia is the false dawn of the Historic Novel. Both Xenophon and Sir Walter wanted, probably more than anything else, to be soldiers. But Xenophon wanted to be too many things. Before his mind floated constantly the image of the "Archical Man"---the ideal Ruler---who had long exercised the thoughts of Greek philosophers of none perhaps more than Socrates, whose pupil Xenophon professed himself to be. One day it seems to have struck him: Might not he, Xenophon, be the Archical Man? He may not have framed the thought so precisely, for it is of the kind that even youth does not always admit to itself; but the thought was there. It was his illusion. He was not born to command, he was born to write. He did not dominate, he was always more or less under the influence of some one else---Socrates, Cyrus, Agesilaos. He was an incredibly poor judge of men and the movement of affairs. But put a pen in his hands and you have, if not one of the great masters, yet a master in a certain vivid manner of his own.

1. Alexander, James; Thompson, Kerr. Greeks & barbarians. George Allen & Unwin Ltd.: London. 1921.

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Euclid In Memoriam, Part II

The second set of photos from my recent Sunday tour of Euclid Avenue, Cleveland:
(Higher resolution versions are viewable on Flickr -- see links at right.)

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Euclid In Memoriam, Part I

Today was very much a typical February Sunday, grey and drab, with the sort of wind that seems to pass right through every layer of clothing and smack the bones with a powerful chill. I took my camera downtown to capture some shots of the more unique bits of Cleveland architecture. The first sample follows. (Click images to view them at a larger size.)

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Thar She Blows!

[1]

     The 19th and late 18th centuries are most fondly remembered in American history as the age of the West. While the iconic struggles between European and Native peoples played out, the eastern United States was also engaged in an expansionistic battle. Off the shores of Maine and Massachusetts, as far south as the ports of Newark and Wilmington, a great naval war raged. The enemy was that ocean behemoth, the whale; the hunters’ spoils: spermaceti.

[2]

     A male sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) can reach lengths up to 67 feet and weigh over 45 tons. It has the largest brain of any animal on the planet, and teeth which weigh up to two pounds apiece. Physeter macrocephalus can attain underwater swimming speeds approaching 19 miles-per-hour. Sperm whales employ an incredibly complex communication system of clicks, and recent studies have shown that pods are organized by “dialects,” rather than by geographic boundaries as had been previously assumed ^[5].

[6]

[7]

     Knowing little of these facts at the time, the imagination of sailors must have run amok as they pursued their prey over the vast depths of the unknown. Picture those tiny whaling boats, rowing out from the main vessel, closing in for the kill. How vulnerable these hunters must have felt, despite the obvious advantages of man’s technology, to be hovering over a creature of such immense size and power, in their insignificant wooden floats. As any fisherman knows, even the smallest bass will put up an incredible fight when its life is on the line. 

     How much more intense, then, must have been the struggle between harpooner and whale; Leviathan in his mighty death throes. Indeed, these giants did not submit with a whimper. When enraged and injured they were capable of wreaking incredible havoc. The infamous white whale, Mocha Dick (Melville’s marine muse) survived many ocean brawls and was notorious for his cunning aggressiveness. Another nameless, unusually large whale, attacked the whaling ship Essex, sinking her and killing all but eight of the crew members, in a tale worth recounting here:

     On the leeward side of the Essex Chase's boat harpooned a whale, but its fluke struck the boat and opened up a seam, resulting in their having to cut his line from the whale and put back to the ship for repairs. Two miles away off the windward side, Captain Pollard and the second mate's boats had each harpooned a whale and were being dragged towards the horizon in what was known as a Nantucket sleighride. Chase was repairing the damaged boat on board when the crew observed a whale, that was much larger than normal (alleged to be around 85 feet (26 m)), acting strangely. It lay motionless on the surface with its head facing the ship, then began to move towards the vessel, picking up speed by shallow diving. The whale rammed the ship and then went under, battering it and causing it to tip from side to side. Finally surfacing close on the starboard side of the Essexwith its head by the bow and tail by the stern, the whale appeared to be stunned and motionless. Chase prepared to harpoon it from the deck when he realized that its tail was only inches from the rudder, which the whale could easily destroy if provoked by an attempt to kill it. Fearing to leave the ship stranded thousands of miles from land with no way to steer it, he relented. The whale recovered and swam several hundred yards ahead of the ship and turned to face the bow.

