A while back I mentioned that since getting into Orphism I aphosiousthai seafood and especially fish. I’ve always attributed my aversion to these creatures to the sacred story recounted by Plutarch:
Of the parts of Osiris’s body the only one which Isis did not find was the male member, for the reason that this had been at once tossed into the river, and the lepidotus, the sea-bream, and the pike had fed upon it; and it is from these very fishes the Egyptians are most scrupulous in abstaining. But Isis made a replica of the member to take its place, and consecrated the phallos, in honour of which the Egyptians even at the present day celebrate a festival. (On Isis and Osiris 358b)
But today I found this interesting passage in Athenaios:
The river is a shallow one, scarcely overpassing the ankles, but nevertheless so great a shoal of the fish arrives that the inhabitants round about can all of them lay up sufficient store of salt fish for their needs. And it is a wonderful fact that they never pass by the monument of Olynthos, son of Herakles and Bolbe. They say that formerly the people of Apollonia used to perform the accustomed rites to the dead in the month of Elaphebolion, but now they do them in Anthesterion, and that on this account the fish come up in those months only in which they are wont to do honour to the dead. (Deipnosophistai 8.11.334)
Well of course I can’t eat them, fish honour the dead – at Anthesteria no less!
Tagged: anthesteria, dionysos, herakles, heroes, isis, orpheus, osiris, spirits
