Have You Seen This Post?

Have you seen this post?

Have You Seen This Post?

You probably have. It currently has over 120,000 notes, largely because of this addition.

Have You Seen This Post?

Of course it's going to get reblogged, this kind of unsourced factoid does numbers on here. But something about it wasn't quite right.

A bit of searching turned up the origin of the "fact".

Have You Seen This Post?
Have You Seen This Post?

Alright, so it's someone who posted this on reddit 4 years ago and somehow ended up in the search hits. And the post confuses the electric eel (from South America) with the electric catfish (from the Nile, which the Egyptians would have known about).

Have You Seen This Post?

Reminder: this is an electric eel (Electrophorus electricus). It is from South America. (image from Wikipedia)

Have You Seen This Post?

And this is an electric catfish (Malapterurus electricus). It is from the Nile and would have been familiar to the ancient Egyptians. (image from Wikipedia)

And then of course people were speculating in the notes to that post about trade routes between South America and Egypt. Excellent scholarship everyone.

At this point I was ready to call it another made-up internet fact that gets reified by people repeating it. But something was still bothering me.

An ancient Egyptian slab from 3100 BC. What could that be...

Oh.

Have You Seen This Post?

The Narmer palette. It's the goddamn Narmer palette. (image, once again, from Wikipedia)

So where is this "angry catfish"?

It's not the Egyptian name for the electric catfish.

It's... Narmer. It's Narmer himself.

Have You Seen This Post?

Narmer's name is written as above (detail of top middle of the palette), using the catfish (n`r) and the chisel (mr), giving N'r-mr. The chisel is associated with pain, so this reads as "painful catfish", "striking catfish", or, yes, "angry catfish" or other similar variants, although some authors have suggested that it means "Beloved of [the catfish god] Nar".

So.

Where does this leave us?

It would appear that this redditor not only confused electric eels with electric catfish, but also confused a Pharaoh's name with the name of a fish. And then it got pushed to the top search hits by a crappy search engine and shared uncritically on tumblr.

In short, "the electric eel is called angry catfish" factoid actually literacy error. Angry Catfish, who ruled upper Egypt and smote his enemies, is an outlier adn should not have been counted.

Also the Arabic name for the electric catfish is raad (thunder) or raada (thunderer).

References

Afsaruddin, A., & Zahniser, A. H. M. (1997). Humanism, culture, and language in the Near East: studies in honor of Georg Krotkoff. Eisenbrauns.

Clayton, P. A. (2001). Chronicle of the Pharaohs. Thames & Hudson.

Godron, G. (1949). A propos du nom royal. Annales du Service des antiquités de l'Egypte, 49, 217-221.

Sperveslage, G., & Heagy, T. C. (2023). A tail's tale: Narmer, the catfish, and bovine symbolism. The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 109(1), 3-319.

More Posts from Orangesandlemons3 and Others

4 years ago

People horrifically fucking up facts about evolution and genetics too support their stupid beliefs or to seem smart and “rational” is probably one of my big pet peeves 

4 years ago

Episode I and ethical issues:

Robots who talk, show emotions, and communicate with one another being treated as disposable, non-sentient objects is really fucking creepy.

Only slightly more creepy than Anakin’s matter-of-fact understanding of his status as a slave, how his survival is dependent on his monetary value and the possibility of being blown up for disobedience.

Just as creepy as Qui-gon’s absolute failure to express any sort of serious ethical concern over his use of Anakin or the larger issue of slavery.


Tags
5 years ago

Sokka: Aang y'know how you took away Ozai’s firebending?

Aang: I recall yes

Sokka: can I have it

Aang: …what?

Sokka: can I have his firebending. just for like ten minutes

Aang: what no

Sokka: why not I wanna prank zuko

Aang:

Aang:

Aang: okay five minutes


Tags
2 years ago
So A Free Tool Called GLAZE Has Been Developed That Allows Artists To Cloak Their Artwork So It Can't
So A Free Tool Called GLAZE Has Been Developed That Allows Artists To Cloak Their Artwork So It Can't

So a free tool called GLAZE has been developed that allows artists to cloak their artwork so it can't be mimicked by AI art tools.

AI art bros are big mad about it.

