Pisces / ἰχθύς

So, my husband has always worn an ichthys around his neck on a cord--or at least for as long as I've known him. He said he always thought it was a more hopeful symbol of Christianity than the cross; he never understood why Christians were so obsessed with the most violent, humiliating part of Jesus' life. Recently, I was looking at the website of a Catholic "supply store" in Louisville, trying to find a St Joseph statue to give to a friend, and Thomas asked me to see if they had any ichthyses (¿?) for sale. That got me thinking about the symbology of the ichthys, as it is a pretty incredibly awesome symbol. And here are some things I found. In what should be a weird coincidence but isn't (as I've given up believing in coincidence long ago), my whole meander into the ichthys ends with a sheela-na-gig. Of course.

Some interesting tidbits about the ichthys:

- Greek: ἰχθύς; also transliterated and latinized as ichthus, icthus, or ikhthus, meaning "fish."
- It refers to a symbol consisting of two intersecting arcs resembling the profile of a fish.
- used by early Christians as a secret symbol
- this symbol has origins predating Christianity, relating to fertility, female genitalia, and fish. The word also meant "womb" and "dolphin" in some tongues, and representations of this appeared in the depiction of mermaids. In ancient Greek, "fish" and "womb" were denoted by the same word ("delphos").
- the constellation Pisces comprises a set of dim and scattered stars that trace the images of two widely separated fish joined by a knotted cord. One fish, swimming upward, faces east toward Aries, while the other fish swims westward toward Aquarius along the plane of the ecliptic. The directions of motion of the two fish form a cross, the symbol of the Christian religion -- the upright line of the cross representing spirit and the horizontal line signifying matter.

Image from the site of David Darling.
- Jesus as a "fisher of men," or an acronym of the Greek letters ΙΧΘΥΣ (Iota Chi Theta Upsilon Sigma) to the statement of Christian faith "Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ" (Iēsous Christos Theou Huios Sōtēr: "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior")
- the ichthys may be an adaptation of the mystic/mathematical symbol known as the Vesica Piscis--"the Great Mother," a pointed oval sign. The length-height ratio of the vesica piscis, as expressed by the mystic and mathematician Pythagoras, is 153:265, a mystical number known as "the measure of the fish."

Image from the site Landscape Geometry.

Origins of the Ichthys:

- Ichthys was the offspring son of the ancient Sea goddess Atargatis, and was known in various mythic systems as Tirgata, Aphrodite, Pelagia or Delphine.
- central element in other myths, including the Goddess of Ephesus, who has a fish amulet covering her genital region; also the tale of the fish that swallowed the penis of Osiris, the symbol was also considered a symbol of the vulva of Isis.
- the fish is identified in certain cultures with reincarnation and the life force. For example, among one group in India, the fish was believed to house a deceased soul, and that as part of a fertility ritual specific fish is eaten in the belief that it will be reincarnated in a newborn child.
- its link to fertility, birth, feminine sexuality and the natural force of women was acknowledged also by the Celts, as well as pagan cultures throughout northern Europe.
- a "Cult of the Fish Mother" has been traced as far back as the hunting and fishing people of the Danube River Basin in the sixth millennium B.C.E.
- over fifty shrines have been found throughout the region which depict a fishlike deity, a female creature who "incorporates aspects of an egg, a fish and a woman which could have been a primeval creator or a mythical ancestress..." The "Great Goddess" was portrayed elsewhere with pendulous breasts, accentuated buttocks and a conspicuous vaginal orifice, the upright "vesica piscis" which Christians later adopted and rotated 90-degrees to serve as their symbol.

Image from the blog Kill Your Pet Puppy.

This info was borrowed from the site Global Oneness.

It is also interesting to add that the Pisces is the last symbol in the astrological calendar, concluding the "winter" cycles. It has been proposed likewise that the chronology of this calendar should be viewed as a sort of spiritual evolution or aging, each of the 12 signs representing different stages of life comprised of a 7 year period. That means that the house of Pisces corresponds to the period of life from age 77 - 84, and is the oldest and "most evolved" sign. It makes sense, given the strong wisdom and spirituality associated with this sign, that Jesus came also to be associated with it. So, contrary to Kris Kristofferson and all Western tradition, Jesus was a PISCES, in all probability. :-P