Echeneis

This article is about the legendary creature. For the remora genus, see Echeneis (fish).

An echeneis (Ancient Greek: ἐχενηΐς)^[1] is a legendary creature; a small fish that was said to latch on to ships, holding them back.

Pliny the Elder (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."^[2] In his Quaestiones Convivales, Plutarch gives a detailed description of the creature.^[3]

They were said to be found in the Indian Ocean.^[4][5]

Isidore of Seville (7th century AD) and Bartholomaeus Anglicus (13th century) are among later authors of bestiaries that mention the echeneis.^[4]

It is thought that these ancient descriptions refer to the remora.

See also

• Remora#Mythology