"I turned around and saw him about one hundred rods (550 yards) directly ahead of us, coming down with twice his ordinary speed (around 24 knots or 44kph), and it appeared with tenfold fury and vengeance in his aspect. The surf flew in all directions about him with the continual violent thrashing of his tail. His head about half out of the water, and in that way he came upon us, and again struck the ship." —Owen Chase.

The whale crushed the bow like an eggshell, driving the 238-ton vessel backwards. The whale finally disengaged its head from the shattered timbers and swam off, never to be seen again, leaving the Essex quickly going down by the bow. Chase and the remaining sailors frantically tried to add rigging to the only remaining whaleboat, while the steward ran below to gather up whatever navigational aids he could find.

"The captain's boat was the first that reached us. He stopped about a boat's length off, but had no power to utter a single syllable; he was so completely overpowered with the spectacle before him. He was in a short time, however, enabled to address the inquiry to me, "My God, Mr. Chase, what is the matter?" I answered, "We have been stove by a whale." —Owen Chase. ^[8]

[9]

[10]

REFERENCES

1. Sperm whale skeleton in the Natural History Museum. From Museum Through a Lens. Photo: London. 1901.

2. Whaling Ports of the 1850s. From the Whalemen's Shipping List. National Maritime Digital Library. Via PBS, at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/map/whaling-ports/. 2012.

3. Sperm Whales, Physeter Macrocephalus. NOAA Fisheries, Office of Protected Resources. http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/pr/species/mammals/cetaceans/spermwhale.htm. 2012

4. Sperm Whales, Physeter catodon. MarineBio Conservation Society. http://marinebio.org/species.asp?id=190. 2012

5. Rendell, Luke, et al. Can Genetic Differences Explain Vocal Dialect Variation in Sperm Whales, Physeter macrocephalus? Behavioral Genetics 42:332-343 (2012).

6. Whale depictions by Captain Valentine Barnard. PR-145, #76; from the Collection of the New York Historical Society, 1810.

7. Whaling photo by Marion Smith, 1902.

8. Essex (whaleship). Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship). 2012.

9. Beale, Thomas. Natural History of the Sperm Whale (frontispiece). 1839.

10. Carved sperm whale tooth. Attribution unknown.

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Bird Jaguar IV and the Great Skull Legacy

[This is the republication of an epigraphical research project I conducted as part of my undergraduate studies in Spring 2011.]

Bird Jaguar IV and the Great Skull Legacy:

An analysis of Yaxchilan Lintels 13 & 14.

            The ancient Mayan city of Yaxchilan occupies the area in Mexico known presently as Chiapas. During the Late Classic period of Maya civilization, Yaxchilan was a thriving autonomous polity which carved a swath of political hegemony along the Usumacinta river region (Sharer, Traxler 2005:239). Yaxchilan cast a modest sphere of influence and possessed the resources and power to wage war with equally prestigious (or even more powerful) rivals like Hix Witz and Piedras Negras. The mid-to-late Eighth Century would see the city of Yaxchilan reach its apex of power, with successful military victories over longtime rivals, widened political consolidation, and an array of new constructions venerating the same. The two lintels analyzed here—lintels 13 and 14 of Structure 20—were created during this rising crescendo of Yaxchilan and epitomize precisely these aforementioned events that were of supreme importance for the ruler of the time, Yaxuun B’alam.

            Lintel 14 hangs over the northwest doorway on the south side of Structure 20 and was first “discovered” by Alfred Maudslay in 1882. Maudslay was enthralled by the number of ruins present and he compiled a list of stelae, lintels and structures, as well as the first map of the Yaxchilan area (Tate 1992:5). The Peabody Museum describes the physical condition of Lintel 14 as follows:

[The lintel is] in pristine state. [It is comprised of] fine yellowish limestone. The carved surface is flat; the edges are parallel. The border of the sculptured area is by no means rectangular, although the slanting upper and curved lower margins conform well to the masonry jambs upon which the lintel rests. (Peabody 2011:1)

Lintel 14 is of modest size, with a mean width [MW] of 0.91 meters, a carved area measuring 0.78 meters tall [HSc] by 0.80 meters wide [WSc] and a mean thickness [MTh] of 0.32 meters (Id.). It is incredibly well-preserved, and every detail of its iconography and the entirety of its glyphs remain discernible.

