Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

272 FISH IN MYTHS, SYMBOLS. DIET, MEDICINEand transformed. The nomen is changed ; the numen remains.Although from loss of celestial reference and significance itssplendour is minished, its vitality is enormous." We find,however, that the mythic motives or original principles commonto India and Hellas (as well as Scandinavia, etc.) are mostconspicuous among the Greeks.India, indeed, seems absolutelywanting in some which in Europe manifest extraordinaryvitality and expansion.But in any comparative enumeration, strict regard must bepaid to the fact that the fauna of a myth commonly varieswith its geography ; as an instance of this, the epos, whichin Europe recounts the cunning of the fox, in India dilates onthe craft of the serpent.The fish myth proved no exception.It passed from nationto nation gradually down the ages, till we find the Greeks,borrowers sometimes unconsciously, sometimes of set purpose,perpetuating it widely in connection with deities and subdeities.Thus came itabout that to several of the greater gods ofthe Greek, and afterwards of the Roman, Pantheon appertaineda particular fish (or fishes). These not only enjoyed their gods'protection, but also the double distinction of being at once anattribute represented with them and a sacrifice offered to them.The association of certain gods with certain fishes is notalways obvious. While the linking of Amphitrite with theDolphin, or of Poseidon with the Tunny is easily explained bylegends of hoary tradition, it needs all the ingenuity ofEustathius to decipher the connection between Artemis andthe Maine.^In time, as their coins indicate, fish became associated withvarious coast towns, which owed their prosperity to fishing.Good examples descend from Olbia, Carteia, and Cyzicus onthe Propontis. The early electrum coinage of the last showsthe badge of this or that magistrate invariably accompaniedby a Tunny, the badge of the state. ^ Very remarkable ^ is* On Iliad, I. 206, cp. on XX. 71oiov tiireri/ ToTj