Case file · Folklore / legend
Oannes, the fish-man of Berossus
The Babylonian priest Berossus wrote, about 290 BC, that a being with a fish's body and a man's head came out of the Persian Gulf and taught the first people writing, law and farming.
290 BCE · 32.54, 44.42 · status: legend
The account
Oannes corresponds to the apkallu, the seven sages of Mesopotamian tradition, shown in Assyrian reliefs wearing fish cloaks. Berossus' Babyloniaca survives only in quotations by later writers. In the 20th century Oannes became a favourite of ancient-astronaut writers such as Robert Temple, who read him as an amphibious visitor.
The sceptical view
Assyriologists read the apkallu as mythical culture-bringers linked to the god Enki/Ea, whose home was the freshwater abyss.