Posted on 05/17/2023 5:35:26 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The sixth century historian Procopius, in both his History of the Wars, and The Secret History, mentions a sea monster--a gigantic whale--named Porphyrios that dwelt in the Bosporus Strait and the Black Sea, and which terrorized the shipping lanes around Constantinople for about fifty years, and which causes significant headaches for the Emperor Justinian & the Roman navy. Our information is fairly limited, but what can we say about this real life Moby Dick?
SOURCES:
The Secret History, Procopius
The History of the Wars, Procopius
A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities, Kaldellis
Pinned by The Historian's CraftPorphyrios: The Sea Monster that Terrorized the Late Roman Empire
3:51 | The Historian's Craft | 70.1K subs
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Transcript 0:07 · sea monsters and lake monsters have 0:10 · captivated the human imagination for 0:12 · Millennia everyone watching this has 0:15 · probably heard the famous Loch Ness 0:16 · monster said to live in a lake in 0:19 · Scotland and everyone has probably heard 0:21 · of the Leviathan a sea serpent which 0:24 · appears in the Bible and which has 0:25 · connections to an older Canaanite 0:27 · monster loton 0:30 · the waters surrounding Constantinople in 0:32 · the middle of the 6th century were home 0:34 · to such a monster one that we actually 0:36 · know existed its name was porfirios 0:40 · Theodora Empress of the Roman Empire at 0:43 · this time and wife of the emperor of 0:44 · Justinian did not care for 0:46 · Constantinople much preferring the 0:48 · nearby town of Huron where a small 0:50 · Palace was located 0:53 · there however was treacherous because it 0:56 · meant sailing along the bus for a 0:58 · straight into tracking the attention of 1:00 · porfirios 1:01 · so what was this Beast 1:04 · well the vast majority of our 1:06 · information comes from the writings of 1:07 · prokopius both his history of the wars 1:10 · and the secret history who informs us 1:13 · that this was a whale which for whatever 1:15 · reason swam into the Mediterranean from 1:18 · the Atlantic and then made its home in 1:20 · the Black Sea and the Bosphorus for 1:22 · about 50 years it's estimated to have 1:25 · been approximately 45 feet long and 15 1:28 · feet wide or about 14 meters long and 1:31 · 4.5 meters wide and it is not entirely 1:34 · certain where the name of the whale came 1:36 · from 1:37 · there is one idea which suggests that it 1:40 · was named after a famous charioteer who 1:42 · was active in the Hippodrome at this 1:43 · time but the majority of historians 1:45 · support a different line of thought 1:46 · which argues that the name comes from 1:48 · the color of the whale as well as the 1:50 · apparent headache that the Beast caused 1:52 · for the emperor Justinian because it 1:54 · attacked ships indiscriminately both 1:57 · military and civilian indeed we might 2:00 · best understand porphyrios as meaning 2:02 · something like purple boy which if 2:04 · nothing else shows that humans have been 2:06 · giving nicknames to animals for a very 2:08 · long time even violent ones and 2:11 · apparently much like the modern day 2:13 · activity of whale watching locals 2:16 · occasionally attempted to go and see it 2:18 · except in these particular instances 2:20 · there was every chance that the whale 2:22 · attacked the ship 2:24 · there are two ideas for exactly what 2:26 · kind of animal porphyrus was in this 2:29 · video I have been saying that it was a 2:31 · whale because identifying porfirios as a 2:34 · sperm whale due to the apparent size and 2:36 · temperament of the creature makes the 2:38 · most sense as well as the color of its 2:40 · skin it would be possible to misidentify 2:42 · Shades of Gray as Sage of purple 2:44 · especially in the water but you should 2:47 · be aware that there was another argument 2:48 · which says that porphyrios was actually 2:50 · an orca of unusual size after 50 years 2:54 · of terrorizing Roman ships in the waters 2:56 · of Constantinople however porphyrus was 2:59 · finally beached when it decided to chase 3:01 · Dolphins a bit too close to shore 3:02 · struggling to free itself only trap the 3:05 · whale deeper in the sand in the mud of 3:06 · the coastline and when it was discovered 3:09 · locals came with knives Cleavers rope 3:11 · and axes to kill the Beast that had 3:13 · wreaked havoc for so long finding that 3:16 · their blades did little damage and only 3:18 · enraged the whale the people returned 3:20 · with horses and wagons and pulled 3:21 · porphyr rails deeper Inland and cut the 3:24 · released into pieces some of them 3:26 · apparently devoured the whale flesh 3:28 · immediately While others saved the 3:30 · pieces for later 3:31 · and with that so ended the reign of 3:34 · terror of porfirios Tyrant of the 3:37 · Bosphorus 3:38 · and the shipping lanes were now safe 3:40 · once more
That’s a whale of a tale, I tell ya, Lads.
*someone had to say it*
‘Face
;o]
Wanderers in that happy valley, Through two luminous windows, saw Spirits moving musically, To a lute's well-tuned law, Round about a throne where, sitting (Porphyrogene!) In state his glory well-befitting, The ruler of the realm was seen.
— from Edgar Allen Poe, The Haunted Palace
porphyrogenite n.
A Byzantine emperor's son born in the purple or porphyry room assigned to empresses, hence a prince born after his father's accession; a person born into the nobility.
Difference between a fairy tale and a sea story?
A fairy tale begins “Once upon a time”
A seat story begins “Now, this ain’t no shit”
Lol
The Whales wanted the wine and olive oil ,LOL
Nice.
That’s a pretty stone, true porphyry comes from Mons Porphyrites in Egypt, and due to the natural dimensions of the deposit, the quarried stone is not of colossal size.
The tetrarchy sculpture:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/67/Venice_%E2%80%93_The_Tetrarchs_03.jpg
When the Roman diner finished off the whale meat, he’d say, “exactam eam”.
Y’know, that started out as a fin joke.
Probably this is why the harpies are associated with the sea.
Okay, so, that started out as a harpoon joke.
I'm going back to bed.
Yeah, I know...I was married to a sailor!
LOL! Ten thousand comedians out of work and you gotta be funny for free? *face palm*
Only ten thousand? At least it’s a start.
Hopefully, it’s most vitriolic of the bunch. ;o]
Ahhhh I sea!
Aye, and it’s good that you do! ;o]
I went to school with Al G.
No, they’ve all got late night shows.
That explains it.
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