Abstract
This article discusses the fish known among ancient Greeks of the Black Sea and more generally as the antakaios. It is the sturgeon, and perhaps specifically a variety called the “starry sturgeon” (Acipenser stellatus). The fish appears in texts and archaeological remains. Near the end of the fourth century BC the Bosporan kingdom issued large bronze coins which clearly show this species of sturgeon. It is easily identified by its long, thin snout, and it is among the various species of fish which Greeks also called oxyrhynchos or “sharp snout.” The fish was important to the economy and daily life of the northern Black Sea, as we hear already in Herodotus (4. 53). However, on these Bosporan coins we find the fish among the iconography of myth and religion, that raises the question as to whether the fish also had a significant place in the beliefs and cults of the region. We know that fish-cult was connected to the cult of Aphrodite Ourania at Ascalon. Here it is suggested that the starry sturgeon may have been linked to the goddess also in the Bosporan kingdom, especially in view of its appearance (the star-like plates along its body) and its particular liking for foam (aphros), which was noticed in antiquity. Finally, we many wonder whether the Bosporans who famously visited the Nile in Egypt took an interest in the oxyrhynchos fish that received cult there, the so-called “elephant fish.”
Keywords
Bosporan kingdom, religion, Aphrodite Ourania, Ascalon, Apatouron, fish, sturgeon, derceto, oxyrhynchos, Egypt, Nile
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