124 TRAITS OF FISHERMEN— DEITIES OF FISHING 



The point of the pleasantry is akin to the caustic defence 

 offered on behalf of a Jewish portrait painter, " as none of the 

 pictures are likenesses, he is guiltless of breaking the Second 

 Commandment ! " 



Ovid's pretty fancy to account for the Syrian abstention 

 doubtless hangs together with the Greek conception of Atargatis 

 and Aphrodite being one and the same. When the Giants 

 revolted against the Gods, Venus fleeing with Cupid reaches, 

 but is stayed by, the Euphrates : thither, PalcBstincB margine 

 agues, in answer to her piteous plaints to heaven above and 

 earth below, two fish approach and convey mother and child 

 safely across the flood. ^ 



" Inde nefas ducunt genus hoc imponere mensis 

 Nee violant timidi piscibus era Syri." 

 Fasti, II. 473-4. 



But other books, other legends ! for the same author (in 

 Met., V. 331) tells us that in the battle Venus changes herself 

 into a fish, 



Ktesias gives another account. 2 Derceto by the wiles of 

 Aphrodite " fell in love with a beautiful young man and was 

 brought to bed of a daughter : being ashamed of what she had 

 done, she slew the young man, exposed in the desert the 

 child (who, fed with milk and then with cheese by pilfering 

 pigeons, grew up to become the famous Semiramis) and then 

 cast herself into the lake at Ascalon and was transformed into 

 a fish — whence it came to pass that at this very day the 

 Syrians eat no fishes, but adore them as gods" (Booth's 

 Trans.). 



Of the instances of calliditas or shrewd wit of fishermen, 

 the story [supra) of the fisher lads' answer to Homer and the 

 following from Alciphron (I. 16) must suffice, although from 

 .(Esop, etc., many others can be gleaned. The whole passage 

 is far too long for quotation, but the final retort of the fisher, 



» In gratitude for the part played by certain fish in bringing to the banks 

 of the Euphrates the egg, from which came Aphrodite, Zeus placed fishes 

 among the stars — hence the Pisces. Diognetos of Erythrai ap. Hyg., poet, 

 astr., 2. 30, make these " certain fish " Venus and Cupid. Cf. Myth. Vat., I. 

 86. 



2 Cf. Diod. Sic, II. 20. 



i 



