Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

8oHOMER—METHODS OF FISHINGsplash, makes the point of the comparison with which Irissped on her mission. Nor does the adjective appHed to thefish give any aid, for w^ijorjic, if it be not redundant, signifies'raw-flesh devouring ' (rather than ' ravenous ') fish, such asshark or sword-fish. ^But if the early Greeks and Romans only fished for thepot and not for amusement, the question arises, why should thisparticular Homeric piscator " be after " sword-fish or shark ?Fishing, down to the early Roman times, continued to be moreof a distinct trade than was the pursuit of animals and birds.Hence the Net with quicker and surer returns and not the Rodwas the favourite weapon of the fishermen by trade.In F. [Od., IV. 369, and XII. 330) something in the natureof a line and of a bait of some sort (though not necessarily of arod) attached to the bent, or barbed, hooks, must be implied.Hunger would assuredly continue to " gnaw at their bellies,"if their only food was caught by hooks, pure and simple, for,as Juliana Berners pithily puts " it, Ye can not brynge an hokeinto a fyssh mouth without a bayte."Abstention from fish, however general, did not prevailamong Homer's sailors. Athenaeus (I. 22) points out thatsince the hooks used could not have been forged on the Island,and so must have been carried on board the ships, " it is plainsailors were fond of and skilful in catching fish."Basing my surmise on opviSag in Od., XII. 331 and on thestatement of Eustathius ad loc,that hooks were used for capturingsea-birds as well as fish, I suggest that the baits on thehooks were either small fishes (left possibly by the tide in somepool in the rocks), or shellfish, or oysters. These attached toa line (with or without a rod) and thrown into the sea weretaken by both sea-fowl and fish. 3^ Compare its use four times (in the Iliad only) as applied to birds of preyand to dogs ; also figuratively to Achilles as " savage."2 Later on it is true we do find the Roman " burgher " becoming also anamateur angler, and gentlefolk, including ladies and children, taking freelyto the sport. Piscator is generally used in reference to those who werefishermen by trade, whereas venator and auceps may be likewise applied tomere lovers of hunting and fowling (H. Blumner, Die romischen Privatalierturner,Munich, 191 1).3 A gorge, almost identical with the Neolithic gorge, is used at the presentday for catching ducks on the Untersee of Holland.See Introduction.