7 months ago
The Notes Are Broken 😂

the notes are broken 😂

7 years ago

Person: of course I support everyone !! :) heteros, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders and... (looks at smudged writing on hand) avocados

2 years ago

it’s bnha crack theory hours

image

yaoyorozu momo is shimura nana’s granddaughter and shigaraki tomura’s half-sister, and i have proof.

Keep reading


Tags
7 years ago

Me, an asexual: my sexuality makes me invisible. Watch this.

Friend: you know that's just metaphorical, right? You aren't actually-

Me: *walks up to a store employee* I'm asexual.

Store employee: haha no you're not. No one is asexual, that's not a thing. You can't live without sex, honey. You're just a late bloomer haha or maybe you're saving yourself for someone special. Or you're just so sad and pathetic that you can't find a boyfriend. Or are you gay? You're totally gay, just admit it. You ...

Me: *steals a cake, three oranges, and a dozen candy bars under their nose while they continue to talk nonsense*

Friend: holy heck

  • froggyhopscotch
    froggyhopscotch reblogged this · 4 weeks ago
  • froggyhopscotch
    froggyhopscotch liked this · 4 weeks ago
  • sleeping-mara
    sleeping-mara reblogged this · 4 weeks ago
  • medusalithmycelium
    medusalithmycelium liked this · 4 weeks ago
  • labrador-entity
    labrador-entity reblogged this · 4 weeks ago
  • burntowl
    burntowl reblogged this · 4 weeks ago
  • morningstarthegood
    morningstarthegood reblogged this · 4 weeks ago
  • nessie-the-cryptid
    nessie-the-cryptid reblogged this · 4 weeks ago
  • nessie-the-cryptid
    nessie-the-cryptid liked this · 4 weeks ago
  • firequeenofficial
    firequeenofficial liked this · 1 month ago
  • lunaroceanic
    lunaroceanic reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • lunaroceanic
    lunaroceanic liked this · 1 month ago
  • crispy-onion
    crispy-onion reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • gayonwords
    gayonwords reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • gayonwords
    gayonwords liked this · 1 month ago
  • gaia-is-here-now
    gaia-is-here-now reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • gaia-is-here-now
    gaia-is-here-now liked this · 1 month ago
  • spireofdeceit
    spireofdeceit liked this · 1 month ago
  • jellyloveru
    jellyloveru reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • jellyloveru
    jellyloveru liked this · 1 month ago
  • callme-key
    callme-key liked this · 1 month ago
  • fullnameandaddress
    fullnameandaddress reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • fullnameandaddress
    fullnameandaddress liked this · 1 month ago
  • lorejelly
    lorejelly reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • vesperaink
    vesperaink liked this · 1 month ago
  • glitterytreesludgewolf
    glitterytreesludgewolf reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • everest81
    everest81 liked this · 1 month ago
  • ewtord
    ewtord reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • succulentstuff
    succulentstuff reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • succulentstuff
    succulentstuff liked this · 1 month ago
  • greenix
    greenix reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • greenix
    greenix liked this · 1 month ago
  • iapetusandthemoons
    iapetusandthemoons liked this · 1 month ago
  • 5leadero
    5leadero reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • 5leadero
    5leadero liked this · 1 month ago
  • boarself
    boarself liked this · 1 month ago
  • eskititgay
    eskititgay liked this · 1 month ago
  • dirt-str1der
    dirt-str1der reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • skiesshifting
    skiesshifting liked this · 1 month ago
  • colliewolf
    colliewolf reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • dragonsampersanddragons
    dragonsampersanddragons liked this · 1 month ago
  • 19agbrown
    19agbrown liked this · 1 month ago
  • sassysousa
    sassysousa reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • chimaeray
    chimaeray reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • ireallyshouldbepracticing
    ireallyshouldbepracticing liked this · 1 month ago
  • alioc
    alioc liked this · 1 month ago
  • hbryony
    hbryony reblogged this · 1 month ago
  • spaceing-out
    spaceing-out liked this · 1 month ago
  • lijuba
    lijuba reblogged this · 1 month ago
orangesandlemons3 - Orange the Ace
Orange the Ace

Hi! Nice to meet you.

374 posts

Explore Tumblr Blog
Search Through Tumblr Tags