ἰχθύς, Ichthys,“Ikus”
5/12/23
In the deep, blue waters, there was a silver fish. The fish swam through the deep blue water and joined its silvery school, a group of fish that flickered in the seabeams and swaggered like a whip. This fish, Ikus, was happy to be swimming with the ocean current, spending time with the school it was born into, and the brothers and sisters flowed through the seabeams, but they preferred to go deep enough so that it was only blue, cold, and black. The fish swam in the cold, blue ocean. They were having an excellent, magnificent swim, and then they went from Oceanus to swim in a sea cave with sea apes and sea giraffes who had been thrown overboard from Noah’s Ark because they were third parties, yet they had been given gills by Poseidon who had been watching in the waters, his face like a skull covered in seaweed with gray smoke coming from his eyes. Oh, the waters are mysterious, and the silver fish Ikus knew it; that’s why they did not leave his school.
All the while, uncountable fish sacrificed themselves to the fishermen so the families could eat, for the fish are far less egotistical…they like to be of service to mankind.
Being of assistance makes life go forward...
The school of fish, surrounded by martyrs, had been swimming around the sea apes and sea giraffes that afternoon, fielding bubbles, before they tired out. Poseidon had made up beds for them, leaving coral-pink blankets on the sea grass.
There were corpses that had been thrown overboard from ships and drifted into the sea cave.
The fish, Ikus, couldn’t sleep so well as a skull with deteriorating skin was just beside their pink blanket.
He could see a white circle by the surface of the sea that was more beautiful.
The fish was hesitant to leave the chamber, not wanting to upset Poseidon, but it blew a few bubbles and then decided to get out from underneath its coral-colored blanket and swim up to the surface, and it did ascend through the water and get near the surface above shipyards of watery graves. Ikus saw the white face of the moon and its big pointy nose, and the fish felt mystified, alone; imagine how the amplitude of its mystification would have redoubled if the moon had looked at it with owl eyes on top of its pointy nose and had a message to say from its crater mouth?
Well, that is what this fish dreamed and that is okay, you know…and the moon said,
“Fishy, fishy, fishy, fish, twas nice of ye to come up to say ello and you sabe bueno news…una mesaje muy bien! There is a savior of mankind who will be born in Bethlehem, ann’ what’s more, you’re a chosen fishy who will be a member of an important school of fish who will help him perform a miracle, a wonder, a magical feat.”
The fish blew bubbles.
“Yes, so be brave,” said the moon, “for to see the savior you will have to live for hundreds of years in the dark.”
The moon said no more.
The fish swam down to the sea nursery. Soon afterward, the caverns started quaking, rocks fell, and a rift of rocks covered the exits of the cave. Poseidon departed. There had been fireballs and an earthquake that destroyed a wonder called The Tower of Babel. There had also been an underwater earthquake that sealed the sea cave with stones. That school of fish had to live in the dark for generations, but locked in their chamber, the fish would not die. Instead, they reproduced and changed; some became translucent anglerfish; certain fish turned into monkfish. There was a nun fish, their sister. The sea apes and sea giraffes managed to dream their way from the dark to planes of Africa instead of waiting for the savior, but as soon as they got into the sun they withered, fried, and died.
Ikus’ faith was instrumental and mystical, and they maintained their faith after his singular message from the moon. Their faith kept his brothers and sisters calm in the cave without light, bracing them to be of further assistance to suffering mankind. It remained faithful to what it heard from the moon. Tensions ran high in the dark, but the fish aged little. Finally, one day the rocks shifted. The fish got out of the cavern. There was a net they drifted into, mustering the last bit of their faint, fishy strength. The net dragged the school of fish up, and, as the one fish surfaced, looking out of its “…fish-dead eyes,”[1] quivering and gasping, the fish went in and out of its senses. Then the fish beheld a fork-bearded man with brown eyes and a gaunt face. He was beautiful and mighty gentle, so supremely an example of a better world for mankind, and even a fish recognized this was so! Then the fish were multiplied to feed 5,000 people along the Sea of Galilee twice. So now we use the Greek word, ἰχθύς, “Ikus”, meaning fish, along with the symbol of a fish to signify Jesus’ prophetic, helping fish.
[1] Phrase from a poem by Anna-Lisa Norman a WSU alum.