An echeneis is a

legendary creature A legendary creature (also mythical or mythological creature) is a type of fictional entity, typically a hybrid, that has not been proven and that is described in folklore (including myths and legends), but may be featured in historical accou ...

; a small fish that was said to latch on to ships, holding them back.

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ...

(1st century AD) also said of the echeneis: "It has a disgraceful repute, as being employed in love philtres, and for the purpose of retarding judgments and legal proceedings—evil properties, which are only compensated by a single merit that it possesses—it is good for staying fluxes of the womb in pregnant women, and preserves the fœtus up to birth: it is never used, however, for food." They were said to be found in the Indian Ocean.Echeneis at the Medieval Bestiary
Accessed 28 February 2016Gudger, E. W. (1918)
"The myth of the ship-holder: studies in ''Echeneis'' or Remora"
''The Annals and Magazine of Natural History: Including Zoology, Botany, and Geology''. Isidore of Seville (7th century AD) and

Bartholomaeus Anglicus Bartholomaeus Anglicus (before 1203–1272), also known as Bartholomew the Englishman and Berthelet, was an early 13th-century Scholastic of Paris, a member of the Franciscan order. He was the author of the compendium ''De proprietatibus rerum'' ...

(13th century) are among later authors of

bestiaries A bestiary (from ''bestiarum vocabulum'') is a compendium of beasts. Originating in the ancient world, bestiaries were made popular in the Middle Ages in illustrated volumes that described various animals and even rocks. The natural history a ...

that mention the echeneis. It is thought that these ancient descriptions refer to the

remora The remora (), sometimes called suckerfish, is any of a family (Echeneidae) of ray-finned fish in the order Carangiformes. Depending on species, they grow to long. Their distinctive first dorsal fins take the form of a modified oval, sucker-li ...

References

{{reflist Medieval European legendary creatures

See also

References