{"id":"01KF7FPSF7GG2J0JR8SXVAKP76","cid":"bafkreiglk55hzajibjal4ufwg4c4dtgnjphidyhcq3hkzkd42bjivyx4eu","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":14264,"extracted_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:20.399Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 7","source_file":"01KESYVB66H8YEVTN88DWE9W8D","start_line":14217,"text":"dragon of the sea,” saith Ezekiel; hereby, plainly meaning a whale; in\r\ntruth, some versions of the Bible use that word itself. Besides, it\r\nwould much subtract from the glory of the exploit had St. George but\r\nencountered a crawling reptile of the land, instead of doing battle\r\nwith the great monster of the deep. Any man may kill a snake, but only\r\na Perseus, a St. George, a Coffin, have the heart in them to march\r\nboldly up to a whale.\r\n\r\nLet not the modern paintings of this scene mislead us; for though the\r\ncreature encountered by that valiant whaleman of old is vaguely\r\nrepresented of a griffin-like shape, and though the battle is depicted\r\non land and the saint on horseback, yet considering the great ignorance\r\nof those times, when the true form of the whale was unknown to artists;\r\nand considering that as in Perseus’ case, St. George’s whale might have\r\ncrawled up out of the sea on the beach; and considering that the animal\r\nridden by St. George might have been only a large seal, or sea-horse;\r\nbearing all this in mind, it will not appear altogether incompatible\r\nwith the sacred legend and the ancientest draughts of the scene, to\r\nhold this so-called dragon no other than the great Leviathan himself.\r\nIn fact, placed before the strict and piercing truth, this whole story\r\nwill fare like that fish, flesh, and fowl idol of the Philistines,\r\nDagon by name; who being planted before the ark of Israel, his horse’s\r\nhead and both the palms of his hands fell off from him, and only the\r\nstump or fishy part of him remained. Thus, then, one of our own noble\r\nstamp, even a whaleman, is the tutelary guardian of England; and by\r\ngood rights, we harpooneers of Nantucket should be enrolled in the most\r\nnoble order of St. George. And therefore, let not the knights of that\r\nhonorable company (none of whom, I venture to say, have ever had to do\r\nwith a whale like their great patron), let them never eye a Nantucketer\r\nwith disdain, since even in our woollen frocks and tarred trowsers we\r\nare much better entitled to St. George’s decoration than they.\r\n\r\nWhether to admit Hercules among us or not, concerning this I long\r\nremained dubious: for though according to the Greek mythologies, that\r\nantique Crockett and Kit Carson—that brawny doer of rejoicing good\r\ndeeds, was swallowed down and thrown up by a whale; still, whether that\r\nstrictly makes a whaleman of him, that might be mooted. It nowhere\r\nappears that he ever actually harpooned his fish, unless, indeed, from\r\nthe inside. Nevertheless, he may be deemed a sort of involuntary\r\nwhaleman; at any rate the whale caught him, if he did not the whale. I\r\nclaim him for one of our clan.\r\n\r\nBut, by the best contradictory authorities, this Grecian story of\r\nHercules and the whale is considered to be derived from the still more\r\nancient Hebrew story of Jonah and the whale; and vice versâ; certainly\r\nthey are very similar. If I claim the demi-god then, why not the\r\nprophet?\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 7"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KF7FPMHAT6VSS1RARMH6S0FE","peer_label":"Jonah Historically Regarded","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KF7FPMHAT6VSS1RARMH6S0FE","peer_label":"Jonah Historically Regarded","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KF7FPKDT5SHSH1ZQV6ABHQCA","peer_label":"Moby Dick; Or, The Whale","peer_type":"book","predicate":"partOf"},{"peer":"01KESYJX0Z6XE0HWTS5N3SDG0B","peer_label":"The Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KF7FPSCGWK6W6XVRXQJP2365","peer_label":"Chunk 8","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KF7FPSBFG6T9WBB4K67FJ9CQ","peer_label":"Chunk 6","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-18T02:42:20.835Z","ts":"2026-01-18T02:42:28.833Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KF7FCDA7SCSJ6A30TDPDSJQV"}}