# LXXXII: The Honor and Glory of Whaling explained — Moby-Dick

> Chapter companion for Moby-Dick by Herman Melville.

## What happens

Ishmael, in a digressive and humorous essay, argues for the nobility and antiquity of whaling by linking it to mythological and religious figures. He claims Perseus, St. George, Hercules, Jonah, and even the Hindu god Vishnu as members of the whaleman's fraternity, asserting the profession's heroic and sacred lineage.

## Themes in this chapter

### Interpretation and Perception

Ishmael playfully reinterprets myths and religious stories (St. George's dragon, Vishnu's incarnation) to fit his argument for whaling's glory, highlighting how perspective shapes meaning.

### Religion and Spirituality

Whaling is sanctified through its connection to divine figures (Vishnu) and prophets (Jonah), framing the profession within a sacred, cosmic context.

## Character check-ins

### Ishmael

Acts as the narrator and scholar, passionately constructing a historical and mythological defense of whaling's honor.

### Queequeg

Implicitly included as a member of the 'emblazoned fraternity' of whalemen Ishmael celebrates, representing the modern practitioner of this ancient art.

### Captain Ahab

Implied as a modern, though twisted, incarnation of the monomaniacal whaling hero, part of the lineage Ishmael traces.

### Stubb

Representative of the contemporary Nantucket harpooneer who, Ishmael argues, is more entitled to the honors of St. George than the actual knights.

### Flask

Another representative of the common whaleman whose profession Ishmael is elevating to mythic status.

### Moby Dick

The ultimate embodiment of the 'Leviathan' that links all these myths, from Perseus's monster to Jonah's whale.

## Key lines

> The more I dive into this matter of whaling... so much the more am I impressed with its great honorableness and antiquity

My deeper research into whaling only increases my awe for its noble history.

_States the chapter's central thesis._

> Perseus, a son of Jupiter, was the first whaleman... the first whale attacked by our brotherhood was not killed with any sordid intent.

The legendary hero Perseus, who rescued Andromeda, was the original whaleman, acting from chivalric motives, not greed.

_Establishes the heroic, non-commercial origins of whaling._

> I maintain [the dragon] to have been a whale; for in many old chronicles whales and dragons are strangely jumbled together...

I argue St. George's dragon was actually a whale, since ancient texts often confuse the two creatures.

_Exemplifies Ishmael's reinterpretive method to claim St. George for whaling._

> Vishnu became incarnate in a whale, and sounding down in him to the uttermost depths, rescued the sacred volumes. Was not this Vishnu a whaleman, then?

The god Vishnu took the form of a whale to retrieve holy books from the ocean floor, making him a divine whaleman.

_Culminates the argument by deifying the whaleman's role._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters/lxxxii-the-honor-and-glory-of-whaling
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/moby_dick_se/chapters