Page 41 - Studio International - May 1974

fish hast saved the Vedas out of the underworld,
thus save me too, 0 Keshava!"

Icthyus: The Christian fish
The fish symbol has moved through cultures in
many intangible directions, until, with the
inception of Christianity, the motif was
suddenly activated in the figure of Jesus. The
shape of the fish had been symbolically
outlined along the great water masses: the
Euphrates, the Mediterranean and Tigris, and
was probably disseminated to both the East and
West from these sources. Its numinous
significance is clarified when it comes to be
identified with Jesus, the Icthyus or Fish of the
Greeks, who manifests the ambivalent aspects
of the fish simultaneously: he is the 'fisher of
men' or angler and at the same time is himself
the Divine Fish. In the figure of Jesus, the
subject (the hunter) and his object (the prey)
are configured as two aspects of a complete
individual, paralleling their position in the
natural world.
The fish as a Christian symbol first came into
existence around 200 AD in Alexandria, the
same period as the initiation of the baptismal
bath. A very characteristic description from this
time is cited by Eisler in a letter of Paulinus
of Nola to Bishop Delphinus who had
baptized him: 'I shall always remember I have
been made a (spiritual) son of the dolphin' —
this alludes to the Bishop's name Delphinus,
and of course also to that dolphin pierced by
(Opposite page top)
the trident, which is so often found in the
Winslow Homer
catacombs, probably as a symbol for the The Herring Net 1885
passion of Christ on the cross — 'so that I have Oil on canvas
become one of those fishes that pass through 29½ x 47½ in.
Coll : Art Institute of Chicago
the paths of the sea. I shall remember you not
only as my father but also as my fisher. For it is (Opposite page bottom)
Jean-Baptiste-Simeon Chardin
you who have let down the hook toward me, to
The Ray 1727
draw me out of the deep and bitter folly of the Oil on canvas
world, so that I should be soon a prey of 43 x 55 in.
Coll : Louvre, Paris
salvation; to die to Nature, for whom I had
lived, and to live in God, for whom I had been (Above)
dead'.10 Thus the early Christians believed that Duccio di Buoninsegna
(1255/60-1315/18)
the baptismal rite symbolically transformed
The Calling of the Apostles
them into fishes in a way which seems very Peter and Andrew
similar to the ancient Babylonian priests Mixed media on wood
Coll : National Gallery of Art,
'putting-on' of the skin of the fish that they
Washington, D.C.
might be so transformed. Reborn through Samuel H. Kress Collection
immersion, the neophyte is hooked out of the
(Left)
water to swallow the Eucharist, food of the
Henri Matisse
Divine Fish. Goldfish 1911
In the New Testament there are four Oil on canvas
572x 38.1 in.
iconographical references to fish; the calling of
Coll : Pushkin Museum, Moscow
the four apostles, the legend of the Miraculous
Draught, the parable of the fish hook and the
story of the penny in the fish's mouth. Among
these, the motif of the Miraculous Draught in
Luke 5.10 can be traced to a folk tale. In the
fable of the Arabian Nights (XVIIth Night),
'Story of the Three Apples', Haroun and his
Vizier, Jafar, come upon a poor fisherman with
net and basket who laments that he can catch
nothing; 'My lord, I am a fisher, and I have a
wife and children waiting for me at home. I left
my house at noon and until now, past midnight,
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