Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

CHAPTER XXVISACREDFISHApart from the mythological fishes, the Abdu and the Ant,which were supposed to accompany the boat of the Sun, wefind others held sacred or worshipped in different Nomes orcities.Before considering these, I draw attention to the cut of arepresentation from Gamhud,i and to the account by E. Mahlerof a Stele, attributed to Thotmes III., now in the Museum atBuda-Pesth.2Both are remarkable ; for in both Fish takes the placeof the usual Bird-Soul. As the Buda-Pesth Stele is unpubUshed,we have to depend on Mahler's account. He tells us that inthe ancient beUefs and myths of Egypt the fish was a symbolof eternity, and guided the boat which bore the dead to thewaters of the blessed.The Gamhud illustration, attributed to the Ptolemies, whoheld fast to the tradition that the parts of Osiris were eaten bythree fishes, one of which was the Oxyrhynchus, has a distinctinterest, because here for the first time the Oxyrhynchus figuresas a substitute for the Bird-Soul.The Buda-Pesth Stele probably deduces from Gurob, wherethere is, or rather twenty years ago was, a fish cemeteryexcavated by Petrie. Here, too, was a temple built byThotmes III., and a smaller one erected in his honour.The idea of the dead man may well have been " I haveembalmed thousands and thousands of fish. Now then, oneof you, in return do your best to secure for me immortality."^ Ahmed Bey Kamal, Annales du Service des AntiquitJs de I'Eeypt, 1908IX. 23 f., PI. I.* Actes du IV' Congris International d'Histoire des Religions, 1913, p. 97 f.327