Two of Cups

Meaning: Close bond between two people, equal partnership (Labryrinthos)

Depiction:  As part of the whale-processing scheme, Ishmael on the ship is tethered to Queequeg who is in the ocean on the back of a dead whale, holding on to a hook in the whale which is chained to the ship. There is a cup balanced on the bulwark next to Ishmael, and one on top of the whale next to Queequeg.

Text: Chapter 72 - The Monkey-Rope

Being the savage’s bowsman, that is, the person who pulled the bow-oar in his boat (the second one from forward), it was my cheerful duty to attend upon him while taking that hard-scrabble scramble upon the dead whale’s back. You have seen Italian organ-boys holding a dancing-ape by a long cord. Just so, from the ship’s steep side, did I hold Queequeg down there in the sea, by what is technically called in the fishery a monkey-rope, attached to a strong strip of canvas belted round his waist.

It was a humorously perilous business for both of us. For, before we proceed further, it must be said that the monkey-rope was fast at both ends; fast to Queequeg’s broad canvas belt, and fast to my narrow leather one. So that for better or for worse, we two, for the time, were wedded; and should poor Queequeg sink to rise no more, then both usage and honor demanded, that instead of cutting the cord, it should drag me down in his wake. So, then, an elongated Siamese ligature united us. Queequeg was my own inseparable twin brother; nor could I any way get rid of the dangerous liabilities which the hempen bond entailed.

Comments:  In the book scene, we also have Daggoo and Tashtego hanging off the side of the ship, keeping the sharks away from Queequeg and the dead whale  with their spades. I am omitting them from this card to keep the emphasis on the dyad of Queequeg and Ishmael. Queequeg is also described as wearing "the Highland costume- a shirt and socks." (And apparently he wore it well, as an admiring Ishmael makes sure to note, "in which to my eyes at least, he appeared to uncommon advantage.") This is how he should be depicted, though socks would surely become soaked and abrasive to one standing on the back of a slippery whale.