            Lintel 14 bears a date of 4 Imix, 4 Mol, and the long count date for this lintel is 9.15.10.0.1. Using the GMT correlation constant, this date converts to Sunday, June 29^th, 741 CE (Famsi 2011). At this point in Mayan Late Classic history, Itzamnaaj B’alam (Shield Jaguar III) still ruled as Ox K’atun Ajaw, but was old and only a year away from his impending death in 742. The subsequent ten-year period, from 742 to 752 CE, is well-documented by Proskouriakoff and other Mayanists as an interregnum period, where various entities were vying to fill the political vacuum (Martin, Grube 2008:127). The combination of this power vacuum, Bird Jaguar IV’s own obsessive insecurity and the ailing condition of Itzamnaaj B’alam III renders the 9.15.10.0.1 date highly suspect as a useful reference for the lintel’s manufacture. This is clearly evidenced when an accurate interpretation of the lintel is scrutinized within the context of the period.

            When Yaxuun B’alam (Bird Jaguar IV) acceded to lordship in 752, his legitimacy was questionable. During his father’s reign he had been rather unremarkable, a minor underlord at best, with little claim to greatness. His mother, Ixik Ik’ Cham (Lady Eveningstar) was Itzamnaaj B’alam’s third wife, and was apparently so insignificant as to warrant no mention during his father’s entire reign (Martin, Grube 2008:126). In order to solidify his position, the recently acceded Yaxuun B’alam immediately went to work fabricating a fictitious history. He erected many series of stelae and lintels which served several purposes. Some, like Stela 35, were designed to embellish the prominence of his mother (Id.). Others, like Stela 11, had the purpose of cementing his own legitimacy as king. By portraying the necessary rituals between himself and his father, such as the flapstaff dance, Yaxuun B’alam was able to falsely render his claim to heir apparency in recorded historical fact (Id.). The three-panel series of lintels 12, 13, and 14 were likewise intended to bolster this fictitious history, by strengthening political solidarity and raising the prominence of Yaxuun B’alam’s bloodline, paving the way for his son (Itzamnaaj B’alam IV) to succeed him.

            A sign which now stands at Yaxchilan Structure 20, erected by the Mexican Institute of Anthropology and History, tells with brevity the events depicted in lintels 12, 13 and 14:

There are several sculptural monuments associated with [Structure 20]: Lintels 12 (today at the Museum of Anthropology), 13 and 14, plus Hieroglyphic Stairway 5. Lintel 12 shows a scene from one of Shield Jaguar I’s conquests. On 13, one sees Shield Jaguar II’s parents, Lady Large Skull and Bird Jaguar IV, commemorating the ruler’s birth with a “vision of the snake” ceremony. Lintel 14 also portrays Shield Jaguar II’s parents, but in a ceremony of self-sacrifice connected to the “vision of the snake” (see Appendix A).

As is further established by the subsequent transcription detailed in this paper, there are numerous mistakes with the INAH summary of events. Contemporary understandings of Mayan Late Classic history reveal that Bird Jaguar IV’s father was Shield Jaguar III, not Shield Jaguar I as the INAH summary indicates. Likewise, Bird Jaguar IV’s son was Shield Jaguar IV, rather than the second. Though perhaps only a minor semantic matter, current scholarly work also interprets Bird Jaguar IV’s wife as Lady Great Skull, rather than “Large Skull” as understood by INAH. A closer epigraphical look at lintel 14 reveals a significant misinterpretation of the events depicted thereon.

