The ἀμφίβληστρον is mentioned together with two other kinds of nets by Artemidorus, and which will be quoted presently.
The following curious passage of Meletius de Natura Hominis, in which that author, probably following Galen, describes the expansion of the optic nerves, mentions the casting-net as “an instrument used by fishermen”:
Διασχίζονται δὲ τὰ νεῦρα εἰς τοὺς θαλάμους, ὥσπερ ἤν τις λαβὼν πάπυρον, ταύτην εἰς λεπτὰ διατεμὼν καὶ διασχίζων ἀναπλέκηται πάλιν, καὶ ποιῇ χιτῶνα λεγόμενον ἀμφιβληστροειδῆ, ὅμοιον ἀμφιβλήρτρῳ. ὄργανον δὲ τοῦτο θηρευταῖς ἰχθύων χρήσιμον.—Salmasius, in Tertull. de Pallio, p. 213.
The χιτὼν ἀμφιβληστροειδὴς, or tunica retina, was so called on account of its resemblance in form to the casting-net.
As we learn from Herodotus that the casting-net was universally employed by the fishermen of Egypt, we shall not be surprised to find it mentioned in the Alexandrine, or, as it is commonly called, the Septuagint version of the Psalms and Prophets:—
Πεσοῦνται ἐν ἀμφιβλήστρῳ αὐτοῦ ἁμαρτωλοὶ,
i. e. “Sinners shall fall in his casting-net.”—Psalm cxli. 10.
Cadent in retiaculo ejus peccatores.—Vulgate Version.
“Let the wicked fall in their own nets.”—Common English Version.
The word in the original Hebrew is מכמור, which Gesenius translates “Rete,” a net. This word must have been more general in its meaning than the Greek ἀμφίβληστρον, and included the purse-net, or ἄρκυς. The Chaldee and Syriac versions use in this passage a word, which denotes snares in general. See Isaiah li. 20, where the same word is used in the Hebrew, but applied to the catching of a quadruped, and where consequently the purse-net must have been intended.