Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

2ASURBANIPAL'S HOUNDS 375sometimes is, in a sense suggesting fishing by a harpoon orspear, or as typical of victory, but rather as a symbolical actof homage and propitiation to the unknown deities of the deep.A later Assyrian king, Asurbanipal, no doubt from thevalue which the test of use in his many hunting expeditionsafforded, regarded the dog from a point of view very differentfrom that apparently taken by some of his subjects.To judge by an old Assyrian prayer, " From the dog, thesnake, and the scorpion, and whatever is baneful may Merodachpreserve us, ' ' the general feeling was that of fear.But five clay models preserve for us representations of someof the king's favourite hounds, with their names inscribed uponthem. The appropriateness of their names betrays theirmaster's familiarity with canine traits, as we detect fromChaser of the Wicked, Conqueror of the Foe, Biter of his Enemy,Mighty in his help. He crossed the road and did his bidding !iAt Harran (according to al-Nadim), dogs were consideredsacred and had offerings made unto them, a statement whichis strengthened by the divine title at Harran of My Lord withthe Dogs, which seemingly points to Marduk and his fourdogs, the name of one of which, Iltehu, " the Howler," is ascharacteristic to-day as it was five thousand years ago.In the Bible it is curious to note the low position of the dog.It is rarely spoken of with approval. Possibly the existenceand proclivities of the numerous packs of pariah dogs accountfor the fact. Tobit seems the only person who makes hisdog his companion, and then only when on journeys.Over two hundred kinds of fish are enumerated in thecatalogue of Asurbanipal's library at Nineveh : the attachmentof the fish determinative constitutes our authority. No writer,even Dr, Boulenger, has classified or identified the fishes ofAssyrian representations as thoroughly as Montet and othershave those of the hieroglyphs,^ W. Hayes Ward, op. cit., p. 41S, states the dog appears in cylindersvery early—chiefly as guardian of the flock. Cf. Figures 391, 393, 394, 395.He is seen in the late Babylonian: cf. Figs. 549, 551, 552, and later still inhunting scenes, Figs. 630, 1064, 1076 and 1094, which last shows in a veryspirited manner four dogs in a fight with two lions. The dog running away isfairly " "making tracks !* Cf. Tobit V. 16, and xi, 4.