Page 39 - Studio International - May 1974

'In the first year after the creation of the world the fish on an eagle and a dolphin on the bird. meal in the Kiddush prayer to the present day.
a "rational being" emerged from the Persian It has been suggested that the pair may have This sacrament is thought to represent a great
Gulf and landed on the shore of Babylonia. symbolized : Messianic banquet, a Sabbath meal which
It had the body of a fish; under its fish-head, 'The passage of the sun in its nightly voyage stands as a rehearsal for the World Sabbath
however, there was a human face and under its through the ocean for the eagle was a solar when the new Kingdom shall come in a new
fish-tail a pair of human legs . . . this being animal, which might assume the shape of an time.
called Oannes (a variant on Hani) passed the day animal which could swim, in which both All folklore in which the fish is involved
without partaking of any food and taught animals stand for the sun and the combination makes some reference to its ambivalent sexual
them the art of writing as well as all sciences symbolized its second phase'.6 nature. In Indian the Buddhist symbol of two
and crafts, the building of cities, the surveying In the same manner, sea-monsters are fish with a fig leaf represents the yoni, or female
of land, the observation of the stars and finally frequent images on Etruscan tomb paintings, form. The Hindus in their marriage rites
the sowing and harvesting of all kinds of grains funeral urns and sarcophagi : they carried the suggest an analogy between the act of fishing
and plants. Every evening it returned to the dead to a future life. and that of conception; in the ceremony a
sea. '3 couple turn toward the sun and try to catch
That the Babylonian symbology of the fish The fish as a sacred food and a sign of fertility fish in a net. Addressing a priest they ask:
bore a direct relation to later Greek mythology In Greek cult life the fish was often a taboo 'What do you see ?' He replies : 'I see sons and
has been demonstrated by Eisler. The Greek food; the priestesses of the Eleusian mysteries cattle'. Many fish caught signify many children.
and Latin name for a certain kind of were forbidden five kinds of fishes but bathed The Hindus also have a marriage ceremony in
Mediterranean perch mentioned by Ovid in the sea before the rites of their Great which a fish is kept moving in an artificial bowl
under the name of `channe' is now called cano Mystery Feast in September. It was believed and the bride attempts to shoot an arrow at it.
and in French serran. In Latin it was referred a sacred connection was held between the In Greek the word delphys is similar to that
to as the 'writing fish' because of its black dots goddesses of Eleusis, Demeter and for dolphin, which also translates as womb.
which looked like lettering. As 'e' and 'i' are Persephone, and the sea. The main course in a Greek marriage banquet
interchangeable both in Babylonian and The fish as a sacred food is intimately consisted of fish, and it is legend that Zeus
Hellenic, 'channe' probably relates to Hani. connected with the rites of fish cults, a practice had an 'ellops', the holy fish of the pagan
It is perhaps this god who migrated to the which has continued in the Roman Catholic mysteries, put aside for himself and his wife.
Orpheus cult of the Greeks, to Irish mythology observance of the Friday fish meal. In the Frescoes from Pompeii show a girl angling for
and even to the legend of Vishnu in Indian Syrophanecian cult of Atargatis, ritual fish fish with the assistance of the love god Eros.
folklore. meals were eaten in a temple surrounded by In the old Jewish tradition the marriage
The symbol of the fish was potent within pools filled with sacred and untouchable fish. ceremonial was celebrated with a fish meal, and
the Greek tradition from pre-Hellenic times. In Egypt, priests were forbidden to eat fish; Moroccan Jews choose a day in the wedding
Eisler cites its occurrence in a number of they were held to be unclean. Plutarch notes week as a fish day in which the bridegroom sends
mythical contexts : that it was a Greek custom to eat a broiled many fishes to the bride. Fishes are thrown at
'In Lycia, where the sacred fishes "orphoi" fish before the door of one's house on the ninth the feet of the bride in Fez. Among certain
and their representatives the divine "Fish", day of the ninth month, and one authority sects of Sephardi Jews a fish-dance is conducted
Orphos or Diorphos, the son of Mithra and the (Dolger) believes this custom may have at the marriage ceremonial, while in Russia a
Sacred Stone, were revered, we find the divine prepared the way for the Eucharist in fishnet used to be thrown over the bride. In
fisherman, Orpheus. In Seriphos, where the Christianity. the Orphic mysteries, the life of a being has been
crawfish was held to be sacred, there is the The fish as a clean food is associated at a compared to the netting of a fish net.
mythical Dictys, the "net-fisher" intimately later time with the honeycomb of the bee —
connected with the legend of Perseus. On the long regarded as a prophetic animal. When the The Roman fish
other hand, coins of Tarsus in Cilicia, adorned crucified Christ rose he was seen to partake Toynbee asserts that fish in pagan times were
with the wolves of Appolo Lykios, bear the of only two foods, fish and honeycomb; the clearly regarded as symbols of the living dead
image of Perseus coupled with an anonymous queen bees were considered virgin and were by their frequent appearance in funerary art,
fisherman holding a fishing rod, a perhaps likened to the Holy Virgin. In early citing as an example a relief from the
fishing-basket and a fish; the same local Christian catacomb paintings, as in the mausoleum at Ghirza in Tripoli where eight
combination of Perseus and the fisherman 'Gallery of Flavians' dating from the first large fishes swim around and nibble at a central
recurs on a work of art as early as the century AD, there are a number of sacramental rosette, 'symbol of life beyond the grave'.
Hesodean "Shield of Herakles". A female meals, usually fish and bread; at the Greek Such an association may have helped to
counterpart of this Dictys is the Cretan Chapel of the Priscilla cemetery, in the popularize the Icthyus acrostic, (see footnote i)
Artemis or Britomartis Dictyana just as is the second century AD, the meal is celebrated on a the myths of Jesus as a saviour fish.
Troazenian and Epidaurian Saronia to her lawn. Yet Eisler indicates that this sacred fish The Romans, like the Babylonians, kept fish
legendary consort the hunter Saron. Finally meal was absorbed into Christian iconography ponds, but for ornamental rather than
the goddess, whom we find represented on from traditional fish and bread banquets, the sacramental purposes. Roman fish ponds were
archaic Greek intaglios holding on a hook a agape feasts of the earliest Christians, rather called 'piscane' or 'salsae'. The custom was
captured fish, may be identified with Artemis than from the teachings of the gospels. The begun by Licinius Murena at the end of the
"Aspalis" (equal the Fisher or the Angler) observance of a fish day was perhaps taken from second century BC when he cultivated fish as
with an epithet which Hesychiis attributes to the Jews. Friday was the day dedicated to pets. For a banquet, Julius Caesar was lent
the Anthamanian dialect'.4 Venus or Ishtar by the ancients and can be between two and six thousand ornamental fish
The oldest passage in Greek fishing lore is from traced back as a reincarnated figure Hana of by Garius Hirrius and, in an even more
the Death of Patroclus saga : Babylonia or Atargatis of the Syrians. It seems frivolous vein, the fishes of Domitian's pond
'As when some man seated on jutting rock plausible that the Jews adopted this Friday had personal names, rose to the surface when
from out the sea a holy fish doth take with net fish custom during their Babylonian exile. called and licked the hand of their master.
and cruel brass'.5 Among the Jews the fish must be accompanied A Roman called Crassus decked his favourite
The image of the angler perched on a jutting by a newly-baked loaf of bread which may fish with earrings and a jewelled necklace and
rock is a recurring motif in Greek fishing account for the loaves in the Catacomb after burying her at her death, grieved as for a
iconography; others, particularly on coins are paintings. It is blessed before the start of the loved one. Whether this custom of jewelled
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