274 FISH IN MYTHS. SYMBOLS. DIET. MEDICINE 



has been for centuries the emblem of the Samurai, because of 

 its accredited power to withstand opposition and to swim 

 against the current of the stream. 



On the advent of Christianity, numerous become the 

 allusions in Patristic and other literature. From the repetition 

 by Father after Father of AqucB vivce piscis Christus, of piscatio 

 duplex, Ecclesia prcBsens et futura, and of similar sentences, the 

 application approaches perilously near the commonplace. 



Nor was its scope morally limited. St. Augustine, St. 

 C37prian, and others allegorise fish and fishing in both good and 

 bad senses. 



Thus, piscis pia fides qucB vivit inter fluckis nee frangitur ; 

 piscis fides invisibilium ; rete Christus ; sagcena Ecclesia ; 

 Christus est piscis assus discipulis, serpens Judceis, can be 

 matched by pisces immundi, peccatores ; piscis maris, dcemones ; 

 piscator Diabolus ; rete, deceptio Diaboli ; and sagcena, cor 

 mulieris, which last, from a technical point of view, hardly 

 stamps Bishop Humbertus as a proficient in our craft. 



From the identification — Christus est piscis i — is no long 

 step to the symbolic use of the very letters which spell the 

 Greek word for fish : thus from IxeYS=I-ch-th-u-s, is estab- 

 lished 'h]ao\)Q Xpiarbg deov v'log (Twrtifj, or " Jesus Christ, of God 

 Son, Saviour." 



This symbolic adoption in connection with their God was 

 far from original. A fish, at first the symbol of Vishnu, was 

 adopted by the Buddhists, and from them by the Christians 

 of Turkestan. 2 This adoption and adaptation of a Pagan 

 symbol was but one of the many instances where Christian 

 policy or Christian practice took over and continued heathen 

 customs, institutions, and vestments. ^ 



1 Pitra, op. cit., has several plates bearing on this. Of the coloured, 

 pi. I shows an eucharistic table with a fish and bread upon it, and at each 

 side seven baskets full of the latter, while in pi. 3 a fish swims bearing on his 

 head a basket with sacred loaves, both illustrative of the miracle. See also 

 pp. 565-6. 



^ Keller, op. cit., p. 352. The latest and best monograph on the fish- 

 symbol in Christianity is that of F. J. Dolger, Das Fisch-symbol infruhchristlicher 

 Zeit (Freiburg, 1910), whose conclusions are summarised in the Archiv fiir 

 Religionswissenschaft (1912), XV. 297 f. 



* Cf. the many fascinating works of Dr. J. Rendel Harris, e.g. The Cult 

 of the Heavenly Twins and Boanerges. Also Lowrie, Art and Archaology ; 

 and Miss M. Hamilton, Greek Saints and their Festivals. 



