ayed against cosmic, pagan forces of nature. For example, from one point of view Ahab is the Christian sailor who pits himself against the pagan nature-force of the whale. From another he is the evil genius who drags a shipload of Christians into an obsession that has mythic, pagan death-force of its own. There is also a more direct Biblical reference in the opposition of culturally different forces in the Old Testament record of the ancient Hebrews, who, though the chosen people of Jahweh, had difficulty acquiescing permanently in the monotheist ethos. Sliding away from Jahweh--whether to worship Aaron's golden calf (Exod. 32.4) or to embrace, as King Ahab did (1 Kings 16.33), the worship of Baal, his pagan wife
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