            At first glance, the iconography of lintel 14 looks nearly identical to that of lintel 13, and it is easy to see how the two might be interpreted as featuring the same individuals performing the same (or a similar) ritual. In both lintels, two prominent individuals face each other, the more dominant figure on the right, in typical Mayan fashion. The two wield bloodletting knives and bowls from which a nawal, or Maya vision serpent, is invoked. The major differences are between the identity of the individuals appearing in each lintel, respectively, and the overall context of what is being depicted. These differences are explicitly stated in the glyphs.

            Using Ian Graham’s drawing and corresponding labels (Appendix B), Lintel 14’s text begins with the series of 12 glyphs marked D1 through F4. The reading order is standard, dual-column. In Mayan, this series reads: “Kan Imix, Kan Mol, tzakaj k’awil, Kab Ajaw [alt. Muwan], Chanaal-ij, chakb’ay kan, u wayaj, Ch’ul Ixik, Ixik Chak Cham, Ixik Sajal, Yaxuun Ajaw” (Appendix C). The English gloss is “4 Imix, 4 Mol: is conjured the god of generations, He [or Bird] of the Earth, in/from the sacred space, the great image serpent, her nawal, Holy Woman Lady Great Skull, she who serves, mother of the lord” (Id.). The lintel then proceeds to glyphs A1, B1, and C1, In Mayan: “[ch’ul] U b’a, Ch’ul Ixik Kab Ajaw, Yax Ixik” (Id.). This phrase translates to “Her [divine] image, Holy Woman of the Earth, First Lady” (Id.). The final passage is the five-glyph series G1-G5, which in Mayan reads “U b’a Yax Chit Chan Aj Tuubayeet, Chak Cham Sajal U Ajaw” and glosses in English as “His image, First Father, Captor of He of Tuubayeet, Great Skull, elite subordinate to his Lord” (Id.).

            Taken in its entirety, Lintel 14 identifies Lady Great Skull and Great Skull Sajal, not Bird Jaguar IV as the INAH summary states. The two have bloodlet and summoned Lady Great Skull’s vision serpent, most likely an ancestor. The deeper purpose behind the ritual itself is not explicit, but the event’s depiction is important because it establishes the prominence of the Great Skull lineage. Bird Jaguar’s repeated emphasis on his wife, Lady Great Skull, seems to exemplify his determination to prevent her from falling into obscurity, as occurred with his own mother. By maintaining her high status in Yaxchilan’s history during his own reign, Yaxuun B’alam is ensuring that his heir, Shield Jaguar IV, will avoid the problems of legitimacy that plagued the former in his attempt to accede.  

            Lintel 14 also reveals the elite status of Great Skull himself. He is referred to as “First Father,” referencing him as the founder of the Great Skull bloodline (Schele 1990:288). Though their relationship is not known with certainty, Great Skull is likely the Uncle of Lady Great Skull. That he bears the title “Captor of” reinforces the known fact that he was the favored sajal (subordinate) of Yaxuun B’alam IV. It should be noted that the G3 glyph, glossed here as “He of Tuubayeet” is speculative. As is the case with obscure glyphs, its meaning is determined by the surrounding context and is subject to change as scholarly understanding of Mayan history and epigraphical analysis improve.

            The date of 741 CE on lintel 14 begs repeated emphasis. If the purpose of lintel 14 was to strengthen the appearance of political solidarity and promote the Great Skull lineage, it was not enough for Bird Jaguar IV to simply erect monuments depicting them. In order to create lasting legitimacy, Yaxuun B’alam needed to manipulate the historical record in truly Orwellian fashion. By bestowing lintel 14 with the date of 741 CE, Bird Jaguar’s heirship was given legacy and depth. Moreover, since that date precedes the death of Itzamnaaj B’alam III, the depicted events and Great Skull lineage are granted the appearance of de facto consent and legitimacy from the former ruler himself. This act alone reveals the brilliant political savvy of Yaxuun B’alam IV.

           

            Lintel 13 (Appendix D), though iconographically similar to lintel 14 as previously stated, depicts Lady Great Skull and Bird Jaguar IV. The Peabody Museum describes the scene as follows:

This lintel depicts Bird Jaguar IV and his wife or consort Lady Chak Chami wielding hafted bloodletters and other bloodletting paraphernalia. A large serpent disgorges the probable form of their child, the future Shield Jaguar IV (the figure's headdress touches a reference to Shield Jaguar IV's birth in the main text, at A3). The scene is probably a metaphorical one, though many key textual passages remain eroded and obscure. (Peabody 2011:2)

Overall, the Peabody description of lintel 13 is quite good. This is indeed a ritual venerating the birth of Itzamnaaj B’alam IV, and despite the greater degree of erosion and the number of obscure glyphs, the context remains clear.

