Abdu fish
| Abdu fish in hieroglyphics | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
abdju 3bḏ.w Abdu fish |
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The abdu fish (also abdju fish or abydos fish ) is a sacred fish that played a special role in Egyptian mythology .
Together with the Ant fish he sometimes escorted the sun boat and watched over the water. His job was to report the approach of the snake enemy. The sun god himself was sometimes referred to as the "great abdu fish".
Possibly the fish also had a special meaning in the Egyptian belief in the dead . The abdu was occasionally associated with Osiris because of its similarity to Abydos . In some Theban tombs of the Ramesside period (e.g. the tomb of Chabechnet ), the osiris-like mummy is wrapped on the stretcher as an abdu fish . Similar to the frog, the fish was used as a mysterious symbol of life and was considered to be the design of Osiris, who himself occasionally took on the role of the "man in hiding".
In Hellenistic times , oxyrhynchos fish were depicted over the mummy of the dead. According to Hans Bonnet, it is conceivable that the abdu fish was depicted similarly in earlier times and that over time it assumed the oxyrhynchos form. The dead probably wanted to express the wish to look at the sun, while according to Wilhelm Spiegelberg the fish represented only a figure of the soul.
See also
literature
- Hans Bonnet : Abdufisch. In: Real Lexicon of Egyptian Religious History. de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2000, ISBN 3-11-016884-7 , pp. 193-194.
- Ingrid Gamer-Wallert : Abdu fish. In: Wolfgang Helck (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie (LÄ). Volume I, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-447-01670-1 , Sp. 3.
- Ingrid Gamer-Wallert: Fish and fish cults in ancient Egypt (= Egyptological treatises. Vol. 21). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1970, ISBN 3-447-00779-6 , pp. 27ff, 113, 131f.
- Hermann Kees : The belief in gods in ancient Egypt . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1977.