Divine Nature and the Natural Divine: The Marine Folklore of Pliny the Elder

Abstract

This article considers the depiction of the marine world and its mythical inhabitants in the Natural History of Pliny the Elder. Through an ecocritical reading of the text, whereby I consider Pliny’s tendency to conceptualise Nature as a divinity and his consequential displacement of the traditionally anthropomorphic Greco-Roman gods, we can better understand the underlying factors in Pliny’s selective inclusion of ideas. I argue that Pliny’s divinisation of Nature, attributable to the influence of ancient Stoicism, has impacted his conception of the relationship between humans and Nature, an ideal centred around a post-anthropocentric framework. This, in turn, exerts a ripple effect onto the folkloric elements of the text. Both the anthropic figures of the sea (Nereids and Tritons) along with more bestial creatures (sea monsters) become dispossessed of traditionally divine attributes and associations with Poseidon/Neptune, leading to their representation in the Natural History as more ‘naturalised’ types of sea creatures.