            The reading for Lintel 13 (Appendix E) begins with the five-glyph passage A1-B1 and reads in Mayan as “Jun Chikchan, Oxlajun Pop: Sijya Chelte’ Chan K’inich,” which glosses in English as “[on] 1 Chikchan, 13 Pop, Chelte’ Chan K’inich is born.” The text then proceeds to the 12-glyph panel C1 through D6. In Mayan, this section reads “[Ch’u] U b’a, Ch’u Ch’ok K’oj, ?-Ixik Ixik Chak Cham, Ixik Sajal, Ox K’atun Ixwaate Aj ?-n, Aj Oxlajun Bak, ?-chan, Pachaan.” Accordingly, the English gloss is “She, her [divine] self, her divine youthful image, holy woman Lady Great Skull, She who serves, 3 K’atun Tree Lady, She of ?, She of 13 Captives, ?-sky, split-sky.” Several of the glyphs in this passage are obscure and as title glyphs, are difficult to transcribe with surety. Despite the above gloss generally agreeing with that provided by the Peabody Museum, portions remain specious.

            One major point of contention lies with the two titles which begin with “Aj.” This affix is extremely common throughout Mayan writings and is always understood to represent the male agentive. It seems rather unlikely that this glyph would be employed here as an exception for Lady Great Skull, despite Bird Jaguar’s inclination to build his wife’s prominence. Another possible interpretation that still works within the contextual framework of lintel 13 would gloss the D4 glyph as Ix yete’—“Lady in the company of.” This would entail that the following two title glyphs correspond to her unknown companion, who is presumably male. One possibility might be that this is a reference to Great Skull Sajal, though this remains purely speculative on the author’s part. Another similarly speculative possibility is that the titles refer to the ancestor which has been summoned in the form of a nawal. Glyphs C6 and D6 are eroded and open to interpretation (particularly the former), though D6 almost certainly represents the phonetic spelling of Pachaan (“split-sky”), seen frequently throughout Yaxchilan in the Late Classic and featured in one of the Polity’s emblem glyphs. These final two glyphs of this passage might also be referencing the name of the ancestral vision serpent. At this point in time, however, these interpretations must be relegated to the realm of conjecture.  

            Lintel 13 continues with the sequence E1-E4 and F1-F5, both of which pertain to Yaxuun B’alam. The first sequence reads in Mayan as “U b’a Jun Chan, Yaxuun B’alam, Aj K’al Bak” or “His image, 1 Sky, Bird Jaguar IV, He of 20 Captives.” This is followed by the customary title sequence “U Chan Aj Uk, Ox K’atun Ajaw, Ch’u Pa’chan Ajaw, B’akab’,” which is glossed in English as “Captor of He of Uk, 3-K’atun Lord, Divine Lord of Yaxchilan, the Standing One.” These last two lines are transparent and typical to monuments of this time, where Yaxuun B’alam consistently touts his preeminence.

            Taken as a whole, Lintel 13 continues to further the agenda of Yaxuun B’alam in establishing his legitimacy through his heir, Itzamnaaj B’alam IV, who is herein referenced by his youthful name, Chelte’ Chan K’inich. Again, this depiction reveals Bird Jaguar’s intent to preemptively annihilate any potential question of his son’s political authority, sparing him from facing the same challenges of obscurity the father had incurred. In contrast to lintel 14, there is no apparent reason to believe that the date of 9.16.0.14.5, or February 12^th, 752 CE, is a falsification. This was the year that Yaxuun B’alam acceded and his legitimacy would have already been—fictitiously—established for nearly a decade before. In this case, it was important that Itzamnaaj B’alam be venerated, but there was no practical reason to manipulate the past as was necessary for Bird Jaguar IV to solidify his own legacy.

