Fish offerings were made in Mesopotamia from early times. The fresh waters of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, which was believed to well up from the Abzu, teems with fish, mostly species of carp, with the water god Enki. Since he was the wise god, the fish also symbolizes wisdom
According to Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia By Jeremy Black and Anthony Green under Griffin-Demon “With possible antecedents from the Old Babylonian Period, and with close analogues in Mitannian art, the griffin-demon first appears in his familiar form – a human bodied figure with bird’s head and wings – on Middle Assyrian seals, and became a very popular figure in Neo-Assyrian art, especially in the ninth century B.C. After the seventh century B.C., the figure is rare, but occurs on Seleucid Period seals. The private quarters of Ashurbanipal II (reigned 883-859 BC) were dominated by beliefs depicting this creature. In the Neo-Assyrian Period figures of this type were explained as representations of the Babylonian Seven Sages, and groups of seven figurines of them were used as foundation deposits to protect houses and palaces–alongside very different anthropomorphic figures and figurines of the fish-garbed figure (also supposed to represent the Seven sages).
Fish-garbed Figure: From representations on magical plaques, where a pair of fish-garbed figures is shown flanking the bed of a sick man, the figures of this type have been interpreted by some as exorcist priests, dressed in the bodies of fish or its costumes imitative of them. The presence of this type at doorways in Assyrian palace and temple sculpture, however, demonstrates the magical nature of this figure. Texts concerning the rituals for making such images, and placing them about the type as a form of Apkallu “sage’.
