Page 87 - Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock – FINGERPRINTS OF THE GODS

Fish-garbed figures

There were two massive pieces of statuary inside the Kalasasaya. One, a
figure nicknamed El Fraile (The Friar) stood in the south-west corner; the
other, towards the centre of the eastern end of the enclosure, was the
giant that I had observed from the sunken temple.
Carved in red sandstone, worn and ancient beyond reckoning, El Fraile
stood about six feet high, and portrayed a humanoid, androgenous being
with massive eyes and lips. In its right hand it clutched something
resembling a knife with a wavy blade like an Indonesian kris. In its left
hand was an object like a hinged and case-bound book. From the top of
this ‘book’, however, protruded a device which had been inserted into it
as though into a sheath.
From the waist down the figure appeared to be clad in a garment of fish
scales, and, as though to confirm this perception, the sculptor had
formed the individual scales out of rows and rows of small, highly-
stylized fish-heads. This sign had been persuasively interpreted by
Posnansky as meaning fish in general. It seemed, therefore, that El Fraile
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was a portrayal of an imaginary or symbolic ‘fish man’. The figure was
also equipped with a belt sculpted with the images of several large
crustaceans, so this notion seemed all the more probable. What had been
intended?
I had learned of one local tradition I thought might shed light on the
matter. It was very ancient and spoke of ‘gods of the lake, with fish tails,
called Chullua and Umantua’. In this, and in the fish-garbed figures, it
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seemed that there was a curious out-of-place echo of Mesopotamian
myths, which spoke strangely, and at length, about amphibious beings,
‘endowed with reason’ who had visited the land of Sumer in remote
prehistory. The leader of these beings was named Oannes (or Uan).
10
According to the Chaldean scribe, Berosus:

The whole body of [Oannes] was like that of a fish; and had under a fish’s head
another head, and also feet below, similar to those of a man, subjoined to the
fish’s tail. His voice too, and language, was articulate and human; and a
representation of him is preserved even to this day ... When the sun set, it was the
custom of this Being to plunge again into the sea, and abide all night in the deep;
for he was amphibious.
11
According to the traditions reported by Berosus, Oannes was, above all, a
civilizer:

In the day-time he used to converse with men; but took no food at that season;

8 Ibid., I, p. 119.
9 Ibid., II, p. 183.
10 Myths from Mesopotamia, (trans, and ed. Stephanie Dalley), Oxford University Press,
1990, p. 326.
11 Fragments of Berossus, from Alexander Polyhistor, reprinted as Appendix 2 in Robert
K. G. Temple, The Sirius Mystery, Destiny Books, Rochester, Vermont, 1987, pp. 250-1.

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