ORPHEUS, in Ichthyology, the name of a fish caught in the Archipelago. It is of a broad and flat figure, and of a fine purple colour; its eyes are large and prominent, and its teeth serrated; it has only one fin on the back and the anterior rays of that are prickly, the others soft to the touch; its anus is small, and is said to have no passage for the semen.
This was the fish called orpheus by the ancients, but the modern Greeks call another fish by that name. It is a species of the sparus, of a flat figure, but very thick, has a small mouth, and is covered with small but very rough scales, which adhere very firmly to the flesh; the tail is not forked; it has fleshy lips, and very small teeth; its back and sides are black; its belly white: it has a large black spot at the root of the tail; its head is reddish, and its fins are very elegantly diversified with various colours; it has only one back-fin, and that has the anterior ray prickly, the hinder ones not at all so. It grows sometimes to 20 pounds weight, and is much esteemed among the modern Greeks.