medjed (fish)

{{About|the fish|the deity|Medjed|other uses|Medjed (disambiguation)}}

{{Short description|Species of fish}}{{Infobox deity

| type = Egyptian

| name = Medjed

| image = File:Oxyrhynchus fish Late Period-Ptolemaic.jpg

| caption = Bronze figurine of an Oxyrhynchus fish, wearing a horned sun-disc. Late Period–Ptolemaic{{cite web |title=Oxyrhynchus Fish |url=https://art.thewalters.org/detail/28599/oxyrhynchus-fish/ |publisher=Walters Art Museum |access-date=26 December 2022}}

| cult_center = Oxyrynchus

| symbol = Elephantfish

}}

Medjed were a kind of elephantfish worshipped at Oxyrhynchus (Gr. Ὀξύρρυγχος) in ancient Egyptian religion.

The fish were believed to have eaten the penis of the god Osiris after his brother Set had dismembered and scattered his body. A settlement in Upper Egypt, Per-Medjed, was named after them. They are now better known by their Greek name Oxyrhynchus,{{cite book |last=Blumell |first=Lincoln H. |title=Lettered Christians: Christians, Letters, and Late Antique Oxyrhynchus |date=2012 |publisher=Brill |isbn=978-9-0041-8098-7 |page=1}} Fn. 3 and 4, referring also to Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 353C. meaning "sharp-nosed", a nod to the Egyptian depiction of the fish.{{cite web |url=http://www.papyrology.ox.ac.uk/POxy/VExhibition/introduction/fish_statuette.html |title=Bronze statuette of Oxyrhynchus fish: date uncertain |publisher=Imaging Papyri Project |year=1998 |access-date=25 May 2007}} As a sacred fish, they are frequently depicted wearing horned sun-discs. Some figurines have rings to enable their wear as pendant amulets.{{cite web |title=Oxyrhynchus Fish, 570-350 BCE |url=https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/collectors-cabinet/home/fishes/ |publisher=University of Delaware |access-date=26 December 2022}}

Freshwater elephantfish (subfamily Mormyrinae) are medium-sized freshwater fish abundant in the Nile. Some of the species have distinctive downturned snouts, lending them their common name. The Oxyrhynchus fish depicted as bronze figurines, mural paintings, or wooden coffins in the shape of fish with downturned snouts, with horned sun-disc crowns like those of the goddess Hathor, have been described as resembling members of the genus Mormyrus.{{cite book |last1=Van Neer |first1=Wim |last2=Gonzalez |first2=Jérôme |editor1-last=Peters |editor1-first=Joris |editor2-last=McGlynn |editor2-first=George |editor3-last=Goebel |editor3-first=Veronika |title=Documenta Archaeobiologiae Animals: Cultural Identifiers In Ancient Societies? |date=2019 |publisher=Verlag Marie Leidorf |location=Rahden, Westfalia, Germany |isbn=978-3-89646-674-7 |url=https://www.oxirrinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Van_Neer_W._and_J._Gonzalez_2019_A_Late.pdf |chapter=A Late Period fish deposit at Oxyrhynchus (el-Bahnasa, Egypt)}}