Before considering these, I draw attention to the cut of a representation from Gamhud,[833] and to the account by E. Mahler of a Stele, attributed to Thotmes III., now in the Museum at Buda-Pesth.[834]
Both are remarkable; for in both Fish takes the place of the usual Bird-Soul. As the Buda-Pesth Stele is unpublished, we have to depend on Mahler’s account. He tells us that in the ancient beliefs and myths of Egypt the fish was a symbol of eternity, and guided the boat which bore the dead to the waters of the blessed.
The Gamhud illustration, attributed to the Ptolemies, who held fast to the tradition that the parts of Osiris were eaten by three fishes, one of which was the Oxyrhynchus, has a distinct interest, because here for the first time the Oxyrhynchus figures as a substitute for the Bird-Soul.
The Buda-Pesth Stele probably deduces from Gurob, where there is, or rather twenty years ago was, a fish cemetery excavated by Petrie. Here, too, was a temple built by Thotmes III., and a smaller one erected in his honour.
The idea of the dead man may well have been “I have embalmed thousands and thousands of fish. Now then, one of you, in return do your best to secure for me immortality.”
Herodotus[835] states that only two fishes are venerated, the Lepidotus and the Phagrus. The Father of History is not open in this case to the charge of exaggeration, for with these the Oxyrhynchus, and (according to Strabo) the Lates niloticus, and (according to Wilkinson) the Mœotes should be included.
THE OXYRHYNCHUS
TAKING THE PART OF THE USUAL BIRD-SOUL.
From Ahmed Bey Kamal, Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte.