Echeneis

• Mythical Number: #0982
• Culture:   Greek
• Attribute:   Aquatic
• Behaviour:   Troublesome
• Common Type:   Sea Serpents

Also later known as the Remora or Mora, this was a tiny sea serpent 6 inches long but it had the ability to stop a boat in its tracks when it attached itself to the hull. The Echeneis did this by biting at the back of a ship. Although tiny its tight grip and power enables it to slow or stop the boat completely. For this reason the Echeneis is also known as ‘delay’.

The Echeneis lived in the polar seas and could freeze the air with its breath. They were said to have legs although some claim that these were not legs but wings or fins of some sort. These beasts caused the Roman general Mark Antony to lose a navy battle when the Echeneis caught their ships making them unmovable.

Pliny the Elder described the creature in his book Historia Naturalis (77 AD):

“The echeneis is a small fish that is often found on rocks. It has the ability to slow the passage of ships by clinging to their hulls. It is also the source of a love-charm and a spell to slow litigation in courts, and can be used to stop fluxes of the womb in pregnant women and to hold back the birth until the proper time. This fish is not eaten. Some say this fish has feet; Aristotle says it does not, but that its limbs resemble wings.”

Give Echeneis a rating:

  

    Echeneis is awesome. (7 votes)

• 5 = I want Echeneis as my pet!
• 4 = Awesome.
• 3 = Interesting.
• 2 = Nothing special.
• 1 = Echeneis should be put in a recycling bin.