            Ultimately, although Lintels 13 and 14 appear facially similar, it is important to distinguish the differences of detail in their depictions. By understanding what each scene represents independent from one another, we can discern with greater clarity the over-arching goals of Yaxuun B’alam IV and the importance of the monuments in Structure 20 as a continuum of significant events. The keen political maneuvering of Bird Jaguar not only insured that his lineage would retain power in Yaxchilan after his death, but also inevitably began a chain of events which saw the polity’s resurgence and subsequent rise to a height of hegemony, culminating in the conquest of longtime rival Piedras Negras in the early 9^th century (Sharer, Traxler (2006:431) and a “golden age” which would last until the larger decline of the Maya empire.       

    

REFERENCES

FAMSI. “Date Conversion.”

   Retrieved on May 7^th, 2011. http://research.famsi.org/date_mayaLC.php

Martin, Simon; Grube, Nikola

   2008  Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens. London: Thames and Hudson Inc.

Montgomery, John

   2002  Dictionary of Maya Hieroglyphs. New York: Hippocrene Books Inc.

Montgomery, John

   2002  How to Read Maya Hieroglyphs. New York: Hippocrene Books Inc.

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. “Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions.”

   Retrieved on May 7^th, 2011.

   http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/CMHI/detail.php?num=14&site=Yaxchilan&type=Lintel

Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology. “Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions.”

   Retrieved on May 8^rd, 2011.

   http://www.peabody.harvard.edu/CMHI/detail.php?num=13&site=Yaxchilan&type=Lintel

Schele, Linda; Freidel, David

   1990  A Forest of Kings. New York: William Morrow and Company Inc.

Sharer, Robert; Traxler, Loa

   2006  The Ancient Maya 6^th Edition. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Tate, Carolyn

   1992  Yaxchilan: the Design of a Maya Ceremonial City. Austin: The University of Texas 

   Press.

APPENDICES

APPENDIX A—INAH Sign at Yaxchilan

Retrieved on May 2^nd, 2011. http://mayaruins.com/yaxchilan/a1_531.html

APPENDIX B—Drawing of Lintel 14 by Ian Graham, 1974.

APPENDIX C – Reading Order and 6-line transcription for Lintel 14

READ: D1-E4, F1-F4, A1,B1,C1,G1-G5

D1 TIV.500a[501] KAN.IMIX Kan Imix Four Imix “4 Imix”	E1 TIV.581v KAN.MOL Kan Mol Four Mol “4 Mol”	F1 Tnn.1000b:32 ?.IXIK:CH’UL Ch’ul Ixik Holy/divine woman “Holy woman”
D2 T714.181 TZAK.ja Tza[h]k-aj PASS – Conjure “is conjured”	E2 T1030c K’AWIL K’awil Deity name “God of generations”	F2 T1000b.109:736v IXIK.CHAK:CHAM Ixik Chak Cham Lady Chak Cham “Lady Great Skull”
D3 T526.747v (or 744v) KAB.AJAW (MUWAN) Kab Ajaw Earth Lord  (Bird) “He of the Earth”(?)	E3 T86:409[561]:314 NAL:ni?[CHAAN]:ji Chaanal-ij (?) Heavenly location(?) “Heavenly place”(sacred space	F3 T1000b.630[140v].181 IXIK.sa[la].ja Ixik Sajal Lady sajal “She who serves”
D4 T109:501:126.25:764 CHAK:B’A:ya.ka:CHAN Chakb’ay Kan Great head/image serpent “Great image serpent”	E4 T1:539:125.181:126 U:WAY:ya.ja:ya U wayaj 3A -- Spirit; portal; nawal “Her nawal”	F4 T126.168:756b Ya.AJAW:xu(na) Yaxun Ajaw POSS. – Mother; Lord “Mother of the Lord”

A1 T1.60:757:? (Ch’u?) U.B’A:? (CH’U?) U b’a (Ch’ul U b’a?) 3A – image “Her (divine) image”

B1 T32:1000b.168:526 CH’UL:IXIK.AJAW:KAB Ch’ul Ixik Kab Ajaw Holy lady Earth lord “Divine Lady of the Earth”

C1 T1000b.16:181[178] IXIK.YAX:-laj Yax Ixik First lady “First Lady” (?) (title?)

