Don't say you weren't warned.

[strange_complex]

So, the noble whale of London town is dead. What's more, a dead porpoise was found yesterday on the shore at Putney (I can't seem to find an online source for this Important News Item, but I assure you it's true - I saw pictures yesterday as part of Sky News' continuous live whale coverage).

In summary, dead and dying marine mammals are hurling themselves at our shores. You know what Cassius Dio would say. Get out of the stock market - now!

The next stage, apparently, is for experts to examine the body to ascertain the cause of death. I do hope they will pay special attention to the liver, since everyone knows that's where the gods most like to leave their messages to humanity.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

I've just been rewatching I Clavdivs (lent to me by the gorgeous rosamicula. I can imagine Livia saying "I had it disected and its liver was tremendously clear."

At least it didn't suffer as much as the Tay whale which went through tremendous indignities in the name of
Science (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_Whale) and
Art (http://www.mcgonagall-online.org.uk/poems/pgwhale.htm).

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Oh dear gods! I can't decide which is worse. And *euww* about its tongue falling out!

In fact, the whole incident is more Claudian than you might think. Check out this extract from Pliny the Elder's Natural History, 9.5.14-15:

"A killer whale was actually seen in the harbor of Ostia, locked in combat with the emperor Claudius. She had come when he was completing the construction of the harbour, drawn there by the wreck of a ship bringing leather hides from Gaul, and feeding there over a number of days, had made a furrow in the shallows. The waves had raised up such a mound of sand that she couldn't turn around at all, and while she was pursuing her banquet as the waves moved it shorewards, her back stuck up out of the water like the overturned keel of a boat. The emperor ordered that a large array of nets be stretched across the mouths of the harbor, and setting out in person with the praetorian cohorts gave a show to the Roman people, soldiers showering lances from attacking ships, one of which I saw swamped by the beast's waterspout and sunk."

[steer.livejournal.com]

Excellent -- I love the "like the overturned keel of a boat" image -- vivid for someone who had never seen such an animal. The idea of Claudius "locked in combat" with a whale is particularly compelling if taken literally.

"From huh-huh-hell's heart I stab at thee."