{"collection":"Gnosticism","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/gno/th1/th119.htm","path":"gno/th1/th119.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/gno/th1/th119.htm","text":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, by G.R.S. Mead, [1906]\nVII. 1. As to sea-fish, all [Egyptians] abstain generally (not from all [fish] but) from some;\u2014as, for example, those of the Oxyrhynchus nome from those caught with a hook, for as they venerate the sharp-snouted fish, 5 they fear that the hook 6 is not pure when \u201csharp-snout\u201d is caught by it; 7 while those of the Sy\u0113n\u0113 nome [abstain from] the \u201cdevourer,\u201d 8 for that it seems that it appears together with the rising of the Nile, and that it shows their 9 growth to those in joy, seen as a self-sent messenger.\n2. Their priests, upon the other hand, abstain from all; and [even] on the ninth of the first month, 1 when every one of the rest of the Egyptians eats a broiled fish before his front door, 2 the priests do not taste it, but burn their fishes to ashes before the doors [of the Temple]. 3\n3. And they have two reasons [for this], of which I will later on take up the sacred and extraordinary [one], according with the facts religiously deduced concerning Osiris and Typhon. The evident, the one that\u2019s close at hand, in showing forth the fish as a not necessary and a not unsuperfluous cooked food, bears witness unto Homer, who makes neither the Ph\u00e6acians of luxurious lives, nor yet the Ithak\u0113sian Island men, use fish, nor yet Odysseus\u2019s Companions 4 in so great a Voyage and on the Sea before they came to the last Strait. 5\n4. And generally [the priests] think that the sea\u2019s from fire and is beyond the boundaries\u2014nor part nor element [of earth], but of another kind, a superfluity cor-rupted and cor-rupting.\n269:5 \u03c4\u1f78\u03bd \u1f40\u03be\u03cd\u03c1\u03c5\u03b3\u03c7\u03bf\u03bd\u2014perhaps the pike.\n269:6 \u1f04\u03b3\u03ba\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03c1\u03bf\u03bd\u2014dim. of \u1f04\u03b3\u03ba\u03bf\u03c2, meaning a \u201cbend\u201d of any kind. Perhaps it may be intended as a play on the ankh tie or \u201cnoose of life,\u201d the well-known Egyptian symbol, generally called the crux ansata.\n269:7 If we read \u03b1\u1f51\u03c4\u1ff7 for \u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u1ff7 it would suggest a mystic meaning, namely, \u201cfalls into his own snare.\u201d\n269:8 \u03c6\u03b1\u03b3\u03c1\u03bf\u1fe6\u2014Vulg., sea-bream; but Hesychius spells it \u03c6\u03ac\u03b3\u03c9\u03c1\u03bf\u03c2, connecting it with \u03c6\u03b1\u03b3\u03b5\u1fd6\u03bd, to devour.\n269:9 Or \u201chis\u201d (the Nile\u2019s); but the \u201cself-sent messenger\u201d (\u03b1\u1f50\u03c4\u03ac\u03b3\u03b3\u03b5\u03bb\u03bf\u03c2) seems to demand \u201ctheir,\u201d and so suggests a mystical sense.\n270:1 Copt. Thoth\u2014corr. roughly with September.\n270:2 \u03c0\u03c1\u1f78 \u03c4\u1fc6\u03c2 \u03b1\u1f50\u03bb\u03b5\u03af\u03bf\u03c5 \u03b8\u03cd\u03c1\u03b1\u03c2\u2014that is, the outside door into the \u03b1\u1f50\u03bb\u03ae, or court of the house. Cf. the title of the Trismegistic treatise given by Zosimus\u2014\u201cThe Inner Door.\u201d There may, perhaps, be some mystical connection.\n270:3 Cf. Luke xxiv. 42: \u201cAnd they gave Him a piece of broiled fish.\u201d This was after His \u201cresurrection.\u201d Also cf. Talmud Bab., \u201cSanhedrin,\u201d 103a: \u201cThat thou shalt not have a son or disciple who burns his food publicly, like Jeschu ha-Notzri\u201d (D. J. L., 189).\n270:4 Compare the Companions of Horus in the Solar Boat.\n270:5 I fancy there must be some under-meaning here, and so I have put the key-words in capitals.","title":"Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1: IX. Plutarch: Concerning the Mysteries of Isis and Osiris: On Fish Taboos","type":"page"}