Eels in Roman Gardens: Eel, fish or snake?

» biogardener - Eel, fish or snake?

Kirk, I think I know the answer to your question, I grew up by the Baltic Sea where eels are common. They are really fat and therefore lend themselves best for smoking. That is the only way that Germans ever eat them. If you saw the movie "The Tin Drum (Die Blechtrommel)" you will remember the locals throwing a horse's head into the sea to attract eels. They got them when they pulled up the head. Germans think of eels as disgusting, in fact, we think of them as snakes, not fish.

If the Romans also thought of them as snakes, and I strongly suspect that they did, they may have considered them as sacred. You might want to investigate the possibility.

Germans obviously do not have the same feeling toward snakes as Romans, or else they would not consider them as disgusting.

The worship of snakes has a parallel in the Old Testament where Moses lifted up the snake on a pole and everyone who looked at the snake got healed. That corresponds to the symbol of Hippocrates, and it is a preview of Jesus being lifted up on the cross, so there again is the comparison of the snake to a person to be worshipped.

-- posted by biogardener