The Remora in the Work of Pliny the Elder

As I was working through the "re's" in the Collegiate, I just had to stop and take a long look at this word. And, after I looked at it for a while, I saw I needed an entire essay on it. This is a bit disconcerting, since I really wanted to go through about 10 words per essay, but sometimes you just have give a word its full due. Let's begin with the easy stuff. The word "remora" is Latin for "delay," and the fish so named is something that is able to adhere to other fishes/structures through a suctorial disk on the head and thus hitch a ride with them (or even "delay" them--see below). Some pictures are here. The Linnaean name is Echeneis naucrates (Linnaeus 1758), of the family Echeneididae and Order Perciformes (which means 'perch-like'). The Perciformes are the largest order of fish, with 7,000 species, and they comprise about 40% of all fish, including the anabantids, bass, cichlids, gobies, gouramis, mackeral, perches, scats, wrasses, and whitings.

When we look at the Greek name for the fish, the Echenidae, a whole world opens that isn't hinted at in the Collegiate, even though the OED hints at the tale. Echenidae comes from the two Greek words "echein" and "naos," which together means "hold the boat." What? Hold the phone. Well, here is the story that must be told. The ancients believed, or at least according to a story told in Pliny the Elder, that the remora, a fish no longer than a foot or two, had the power to hold back a boat in transit. In fact, as the following quotations will show, the remora was credited with the defeat of a significant Roman military figure.

Pliny's Account

Pliny the Elder's massive Natural History (preserved in 37 books) is a veritable treasure trove of information on ancient anthropology, human physiology, zoology, botany, agriculture, horticulture and pharmacology. Substantially completed in 77 CE, the author worked on it until his untimely death two years later. He quotes more than 400 ancient authors in his accounts, though a few of them, such as Varro the Polymath, were his favorites. The book is nearly impossible to read in anything more than small doses, but for those with patience and a boundless curiosity about the world his text is strikingly insightful and even entertaining. Such is the case when he describes for us the story of the Echeneis.

Book 32 begins with a paean of praise to nature and the sea, though it marvels at the same time about the ingenuity of humans in inventing sails and oars that can counteract the force of the sea (32.1). Yet, the most amazing thing to Pliny is the story of one of the fish who lives in the sea and is itself able to counteract nature in a most striking way. This is the Echeneis. He calls it a fish of diminutive size (pisciculus), but describes what it can do in the following language:

"Winds may blow and storms may rage, and yet the echeneïs controls their fury, restrains their mighty force, and bids ships stand still in their career; a result which no cables, no anchors, from their ponderousness quite incapable of being weighed, could ever have produced! A fish bridles the impetuous violence of the deep, and subdues the frantic rage of the universe--and all this by no effort of its own, no act of resistance on its part, no act at all, in fact, but that of adhering to the bark!" (32.1)

Thus, what Pliny is saying is that this fish not only has the ability to "latch on" to ships, but by doing so it stops the ship in its tracks. Not a bad accomplishemnt for something a few feet or less in length.

But his fantastic narrative goes further. He talks about how such a little fish, some no more than half a foot in length, can bring to a halt bulwarks that are beaked with brass and iron and armed for battle. He gave the example of the battle of Actium, probably one of the most significant naval battles in ancient history, fought in September of the year 31 BCE between forces of the soon-to-be-Emperor Octavian (later Augustus) and Marc Antony. Here are his words:

"At the battle of Actium, it is said, a fish of this kind stopped the prætorian ship of Antonius in its course, at the moment that he was hastening from ship to ship to encourage and exhort his men, and so compelled him to leave it and go on board another. Hence it was, that the fleet of Cæsar gained the advantage in the onset, and charged with a redoubled impetuosity" (Id.).

Then he proceeds to tell a story from "our own time" about the Emperor Caligula. He was traveling by ship between two ports and his ship, alone of five in his entourage, stopped dead in the water. The reason for its stoppage didn't remain a mystery for long, as his sailors dove into the sea and discovered a remora clinging to it. Pliny then says about Caligula:

"Upon its being shown to the emperor, he strongly expressed his indignation that such an obstacle as this should have impeded his progress, and have rendered powerless the hearty endeavours of some four hundred men. One thing, too, it is well known, more particularly surprised him, how it was possible that the fish, while adhering to the ship, should arrest its progress, and yet should have no such power when brought on board" (Id.).

The capacities of this fish are even more fantastic for Pliny since when Caligula finally made it home, he was slain by his own soldiers. Thus "did an insignificant fish give presage of great events."

Other "Uses" of the Echeneis, According to Pliny

But the fantastic stories of Pliny regarding the Echeneis don't end here. He says that it bears a strong resemblance to the slug (Limax), though he may be unique in making that observation. He mentions that some writers say that when it is worn as an amulet it has the property of preventing miscarriage and of reducing the prolapsus or falling forward (proincidentia) of the uterus. Thus because the fish "delays" things, it "delays" the process of the uterus, thus permitting the fetus to reach maturity. He also says that it can in some instances induce parturition; hence another name it bears, odinolytes ("luein tas odinas"--or "loose from the pains" of childbirth). I don't know if Pliny was aware, or if he cared, of the potential contradiction in the last things he said; how can something both hinder and induce parturition?

Well, what we see by this story is not only how a fish got its name--it could "hold back" a ship, but how stories are told and packaged and, apparently, believed. But we today greet with justifiable incredulity Pliny's story about the little fish. It is great entertainment, though, and it gives us another reason to study the ancient writers, even if little of what they say is an "accurate" depiction of life.

Conclusion

I see I have gotten far afield here, but thank you for joining me on the trip. This really is the way to build knowledge of our world.

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