Tradition / Region: Arabic Mythology, Persian Mythology
Alternate Names: Caspilli; Neemora (Persian)
Category: Fish
The Myth
Sailors of the warm seas spoke of a fish both terrible and marvelous, known among the Arabs as the Caspilly and among the Persians as the Neemora. It was said to dwell in the Arabian Gulf and the wider Indian Ocean, feared by all who sailed those waters.
The Caspilly was described as almost as wide as it was long, yet no more than two feet in length. Its body bore no scales; instead, its skin was rough, spiked, and barbed like that of a shark. From its forehead grew a long, lancet-shaped horn, sometimes said to be longer than a man’s arm. When not in use, this horn lay folded back along its neck.
When hunger seized it, the Caspilly attacked the first creature it encountered. With a sudden thrust, it drove its horn into the belly of its prey, leaving it to bleed to death in the water. Its teeth were venomous, and even a single bite meant certain death. Yet paradoxically, the body of a dead Caspilly, laid upon such a wound, was said to draw out the poison and save the victim. Its horn was prized above all, believed to hold powerful medicinal virtues.
Another tale spoke of a similar fish in the seas near Peru, bearing a sword-like horn three feet long. This creature was said to hunt whales. It would slip beneath the great beast, stab it in the navel, and retreat while the wounded whale thrashed in agony, sometimes capsizing nearby ships. Only once the whale was dead would the fish return to feed at its leisure.
In later tellings, these stories were woven together. The Caspilly grew even more fearsome, its horn stretching to four feet in length, and its appetite expanding to make it the terror of the Arabian seas. Sailors claimed that local hunters pursued it with giant hooks baited with camel meat. When the Caspilly struck, it would exhaust itself fighting the line, allowing the hunters to shoot it with arrows, haul it aboard, and beat it to death.
Its flesh was said to be edible, and its horn—called caspilly alicorn—was believed to rival the unicorn’s horn in its power to counter venom.
Thus the Caspilly lived on in sailors’ lore: a spined, horned killer of fish and whales alike, born from the dangers of the sea and the fearful imagination of those who crossed it.
Gallery
Sources
A Book of Creatures contributors. (n.d.). Caspilly. In A Book of Creatures, from https://abookofcreatures.com/2015/03/15/caspilly/
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
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Philosophical Readings
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Psychological Readings
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Esoteric Deep Dive
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Political / Social Readings
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Other
- How to Invite The Caspilly