Note 53.3 — Chapter IV · Anthropomorphism and Theriomorphism in Asia Minor and the Mediterranean.

But the most clear and definite evidence on this point is afforded by the legend and monuments of the god whom Berosos calls Oannes,53.3 but whom modern Assyriology interprets as the ocean-born god Ea or Ae of Eridu, the god of all wisdom and science. According to Berosos, he had entirely a fish body, but a human head had grown under the head of the fish, human feet out of the fish’s tail, and he spoke with human voice: a statue of this type was still existing at Babylon according to this writer in the time of Alexander. Now the exact type is presented in the form that appears on various Babylonian cylinders; there is one that presents the fish-man-god standing before the tree of Life—receiving a ray perhaps from the sun above:53.4 and half his form from the girdle downwards is preserved on a bas-relief published by Layard,54.1 showing him holding the bread of life in one hand and in the other a vase containing the water of life. Here, then, is theriomorphism struggling with anthropomorphism as we see it strikingly in the religious monuments of Egypt.