DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49270#0330
Ancient Egyptian Fishing
243
More worthy of consideration, yet not to be cited as in any way conclusive, are the
words of Aristotle, o S’ itttfos 6 Trora/Mos 6 ev AA/utttm,161 and the statement of Hecataeus,
incorporated in the second book of Herodotus, to the effect that at Papremis the hippopo-
tamus was held sacred.162 This latter assertion receives a general confirmation from the
Egyptian evidence (Taurt, etc.), and from a popular usage recorded by Plutarch — viz.,
that in Egypt a bound hippopotamus was stamped on certain little cakes annually eaten
at a festival of Isis.163 Such a custom probably originated in the ceremonial consumption
of actual hippopotami, and whether the substitution of the stamped cakes for the real
flesh was due to the scarcity of the beasts, the decline of hunting, or to other causes, the
fact that the hippopotamus was thus remembered by the people points, if not to its sporadic
continuance in the Delta, at least to the comparative recentness of its extinction. Dio-
dorus Siculus, who dwells on the damage done to the crops by these animals, adds that if
they were more prolific it would go very hard with the Egyptian farmer.164 165 This, I take it,
lets us see the true state of affairs in the Delta at the time Diodorus visited Egypt (ca. 20
B. C.) — the hippopotamus survived and was recognized as a nuisance, though of rare
occurrence. Diodorus tells us, without naming the locality, that it was hunted, and gives
us a description of the methods employed in taking it. “It is hunted by many persons
together,” he writes, “each being armed with iron darts. As soon as it comes to the
surface of the water, they surround it with their boats, and closing in on all sides they
wound it with the blades furnished with iron barbs, and having hempen ropes fastened to
them, in order that when wounded it may be let out, until its strength fails it from loss of
blood.”160 This description, if for iron166 harpoons copper ones were to be substituted,
might apply almost verbatim to some of the hunting scenes of the Old Kingdom (cf. fig. 82).
§ 6. The bident. Our knowledge of the bident, or two-pronged fish spear, is based
wholly on the ancient representations: among the spear and harpoon heads found in
Egyptian excavations are none which appear to have been designed to be hafted in pairs,
figured, to Ethiopia. I may note here that whereas the mosaic displays a typical Egyptian pigeon cote, several con-
vincing reed canoes — in one of which a fisherman is seated with a rod — and a credible cane hut, a man in front of
the latter grasps a barbed trident — a form of fish spear common in ancient Greece and Italy, but unknown in Egypt.
161 Aristotle, De animalibus historia, II, 7.
162 Hecataeus, ed. R. H. Klausen, Berlin, 1831, frag. 293 [= Herodot. II, 71; teste Porphyr. ap. Euseb. Praep.
Evang. X, 3, p. 166B].
163 Plutarch, op. cit., § 50. Cakes similarly stamped with another bound Typhonian animal, the ass, were also
eaten on other occasions; Ibid., § 30.
164 Diodorus Siculus, I, 35 (vol. 1, p. 42 Wess.).
165 Ibid., loc. cit.
166 W. M. F. Petrie, Memphis 1, London, 1909, pl. 51, fig. 14, figures an iron object of the Coptic period which he
refers to (text, p. 15) as “ a fish-harpoon ” from Athribis. I regret my inability to reconcile the profile of this specimen
with the front view of it. Had I been able to understand the drawing I would have reproduced it with pleasure, for
the harpoon — if it is indeed such — is of unusual form and interest.
243
More worthy of consideration, yet not to be cited as in any way conclusive, are the
words of Aristotle, o S’ itttfos 6 Trora/Mos 6 ev AA/utttm,161 and the statement of Hecataeus,
incorporated in the second book of Herodotus, to the effect that at Papremis the hippopo-
tamus was held sacred.162 This latter assertion receives a general confirmation from the
Egyptian evidence (Taurt, etc.), and from a popular usage recorded by Plutarch — viz.,
that in Egypt a bound hippopotamus was stamped on certain little cakes annually eaten
at a festival of Isis.163 Such a custom probably originated in the ceremonial consumption
of actual hippopotami, and whether the substitution of the stamped cakes for the real
flesh was due to the scarcity of the beasts, the decline of hunting, or to other causes, the
fact that the hippopotamus was thus remembered by the people points, if not to its sporadic
continuance in the Delta, at least to the comparative recentness of its extinction. Dio-
dorus Siculus, who dwells on the damage done to the crops by these animals, adds that if
they were more prolific it would go very hard with the Egyptian farmer.164 165 This, I take it,
lets us see the true state of affairs in the Delta at the time Diodorus visited Egypt (ca. 20
B. C.) — the hippopotamus survived and was recognized as a nuisance, though of rare
occurrence. Diodorus tells us, without naming the locality, that it was hunted, and gives
us a description of the methods employed in taking it. “It is hunted by many persons
together,” he writes, “each being armed with iron darts. As soon as it comes to the
surface of the water, they surround it with their boats, and closing in on all sides they
wound it with the blades furnished with iron barbs, and having hempen ropes fastened to
them, in order that when wounded it may be let out, until its strength fails it from loss of
blood.”160 This description, if for iron166 harpoons copper ones were to be substituted,
might apply almost verbatim to some of the hunting scenes of the Old Kingdom (cf. fig. 82).
§ 6. The bident. Our knowledge of the bident, or two-pronged fish spear, is based
wholly on the ancient representations: among the spear and harpoon heads found in
Egyptian excavations are none which appear to have been designed to be hafted in pairs,
figured, to Ethiopia. I may note here that whereas the mosaic displays a typical Egyptian pigeon cote, several con-
vincing reed canoes — in one of which a fisherman is seated with a rod — and a credible cane hut, a man in front of
the latter grasps a barbed trident — a form of fish spear common in ancient Greece and Italy, but unknown in Egypt.
161 Aristotle, De animalibus historia, II, 7.
162 Hecataeus, ed. R. H. Klausen, Berlin, 1831, frag. 293 [= Herodot. II, 71; teste Porphyr. ap. Euseb. Praep.
Evang. X, 3, p. 166B].
163 Plutarch, op. cit., § 50. Cakes similarly stamped with another bound Typhonian animal, the ass, were also
eaten on other occasions; Ibid., § 30.
164 Diodorus Siculus, I, 35 (vol. 1, p. 42 Wess.).
165 Ibid., loc. cit.
166 W. M. F. Petrie, Memphis 1, London, 1909, pl. 51, fig. 14, figures an iron object of the Coptic period which he
refers to (text, p. 15) as “ a fish-harpoon ” from Athribis. I regret my inability to reconcile the profile of this specimen
with the front view of it. Had I been able to understand the drawing I would have reproduced it with pleasure, for
the harpoon — if it is indeed such — is of unusual form and interest.