20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Allusions & Cultural References

When authors refer to other great works, people, and events, it’s usually not accidental. Put on your super-sleuth hat and figure out why.

Literary and Philosophical References

  • Melville, Moby Dick (1.1.10,12)
  • Hippolytus (1.1.12)
  • Rabelais (1.4.10)
  • Homer, The Iliad (1.4.11)
  • Diderot (1.8.17)
  • Cicero (1.8.39)
  • Oedipus and the Sphinx (1.10.21)

References from Nemo's Study

Authors

  • Homer (1.11.8)
  • Victor Hugo (1.11.8)
  • Xenophon (1.11.8)
  • Michelet (1.11.8)
  • George Sand (1.11.8)

Scientists and Other Thinkers

  • Humboldt (1.11.8)
  • Arago (1.11.8)
  • Foucault (1.11.8)
  • Henri Sainte-Claire Deville (1.11.8)
  • Chasles (1.11.8)
  • Milne-Edwards (1.11.8)
  • Quatrefages (1.11.8)
  • Tyndall (1.11.8)
  • Faraday (1.11.8)
  • Berthelot (1.11.8)
  • Abbé Secchi (1.11.8)
  • Petermann (1.11.8)
  • Commander Maury (1.11.8)
  • Agassiz (1.11.8)
  • Joseph Bertrand, Les Fondateurs de l'astronomie (1.11.8)

Stuff Found in Nemo's Salon

Painters

  • Raphael (1.11.23)
  • Leonardo da Vinci (1.11.23)
  • Correggio (1.11.23)
  • Titian (1.11.23)
  • Veronese (1.11.23)
  • Murillo (1.11.23)
  • Holbein (1.11.23)
  • Velázquez (1.11.23)
  • Ribera (1.11.23)
  • Rubens (1.11.23)
  • Teniers (1.11.23)
  • Gerit Dou (1.11.23)
  • Metsu (1.11.23)
  • Paulus Potter (1.11.23)
  • Géricault (1.11.23)
  • Prud'hon (1.11.23)
  • Backhuysen (1.11.23)
  • Vernet (1.11.23)

"Modern" Painters

  • Delacroix (1.11.23)
  • Ingres (1.11.23)
  • Decamps (1.11.23)
  • Troyon (1.11.23)
  • Meissonier (1.11.23)
  • Daubigny (1.11.23)

Composers

  • Weber (1.11.27)
  • Rossini (1.11.27)
  • Mozart (1.11.27)
  • Beethoven (1.11.27)
  • Hayden (1.11.27)
  • Meyerbeer (1.11.27)
  • Hérold (1.11.27)
  • Wagner (1.11.27)
  • Auber (1.11.27)
  • Gounod (1.11.27)
  • Jean Macé, Les Serviteurs de l'estomac (1.18.38)

Thinkers and Writers

  • Aristotle (2.1.28)
  • Athenaeus (2.1.28)
  • Pliny (2.1.28)
  • Oppian (2.1.28)
  • H.C. Sirr, Ceylon and the Cingalese (2.2.2)
  • Robert Percival (2.2.14)
  • Strabo (2.4.46)
  • Virgil, Georgics (2.6.65)
  • Cassiodorus (2.6.115)
  • Pliny (2.6.115, 2.7.44)
  • Michelet (2.7.1)
  • Avienus (2.7.44)
  • Victor Hugo (2.8.30)

Men Who Wrote of Atlantis

  • Theopompus (2.9.59)
  • Plato (2.9.59)
  • Origen (2.9.59)
  • Porphyry (2.9.59)
  • Iamblichus (2.9.59)
  • d'Anville (2.9.59)
  • Malte-Brun (2.9.59)
  • Humbolft (2.9.59)
  • Posidonius (2.9.59)
  • Pliny (2.9.59)
  • Ammianus (2.9.59)
  • Marcellinus (2.9.59)
  • Tertullian (2.9.59)
  • Engel (2.9.59)
  • Sherer (2.9.59)
  • Tournefort (2.9.59)
  • Buffon (2.9.59)
  • d'Avezac (2.9.59)
  • Plato, Timaeus; Critias (2.9.60)
  • Solon (2.9.60)
  • Jean-Sylvain Bailly (2.10.4)
  • Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet (2.10.78)
  • Maury, The Physical Geography of the Sea (2.11.6)
  • Olaus Magnus (2.18.42)
  • Victor Hugo, Les Travailleurs de la mer (2.19.1)
  • Edgar Allan Poe, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (2.22.8)
  • Book of Ecclesiastes (2.23.5)

