Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

—FISH ON COINS AND MEDALS 273an electrum stater with a Tunny upright between two sacrificialfillets, which may signify that this tunny was closely connectedwith some deity or was itself of a sacro-sanct character.Even more remarkable is a coin of Abdera in HispaniaBsetica. This carries on its obverse a laureat head ofTiberius : onits reverse a four-pillared temple, two of thecolumns of which are in the form of fish.This unique representationhas never been fully explained. 1It is surely a happy coincidence that on some mintagesof Imperial date the fish occurs together with the head of someLAUREAT HEAD OF TIBERIUS AND TEMPLE WITH TWO COLUMNS INFISH, FROM A COIN OF ABDERA.From A. Heiss, PI. 45, 9.SHAPE OFself-styled deities, such as that choice couple, Nero andDomitian. On sundry pieces struck by Nero, the octopuslikeand predatory Sepia not inappropriately finds place ;butmonstrously incongruous seem the coins which associate theman-serving and man-saving Dolphin with the self-servingand man-slaying Domitian. 2With the Jews, although its emblematic employment wasscanty, the fish occasionally figured, e.g. as a sign of Judah.In the Talmud it appears more frequently, and as symbolicof some moral quality^ A. Heiss, op. cit., pi. 45, 9.e.g. of innocence. ^ In Japan the carp- See Cohen, Monnaies Domitian, Nos. 227, 229, 236, and Pitra, op. cit.,pp. 508-512. Although writing some sixty years ago he enumerates no lessthan 156 illustrations from coins and representations of fish association.* For the fish-symbol in Judaism there is a good collection of facts inI. Scheftelowitz, "Das Fisch-Symbol in Judentum und Christentum," in theArchiv. fiir Religionswirsenschaft (1911), XIV. 1-53, 321-392,