[285] Cf. Pausanias, III. 21, 5: “Men fear to fish in the Lake of Poseidon, for they think he who catches fish in it is turned into a fish called _The Fisher_.” In I. 38, 1, we find that only the priests were allowed to fish, because the rivers were sacred to Demeter, and in VII. 22, 4, that the fish at Pharae were sacred to Hermes, and so inviolate. [286] In gratitude for the part played by certain fish in bringing to the banks of the Euphrates the egg, from which came Aphrodite, Zeus placed fishes among the stars—hence the Pisces. Diognetos of Erythrai _ap._ Hyg., _poet. astr._, 2. 30, make these “certain fish” Venus and Cupid. Cf. Myth. Vat., I. 86. [287] Cf. Diod. Sic., II. 20. [288] Some recent scholars hold that Poseidon was an early differentiation of Zeus, and that his fish-spear was developed from the three-pronged lightning symbol of that deity as soon as the former became himself specialised into first a river god, and second a sea god. From my friend Mr. A. B. Cook’s forthcoming work, _Zeus_, vol. ii. c. 6, s. 4, I learn that the commonly supposed Trident (in Æschylus, _Septem._, I. 31), “the fish-striking tool of the sea-god,” is more likely in pre-classical times to have been the three-pronged lightning symbol of the highest Deity of all, and observable not only in Greece, but also in Asia. Against this view lies the fact that only once in all the Greek art is Poseidon represented with an unmistakable thunder-bolt, and this is on a silver tetradrachm of Messana about 450 B.C. The name Poseidon merely equals, it is held, ποτεί-Δας, or ‘Lord Zeus,’ the correlative of πότνια Ἥρη, ‘Lady Hera.’ [289] See Oppian’s invocation of him in III. 9-28. [290] _Ibid._ As Pan was worshipped as the god of animals, especially of herds, on land, so did the fisherfolk venerate him, Πὰν ἅκτιος (Theocr., _Id._, V. 14) or ἁλίπλαγκτος (Soph., _Aj._, 695: cf. _Anth. Pal._, X. 10), as the god of the animals of the sea, and in especial for his service to them in netting Typhon, whose “winds wrought havoc to their boats, and when Auster with Sirocco breath prevailed, caused their catches to go bad.” At Athens the god was regarded with gratitude as a powerful benefactor, because of the aid vouchsafed in securing naval victories (Hdt., 6. 105. Simonides _frag._ 133, Bergk). [291] To Janus, however, the credit of being the first to teach the art of Fishing to the Latins is assigned by Alexander Sardus, _De Rerum Inventoribus_, II. 16. This in common with the belief that Janus invented boats is probably a mistaken inference from the fact that the early _as libralis_ had a head of Janus on one side and the prow of a ship on the other (Roscher, _Lex. Myth._, II. p. 23).