OANNES, the name of a Babylonian god, who, in the first year of the foundation of Babylon, is said to have come out of the Persian gulf, or the old Eryt]•ecn sea, adjoin lug _ Babylon. He is described as having the head and body of a fish, to which were added a human head and feet under the fish's head and at the tail. He lived amongst men during the daytime, without, however, taking any food, and retired at sunset to the sea, front which he had emerged. Oannes had a human voice, and instructed men in the use of letters, and iu all the principal arts and sciences of civilization, which he com municated to them. Such is the account of him preserved by Berosus and Apollodorus. Five such monsters are said to have come out of the Persian gulf; one, called Anedot os or Motion, in the reign of Amenon, the fourth king of Babylon; another in that of the fifth king; and the last, called Odacon (or Ho Dagon), apparently the Phe nician Dagon, under the sixth. Many figures of Oannes, resembling that of a Triton, having the upper part of a man, and the lower part of a fish, or as a man covered with it fish's body, have been found in the sculptures of Kouyonjik and Khorsabad, as well as on many cylinders and gems. ()alines is 'supposed to have symbolized the conquest of Babylonia by a more civilized nation coming in ships to the mouth of the Euphrates; but he is apparently a water-god, resembling in type and character the Phenician Dagon, and the Greek Proteus and Triton.
Helladius, Aped Phot. Cod. 279, pp. 535, 34; Richter, De Beroso; Cory. Anti. Fragm. p. 30; 1 Sam. v. 4; Bunsen, Egypt'. Place, vol. 1. p. 703; Lay ard, .Niaerch, p. 343.
OAR, a wooden instrument by which a person sitting in a boat propels it through the water. The form found in practice to combine greatest power
with lightness, is that shown in the figure. From a to b is the blade of the oar, thin and nearly flat, though occasionally somewhat curved, so 218 to present a concave surface to the water; from b to d is round or square, grad ually thickening towards d, that the part ce may nearly balance the part (re. At de is the handle, which is grasped by one or both bands. The oar rests at c on the s'ow-lock. and in many cases some device is resorted to to retain the oar from slipping outwards. In the Thames, a leathern stop. called it button, is used; sometimes a pin in the gunwale of the boat passes through the oar (but this weakens the oar, and precludes feathering); at other times the oar is fastened to the pin by a leathern thong. The action of an oar in moving, a boat is that of a lever, the rower's hand being the power, the water the fulcrum, against which the oar presses, and the row-lock the point at which the opposition caused by the weight of the boat and its cargo is felt, _Feathering an oar consists in turning it, immediately on leaving the water, so that the flat blade of the oar is horizontal, and in preserving this position until just before the fresh dip, when of course the vertical position must be resumed. Feathering diminishes the resistance offered by air, wind, and small waves; it also adds greatly to the beauty and ,grace of rowing.
The best oars are of N'orwayfir,though some are made of ash and beech.