Sea Monsters Unmasked and Sea Fables Explained Part 8

28. DITTO. RETRACTED WITHIN ITS Sh.e.l.l 81

29. DITTO. CRAWLING 86

30. DITTO. SWIMMING 87

31. Sh.e.l.l OF THE PAPER NAUTILUS (_Argonauta argo_) 88

32. Sh.e.l.l OF THE PEARLY NAUTILUS (_Nautilus pompilius_) 89

33. THE PEARLY NAUTILUS (_Nautilus Pompilius_) AND SECTION OF 90 ITS Sh.e.l.l

34. THE GOOSE-TREE. _From Gerard's 'Herball'_ 104

35. DITTO. _Fac-simile from Aldrovandus_ 110

36. DEVELOPMENT OF BARNACLES INTO GEESE. _Fac-simile from 111 Aldrovandus_

37. SECTION OF A SESSILE BARNACLE. _Bala.n.u.s tintinnabulum_ 113

38. PEDUNCULATED BARNACLE. _Lepas anatifera_ 115

39. A s.h.i.+P'S FIGURE-HEAD PARTLY COVERED WITH BARNACLES 116

40. WHALE BARNACLE. _Coronula diadema_ 117

41. A YOUNG BARNACLE. _Larva of Chthamalus stellatus_ 118

SEA FABLES EXPLAINED.

THE MERMAID.

Next to the pleasure which the earnest zoologist derives from study of the habits and structure of living animals, and his intelligent appreciation of their perfect adaptation to their modes of life, and the circ.u.mstances in which they are placed, is the interest he feels in eliminating fiction from truth, whilst comparing the fancies of the past with the facts of the present. As his knowledge increases, he learns that the descriptions by ancient writers of so-called "fabulous creatures" are rather distorted portraits than invented falsehoods, and that there is hardly one of the monsters of old which has not its prototype in Nature at the present day. The idea of the Lernean Hydra, whose heads grew again when cut off by Hercules, originated, as I have shown in another chapter, in a knowledge of the octopus; and in the form and movements of other animals with which we are now familiar we may, in like manner, recognise the similitude and archetype of the mermaid.

But we must search deeply into the history of mankind to discover the real source of a belief that has prevailed in almost all ages, and in all parts of the world, in the existence of a race of beings uniting the form of man with that of the fish. A rude resemblance between these creatures of imagination and tradition and certain aquatic animals is not sufficient to account for that belief. It probably had its origin in ancient mythologies, and in the sculptures and pictures connected with them, which were designed to represent certain attributes of the deities of various nations. In the course of time the meaning of these was lost; and subsequent generations regarded as the portraits of existing beings effigies which were at first intended to be merely emblematic and symbolical.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 1.--NOAH, HIS WIFE, AND THREE SONS, AS FISH-TAILED DEITIES.

_From a Gem in the Florentine Gallery. After Calmet._]

Early idolatry consisted, first, in separating the idea of the One Divinity into that of his various attributes, and of inventing symbols and making images of each separately; secondly, in the wors.h.i.+p of the sun, moon, stars, and planets, as living existences; thirdly, in the deification of ancestors and early kings; and these three forms were often mingled together in strange and tangled confusion.

Amongst the famous personages with whose history men were made acquainted by oral tradition was Noah. He was known as the second father of the human race, and the preserver and teacher of the arts and sciences as they existed before the Great Deluge, of which so many separate traditions exist among the various races of mankind.

Consequently, he was an object of wors.h.i.+p in many countries and under many names; and his wife and sons, as his a.s.sistants in the diffusion of knowledge, were sometimes a.s.sociated with him.

According to Berosus, of Babylon,--the Chaldean priest and astronomer, who extracted from the sacred books of "that great city" much interesting ancient lore, which he introduced into his 'History of Syria,' written, about B.C. 260, for the use of the Greeks,--at a time when men were sunk in barbarism, there came up from the Erythrean Sea (the Persian Gulf), and landed on the Babylonian sh.o.r.e, a creature named Oannes, which had the body and head of a fish. But above the fish's head was the head of a man, and below the tail of the fish were human feet.

It had also human arms, a human voice, and human language. This strange monster sojourned among the rude people during the day, taking no food, but retiring to the sea at night; and it continued for some time thus to visit them, teaching them the arts of civilized life, and instructing them in science and religion.[34]

[34] Berosus, lib. i. p. 48.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 2.--HEA, OR NOAH, THE G.o.d OF THE FLOOD.

_Khorsabad._]

In this tale we have a distorted account of the life and occupation of Noah after his escape from the deluge which destroyed his home and drowned his neighbours. Oannes was one of the names under which he was wors.h.i.+pped in Chaldea, at Erech ("the place of the ark"), as the sacred and intelligent fish-G.o.d, the teacher of mankind, the G.o.d of science and knowledge. There he was also called Oes, Hoa, Ea, Ana, Anu, Aun, and Oan. Noah was wors.h.i.+pped, also, in Syria and Mesopotamia, and in Egypt, at "populous No,"[35] or Thebes--so named from "Theba," "the ark."

