CODE FOR TILAPIA? just to start

WHY is there a supposed "Tilapia museum" at Andrew AFB? Its a code word. Just look at the menu... lots of "cheese" and "tilapia"

TILAPIA on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilapia History The Tomb of Nakht, 1500 BC, contains a tilapia hieroglyph just above the head of the central figure. The aquaculture of Nile tilapia goes back to Ancient Egypt, where it was represented by the hieroglyph K1, of the Gardiner List. K1 Tilapia was a symbol of rebirth in Egyptian art, and was in addition associated with Hathor. It was also said to accompany and protect the sun god on his daily journey across the sky. Tilapia painted on tomb walls, reminds us of spell 15 of the Book of the Dead by which the deceased hopes to take his place in the sun boat: "You see the tilapia in its [true] form at the turquoise pool", and "I behold the tilapia in its [true] nature guiding the speedy boat in its waters." [4]

Tilapia were one of the three main types of fish caught in Biblical times from the Sea of Galilee. At that time they were called Amnoon (which they are still called today in Modern Hebrew. Am= mother, Noon= fish.), in Arabic the fish is called "Musht", which means "a comb", as resembled by its backfin or commonly now as "St. Peter's fish". The name "St. Peter's fish" comes from the story in the Gospel of Matthew about the apostle Peter catching a fish that carried a coin in its mouth, though the passage does not name the fish.[5] While the name also applies to Zeus faber, a marine fish not found in the area, a few tilapia species (Sarotherodon galilaeus galilaeus and others) are found in the Sea of Galilee, where the author of the Gospel of Matthew recounts the event took place. These species have been the target of small-scale artisanal fisheries in the area for thousands of years.[6][7]

http://www.electrummagazine.com/2012/09/ancient-egyptian-tilapia-fish-story/ Ancient Egyptian Tilapia Fish Story

ne·ot·e·ny nēˈät(ə)nē/ nounZOOLOGY the retention of juvenile features in the adult animal. the sexual maturity of an animal while it is still in a mainly larval state, as in the axolotl.

By Patrick Hunt –

A “fish story” is often perceived as a tall tale, a narrative with “fishy” circumstances. If not an outright result of something incredible like “Jonah and the Whale”, a dubious stretching of the truth may be amusing but modern ichthyological science has somewhat tarnished the Egyptian tilapia legends. Amulets of the tilapia fish were perceived to possess fertility power as it was widely considered a symbol of regeneration and reproductive strength in Ancient Egypt. A description of the tilapia fish in Egyptian art mostly of the New Kingdom (roughly 1550-1070 BCE) follows, contrasted with scientific study of male tilapia virility.

This lovely striped glass object pictured in the lead photo – an 18th Dynasty brightly colored cosmetic bottle in the shape of a tilapia fish – is from the Amarna Period, a highwater epoch of Egyptian art under Akhenaten in the city he built with relative independence from prior art canons as well as far enough from the monopoly of the Theban priesthood of Amun at least during his reign. It is one of the most striking pieces on the British Museum’s Egyptian collection of iconic glass objects and is both imaginative in design as well as anatomically faithful for anyone steeped in Nilotic ichthyology. [1] Its high tech creation was an art form where heated glass rods of different colors were wrapped around a disposable core and a stylus was then dragged through the striped colors to simulate fish scales in wave patterns. Naturalistic fins, stripes and eyes were quickly added while the glass was still warm, as was a tail of the same technique as the body. The colorful glass made this tilapia fish bottle a prized possession, and it was discovered under a floor in el-Amarna, Akhenaten’s city that was soon abandoned during the following Ramesside dynasty. [2]

Although it is unlikely the ancient Egyptians were fully aware of all the particular tilapia traits, without doubt the species of Egyptian Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus or Tilapia niloticus) was then and now famous for an unusual form of neoteny while rearing its young. It is now well observed that the female tilapia carries her babies in her mouth after hatching, sheltering them from harm. How much Ancient Egyptians were aware of the emergence of the hatchlings from their mother’s open mouth remains to be seen. While more understood as a regenerative power, this unusual trait led Egyptians to exaggerate aspects of tilapia fertility, imagining this as a powerful rebirth tropism. Like modern fish aquaculture, Egyptians also farmed tilapia in closed ponds along the Nile, and this fish had its own special hieroglyph character as in.t (or ‘int) in texts [3] and the tilapia image was also worn as an amulet, not the least for pregnant women on necklaces or later sewn into shrouds for the afterlife. Greek historian Herodotus may have even tried to convey something of the parenting legends of the tilapia in his History II.93, although his information is somewhat garbled on Nilotic fish behavior.

Ancient Egyptian gardens were also renowned for fertility aspects – perfect venues for lovers’ trysts as described in Egyptian love poems – and tilapia fish are also often portrayed in funerary wall paintings, e.g., swimming in the pools at the center of Nilotic gardens, as in the Nebamun tomb paintings from Thebes, one such image shown here.

... Last but not least, illustrating its visual symbolism and virile power, the colorful tilapia had another mythological task: piloting the boat of sun-god Ra while warning of the approach of the Apophis serpent in the netherworld voyage. [12]

Modern scientific ichthyology studies have shown, however, that despite its revered status in Ancient Egypt and endearing aspects of neoteny such as the mother protecting her hatchlings in her mouth, the reproductive organs of the male tilapia are not apropos for such legendary regenerative virility. Some tilapia have even been recognized for elaborate male-female courtship. [13] But in fact, some tilapia species survival is likely compensatory in nature as an optimum parenting caring trait to make up for the male tilapia’s less potent reproductive success:

https://archive.org/stream/amentetaccountof00knig/amentetaccountof00knig_djvu.txt Bulti. The Bulti is one of the Nile fishes (Tilapia nilotica) The Egyptian name is Nar. The Latus above mentioned " was the incarnation of the local Hathor, and the images of the Fish frequently bore on their backs the cows' horns and solar disk, which charac- terize this goddess of the setting sun ,ri (Quibell). Two mythological Fish, Abtu and Ant, accompanied the boat of the sun-god, to protect it from " every evil being or thing in the waters which had a mind to attack it " (Gods of the Egyptians, ii. 383). The Bulti is another fish of which amulets are known : it is described on p. 143. The Electric Fish is noticed on p. 149. There is still a good deal to be learnt on the subject of the sacred Fish of the Egyptians

The fish symbolized a number of different things for the ancient Egyptians — some good, some really bad… [If anyone’s really very curious about fish in ancient Egypt, I recommend taking a look at the book by Douglas Brewer and Renée F. Friedman, Fish and Fishing in Ancient Egypt (1989).] The Egyptians used images of the tilapia fish as a symbol of rebirth and regeneration. (You can see a nice faience bowl with a tilapia on it (E14359) and a rattle in the shape of a tilapia (E13005) in our Daily Life room.)

https://www.penn.museum/blog/museum/somethings-fishy-in-the-palace-of-merneptah-graffiti-in-ancient-egypt/

On the negative side, a fish was the creature blamed for eating Osiris’ phallus after his evil brother Seth dismembered him and cast his body parts into the Nile. This understandably could give a fish a bad reputation.