Historical, Biblical, and Mythological References

  • The Kraken (1.1.10,12; 2.18.19)
  • Aristotle (1.1.10)
  • Pliny (1.1.10)
  • Carolus Linnaeus (1.1.12)
  • Sir Samuel Cunard, owner of Cunard Line (1.1.17)
  • Abraham Lincoln (1.2.32)
  • The Leviathan (1.4.1)
  • Knight of Rhodes (1.4.1)
  • Dieudonné of Gozo (1.4.1)
  • Argus (1.4.4)
  • Neptune, Proteus (1.9.70)
  • Orpheus (1.11.28)
  • Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, explorer (1.11.35)
  • Galileo (1.14.24)
  • Maury, oceanographer (1.14.24)
  • Captain Cook (1.18.32)
  • Athenaeus, ancient Greek doctor (1.18.34)
  • Galen (1.18.34)
  • La Pérouse, French explorer (1.19.17)
  • King Louis XVI of France (1.19.17)
  • Dumont d'Urville, French explorer (1.19.38)
  • Charles Darwin (2.1.19)
  • Cleopatra (2.2.62)
  • Vasco de Gama (2.4.1)
  • Pan, Greek god (2.4.32)
  • Moses, the Pharaoh (2.4.57)
  • Moses (2.4.70)
  • Sestoris (2.4.74)
  • Necho (2.4.74)
  • Darius, son of Hystaspesa (2.4.74)
  • Ptolemy II (2.4.74)
  • Caliph Umar (2.4.74)
  • Caliph al-Mansur (2.4.74)
  • Mohammed ben Abdallah (2.4.74)
  • Napoleon Bonaparte (2.4.74)
  • Ferdinand de Lesseps (2.4.75)
  • Proteus, Neptune VIII (2.6.67)
  • Vitellius (2.6.70)
  • Marc Antony (2.6.71)
  • Battle of Actium (2.6.71)
  • Emperor Augustus (2.6.71)
  • Neptune (2.7.1)
  • Pluto (2.7.1)
  • Arachne (2.7.12)
  • Ferdinand de Lesseps (2.7.21)
  • Thaddeus Kosciusko (2.8.30)
  • Marco Bozzaris (2.8.30)
  • King Leonidas of the Spartans (2.8.30)
  • Daniel O'Connell (2.8.30)
  • Daniele Manina (2.8.30)
  • John Brown (2.8.30)
  • Louis XIV of France (2.8.49)
  • Duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, a.k.a. Philip V of Spain (2.8.49)
  • Charles III of Spain (2.8.50)
  • Admiral de Châteaurenault (2.8.51)
  • Christopher Columbus (2.11.4)
  • Tritons, Sirens (2.14.42)
  • Derk Gherritz (3.14.91)
  • Captain Cook (3.14.91)
  • Edward Bransfield (3.14.91)
  • Benjamin Morrell (3.14.91)
  • George Powell (3.14.91)
  • James Weddell (3.14.91)
  • Henry Foster (3.14.91)
  • John Biscoe (3.14.91)
  • Charles Wilkes (3.14.91)
  • John Balleny (3.14.91)
  • The Titans (2.18.11)
  • Bishop of Nadaros (2.18.42)
  • Captain Frédéric Bouyer (2.18.53)
  • Cyrus Field (2.20.29)
  • Lapoype-Vertrieux (2.20.51)
  • Admiral d'Estaing (2.20.51)
  • Villaret de Joyeuse (2.20.51)
  • Admiral Vanstabel (2.20.51)
  • The Vengeur, Republican French ship (2.20.52)
  • The Maelstrom (2.22.56)

Pop Culture

  • "Yankee Doodle" (2.12.98)