G1 T1.757v:? U.B’A:? U b’a 3A – image “His image”

G2 T16:580.108:764 YAX:CHIT.cha:CHAN Yax Chit Chan First Father Captor/serpent “First father, captor of?” (?)

G3 T12: 91:501.710:103 AJ:tu:b’a.ye:ta Aj Tuubayeet He Tuubayeet “He/Lord of Tuubayeet”

G4 T109:736v.1004v:178 CHAK:CHAM.sajal:la Chak Cham Sajal Great Skull Elite Subordinate “Great Skull Elite Subordinate”

G5 T1.168:nn U.AJAW:? (AJAW?) U Ajaw His Lord “[to] His Lord; of his Lord”

APPENDIX D—  Drawing of Lintel 13 by Ian Graham, 1974.

APPENDIX E– Reading Order and 6-line transcription for Lintel 13.

READ: A1-B1, C1-D6, E1-E4, F1-F5

A1 TI.500[764] JUN.CHIKCHAN Jun Chikchan One Chikchan “1 Chikchan”	B1 T561v:23.316:184 CHAN:na.ku:K’INICH Chan K’inich Chan K’inich “Sun-eyed Sky” (name)
A2 TXIII.551:130 OXLAJUN.POP Oxlajun Pop Thirteen Pop “13 Pop”
A3 T740:126.181v SI:ya.ja Sij-ya INT – Born “is born”
A4 T148.188:87v Che.le:TE’ Chelte’ Chelte’ “Tree?“  (name)

C1 T1.45:757 U.ju:b’a U-b’aaj 3A – Himself “He himself/His image”	D1 T36v.758:220.217:1009b Ch’u.CH’OK:k’o.k’o:jo Ch’u ch’ok k’oj Divine youthful image “Divine Youthful image“ (title)
C2 T?.1000b:32 ?.IXIK:k’u ?-Ixiik Divine/holy woman “Holy Woman” (title)	D2 T1000b.552v? IXIK.? Ixiik-? Lady “Lady”
C3 T109.736v:173 CHAK.CHAM:MI Chak Cham “Great Skull”	D3 T1000b.630.181:78 IXIK.sa.ja.la Ixik Sajal Female subordinate elite “Lady Sajal; She who serves”
C4 TIII.25.528.25:548 OX.K’ATUN Ox K’atun Three K’atun “3 K’atun”	D4 T130:1002v.87 Wa:IX.te Ixwaate Lady tree “Tree Lady”  (title)
C5 T12.nn:23 AJ.?:na Aj ?-n He/lord of ?-n “She of –”	D5 T12.XIII:570 AJ.OXLAJUN:B’AK Aj Oxlajun B’ak Lord thirteen captives “She of 13 captives?”
C6 T?:?:?.561a:764 ?:?:?.CHAN:CHAN ?- Chan ?-sky; four, snake “?- Sky” (name/title?)	D6 T602?:520v.561:23 pa?:cha.CHAAN:na Pa’chaan Split-sky “Split-sky” (title)

E1 T1.60:757 U.B’a U-b’a 3A - Image/Doing “His image”	F1 T1.228:764 U.cha:CHAN U-chan 3A – Captor “Captor of”
E2 TI.764(?) JUN.CHAN Jun Chan One sky/snake “1 Sky” (title?)	F2 T12.513:528 AJ.U.ku Aj Uk He/lord Uk “He of Uk” (title)
E3 T126.236:751 Ya.YAXUN:B’ALAM Yaxuun B’alam Yaxuun B’alam “Bird Jaguar IV”	F3 TIII.25.528.25:747a OX.K’ATUN:AJAW Ox k’atun Ajaw Three k’atun lord “3-K’atun Lord”
E4 T228.683v:111 AJ.K’AL:B’AK Aj K’al Bak He twenty captives “He of 20 Captives” (title)	F4 T38.168:562 CH’U.AJAW:PA’CHAN Ch’u Pa’chan Ajaw Divine split-sky lord “Divine Lord of Yaxchilan”

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