Sacred Cod

The Sacred Cod is a four-foot, eleven-inch carved-wood effigy of an Atlantic codfish, "painted to the life", hanging in the House of Represen­ta­tives chamber of Boston's Massachusetts State House—​"a memorial of the importance of the Cod-Fishery to the welfare of this Commonwealth" (i.e. Massachusetts, of which cod is officially the "historic and contin­u­ing symbol"). The Sacred Cod has gone through as many as three incarnations over three centuries: the first (if it really existed—​the authoritative source calling it a "prehistoric creature of tradition") was lost in a 1747 fire, the second disappeared during the American Revolution, and the third is the one seen in the House today.

Sacred Cod in "Bedfellows"
When W and O arrived at the Massachusetts State House to be married, one photographer from a large group asked if the two would mind posing in front of the Sacred Cod for a photo. W genially agreed but O frowned and refused on the grounds that it was a graven image.