[35] Nahum iii. 8.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 3.--DAGON. _From a bas relief. Nimroud._]

The history of the coffin of Osiris is another version of Noah's ark, and the period during which that Egyptian divinity is said to have been shut up in it, after it was set afloat upon the waters, was precisely the same as that during which Noah remained in the ark.

Dagon, also--sometimes called Odacon--the great fish-G.o.d of the Philistines and Babylonians, was another phase of Oannes. "Dag," in Hebrew, signifies "a male fish," and "Aun" and "Oan" were two of the names of Noah. "Dag-aun" or "Dag-oan" therefore means "the fish Noah."

He was portrayed in two ways. The more ancient image of him was that of a man issuing from a fish, as described of Oannes by Berosus; but in later times it was varied to that of a man whose upper half was human, and the lower parts those of a fish. The image of Dagon which fell upon its face to the ground before "the ark of the G.o.d of Israel," was probably of this latter form, for we read[36] that in its fall, "the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold: only the _stump_ (in the margin, "_the fishy part_") of Dagon was left to him." This was evidently Milton's conception of him:

"Dagon his name; sea-monster, upward man And downward fish."[37]

[36] 1 Samuel v. 4.

[37] 'Paradise Lost,' Book i. l. 462.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 4.--DAGON. _After Calmet._]

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 5.--DAGON. _From an Agate Signet. Nineveh._]

In some of the Nineveh sculptures of the fish-G.o.d, the head of the fish forms a kind of mitre on the head of the man, whilst the body of the fish appears as a cloak or cape over his shoulders and back. The fish varies in length; in some cases the tail almost touches the ground; in others it reaches but little below the man's waist.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 6.--FISH AVATAR OF VISHNU.

_After Calmet and Maurice._]

In one of his "avatars," or incarnations, the G.o.d Vishnu "the Preserver," is represented as issuing from the mouth of a fish. He is celebrated as having miraculously preserved one righteous family, and, also, the Vedas, the sacred records, when the world was drowned. Not only is this legend of the Indian G.o.d wrought up with the history of Noah, but Vishnu and Noah bear the same name--Vishnu being the Sanscrit form of "Ish-nuh," "the man Noah." The word "avatar" also means "out of the boat." In fact the whole mythology of Greece and Rome, as well as of Asia, is full of the history and deeds of Noah, which it is impossible to misunderstand. In all the representations of a deity having a combined human and piscine form, the original idea was that of a person coming out of a fish--not being part of one, but issuing from it, as Noah issued from the ark. In all of them the fish denoted "preservation," "fecundity," "plenty," and "diffusion of knowledge."[38]

As the image was not the effigy of a divine personage, but symbolized certain attributes of Divinity, its s.e.x was comparatively unimportant, although it is possible that, combined with the fecundity of the fish, the idea of Noah's wife, as the second mother of all subsequent generations, according to the widely-spread and accepted traditions of the deluge, may have influenced the impersonation.

[38] Some writers are of the opinion that the legend of Oannes contains an allusion to the rising and setting of the sun, and that his semi-piscine form was the expression of the idea that half his time was spent above ground, and half below the waves. The same commentators also regard all the "civilizing" G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses as, respectively, solar and lunar deities. The attributes symbolized in the wors.h.i.+p of Noah and the sun are so nearly alike that the two interpretations are not incompatible.

Atergatis, the far-famed G.o.ddess of the Syrians, was also a fish-divinity. Her image, like that of Dagon, had at first a fish's body with human extremities protruding from it; but in the course of centuries it was gradually altered to that of a being the upper portion of whose body was that of a woman and the lower half that of a fish.

Gatis was a powerful queen of Sidon, and mother of Semiramis. She received the t.i.tle of "Ater," or "Ader," "the Great," for the benefits she conferred on her people; one of these benefits being a strict conservation of their fisheries, both from their own imprudent use, and from foreign interference. She issued an edict that no fish should be eaten without her consent, and that no one should take fish in the neighbouring sea without a licence from herself. It is not improbable that she and her celebrated daughter, who is said by Ovid and others to have been the builder of the walls of Babylon, were wors.h.i.+pped together; for that Atergatis was the same as the fish-G.o.ddess Ashteroth, or Ashtoreth, "the builder of the encompa.s.sing wall," we have, amongst other proofs, a remarkable one in Biblical history. In the first book of Maccabees v. 43, 44, we read that "all the heathen being discomfited before him (Judas Maccabeus) cast away their weapons, and fled unto the temple that was at _Carnaim_. But they took the city, and burned the temple with all that were therein. Thus was _Carnaim_ subdued, neither could they stand any longer before Judas." In the second book of Maccabees xii. 26, we are told that "Maccabeus marched forth to _Carnion_, and to the temple of _Atargatis_, and there he slew five and twenty thousand persons." In Genesis xiv. 5, this city and temple are referred to as "_Ashteroth Karnaim_."

Fig. 7 is a representation of Atergatis on a medal coined at Ma.r.s.eilles.

It shows that when the Phoenician colony from Syria, by whom that city was founded, settled there, they brought with them the wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ds of their country.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 7.--ATERGATIS.