Beros, a Babylonian priest, astronomer, and historian, lived, as he himself claims, during the time of Alexander the Great, at the turn of the 4th to the 3rd century BC. In addition to his astronomical works, he also wrote the History of Babylon (Babyloniaka) in three books in the Greek language, however, only fragments and quotes from that work have come down to us, preserved in the writings of Alexander Polyhistor and Apollodorus.
Beros tells us that in Babylon, records that covered a period of one hundred and fifty thousand years were carefully preserved! These records contained the history of the heavens and the seas, the history of the birth of mankind, as well as the history of rulers and their deeds…
Thus, Beros states that in the beginnings of mankind, “from that part of the Erythrean Sea which borders on Babylonia there arose a creature, endowed with reason, by name Oannes… After this were also born other creatures, resembling Oannes.” According to Apollodorus’ report, “the entire body of this creature resembled that of a fish; it had another head beneath the fish’s head, and also feet.
“Similar to humans, with fish tails attached. Additionally, her voice and speech were clear and human-like; her image has been preserved to this day.
The Assyrian-Babylonian mythological creature Oannes emerged from the water every day to teach people, and every evening it disappeared again. It imparted “basic knowledge, sciences, and all kinds of arts; it taught them how to build houses, establish temples, formulate laws, and explained the principles of geometry. It explained how to distinguish earthly seeds and showed them how to harvest fruits. In short, it taught them everything that could improve their way of life and humanize humanity. Its teachings were so universal that no significant improvement has been made since then.”
Interestingly, Beros states that after him, other fish-human beings came, “all of them identical in shape to Oannes, and they taught the same things.” These fish-human beings appeared during the reign of ten pre-flood kings, and Oannes himself during the reign of the fourth of them, Ammenon. An era ended with King Ziusudra (Xisuthros), during whose time a great flood occurred.
The fish-man emerging from the sea is known from numerous mythological traditions of the Middle East. The Sumerian-Akkadian creation epic, Enuma Elish, tells how the goddess Tiamat gives birth to monsters, including the fish-man.
One testimonial of Oannes is found on a relief in the former palace of Cyrus the Great in Pasargadae, the first capital of the Persian Empire, where Oannes is depicted as an upright fish with a human head emerging from its body and human legs appearing alongside its tail. He is associated with Ea, the deity of the Lower Sweet Waters, who was the embodiment of wisdom, and Oannes was his emissary who appeared among humans.