Symbolism of the Fish

Among the symbols employed by the primitive Christians, that of 
the fish ranks probably first in importance. While the use of the 
fish in pagan art as a purely decorative sign is ancient and 
constant, the earliest literary reference to the symbolic fish is 
made by Clement of Alexandria, born about 150, who recommends his 
readers (Paedagogus, III, xi) to have their seals engraved with a 
dove or a fish. Clement did not consider it necessary to give any 
reason for this recommendation, from which it may be safely be 
inferred that the meaning of both symbols was unnecessary . 
Indeed, from monumental sources we know that the symbolic fish was 
familiar to Christians long before the famous Alexandrian was 
born; in such Roman monuments as the Capella Greca and the 
Sacrament Chapels of the catacomb of St. Callistus, the fish was 
depicted as a symbol in the first decades of the second century. 
The symbol itself may have been suggested by the miraculous 
multification of the loaves and fishes or the repast of the seven 
Disciples, after the Resurrection, on the shore of the Sea of 
Galilee (John, xxi, 9), but its popularity among Christians was 
due principally, it would seem, to the famous acrostic consisting 
of the initial letters of five Greek words forming the word for 
fish (Ichthys), which words briefly but clearly described the 
character of Christ and His claim to the worship of believers: 
Iesous Christos Theou Yios Soter, i.e. Jesus Christ, Son of God, 
Saviour. (See the discourse of Emperor Constantine, "Ad coetum 
Sanctorum" c. xviii.) It is not improbable that this Christian 
formula originated in Alexandria, and was intended as a protest 
against the pagan apotheosis of the emperors; on a coin from 
Alexandria of the reign of Domitian (81-96) this emperor is styled 
Theou Yios (Son of God). 

The word Ichthys, then, as well as the representation of a fish, 
held for Christians a meaning of the highest significance; it was 
a brief profession of faith in the divinity of Christ, the 
Redeemer of mankind. Believers in this mystic Ichthys were 
themselves : "little fishes", according to the well-known passage 
of Tertullian (De baptismo, c. 1): "we, little fishes, after the 
image of our Ichthys, Jesus Christ, are born in the water". The 
association of the Ichthys with the Eucharist is strongly 
emphasized in the epitaph of Abercius, the second century Bishop 
of Hieropolis in Phrygia (see ABERCIUS, INSCRIPTION OF), and in 
the somewhat later epitaph of Pectorius of Autun. Abercius tells 
us on the aforesaid monument that in his journey from his Asiatic 
home to Rome, everywhere on the way he received as food "the Fish 
from the spring, the great, the pure", as well as "wine mixed with 
water, together with bread". Pectorius also speaks of the Fish as 
a delicious spiritual nurture supplied by the "Saviour of the 
Saints". In the Eucharistic monuments this idea is expressed 
repeatedly in the pictorial form; the food before the banqueters 
is invariably bread and fish on two separate dishes. The peculiar 
significance attached to the fish in this relation is well brought 
out in such early frescoes as the Fractio Panis scene in the 
cemetery of St. Priscilla, and the fishes on the grass, in closest 
proximity to the baskets containing bread and wine, in the crypt 
of Lucina, (See EUCHARIST, SYMBOLISM OF THE.) The fish symbol was 
not, however, represented exclusively with symbols of the 
Eucharist; quite frequently it is found associated with such other 
symbols as the dove, the anchor, and the monogram of Christ. The 
monuments, too, on which it appears, from the first to the fourth 
century, include frescoes, sculptured representations, rings, 
seals, gilded glasses, as well as enkolpia of various materials. 
The type of fish depicted calls for no special observation, save 
that, from the second century, the form of the dolphin was 
frequently employed. The reason for this particular selection is 
presumed to be the fact that, in popular esteem, the dolphin was 
regarded as friendly to man. Besides the Eucharistic frescoes of 
the catacombs a considerable number of objects containing the 
fish-symbol are preserved in various European museums, one of the 
most interesting, because of the grouping of the fish with several 
other symbols, being a carved gem in the Kircherian Museum in 
Rome. On the left is a T-form anchor, with two fishes beneath the 
crossbar, while next in order are a T-form cross with a dove on 
the crossbar and a sheep at the foot, another T-cross as the mast 
of a ship, and the good shepherd carrying on His shoulders the 
strayed sheep. In addition to these symbols the five letters of 
the word Ichthys are distributed round the border. Another ancient 
carved gem represents a ship supported by a fish, with doves 
perched on the mast and stern, and Christ on the waters rescuing 
St. Peter. After the fourth century the symbolism of the fish 
gradually disappeared; representations of fishes on baptismal 
fonts and on bronze baptismal cups like those found at Rome and 
Trier, now in the Kircherian Museum, are merely of an ornamental 
character, suggested, probably by the water used in baptism. 

MAURICE M. HASSETT 
Transcribed by Mary and Joseph P. Thomas 

In memory of Elizabeth Kunneth