Denderah planisphere

[fin john]

Folks,

 

      In "The Fossil Whale," chapter 104, Melville draws on the work of Vivant Denon (1747--1825) and possibly Sir William Drummond (1770--1828) for his knowledge of the Denderah planisphere. For a detailed breakdown of this see my Melvillean Loomings.

 

    Melville finds leviathan in the Denderah planisphere, but the planisphere has no such critter.

 

   Nut and Denderah have intimate ties. The planisphere was sculpted upon an upper story ceiling in the temple of Denderah. Adjacent rooms bore the images of Nut, the Egyptian sky goddess, personification of the heavenly vault. In latter Egyptian history Denderah's priests claimed that their city was Nut's home. They recorded that their temple contained the birth chamber where Nut brought forth Isis. Melville begins chapter 80, "The Nut:" If the Sperm Whale be physiognomically a Sphynx, to the phenologist his brain seems that geometrical circle which it is impossible to square." Could Melville have written this having in mind the Denderah planisphere which is represented as a circle within a square? The following web site www.planisphere2.com shows Dendera but without its being squared. But this web site should deliver it all, www.AllPosters.com .

 

John Gretchko

[fin john]

Folks,

 

    Why does Melville place a leviathan into the Denderah planisphere when he knew no such animal existed there? The planisphere does have a large standing hippopotamus, but that is not a swimming leviathan. It also has a fishy Capricorn, but that is hardly a leviathan. This does not stop the editors, Mansfield and Vincent, from seeing "fish-like whales" in this planisphere. Those editors paid little to no attention to astronomy. Melville could not help but see this planisphere depicted in Denon's folio Egypt (1816) and republished as Egypt Delineated (1819, 1825, 1826) and again in The Penny Cyclopaedia. Melville knew that he, Melville, was fantasizing when he placed a leviathan in the Denderah planisphere.

 

  That he saw this Denon work I detailed in my Melvillean Loomings. The Mansfield-Vincent edition referred to a different Denon work but fell short of suggesting Melville's use of it. In that they were correct. The Bryant-Springer edition refers to this other Denon work and then says that "Melville echoes Denon in 'great temple,' 'ceiling,' and 'planisphere.'" But these are exactly the words plus others that I point out in Melvillean Loomings to suggest that Melville saw Denon's folio Egypt.  In other words Bryant-Springer are being half-baked in mentioning the suggestion of Mansfield-Vincent but really employing my work, again without accrediting me. Crediting my book would not have been politically correct for these editors.

 

   The last paragraph of this chapter Melville takes almost verbatim from the Navigantium (1705) of John Harris, an important whaling source. This is a flip back to the fossil temple in the Arsacides. Some of Harris wording can be found in the Arsacides' chapter as well.

 

   So what is Melville really doing here. Why introduce the Denderah planisphere at all? What does this have to do with the Arsacides?

  

John Gretchko