dagon Summary and Overview

little fish; diminutive from dag = a fish, the fish-god; the national god of the Philistines (Judg. 16:23). This idol had the body of a fish with the head and hands of a man. It was an Assyrio-Babylonian deity, the worship of which was introduced among the Philistines through Chaldea. The most famous of the temples of Dagon were at Gaza (Judg. 16:23-30) and Ashdod (1 Sam. 5:1-7). (See FISH T0001343.)

(a fish), apparently the masculine, #1Sa 5:3,4| correlative of Atargatis, was the national god of the Philistines. The most famous temples of Dagon were at Gaza, #Jud 16:21-30| and Ashdod. #1Sa 5:5,6; 1Ch 10:10| The latter temple was destroyed by Jonathan in the Maccabaean wars. Traces of the worship of Dagon likewise appear in the names Caphar-dagon (near Jamnia) and Beth-dagon in Judah, #Jos 15:41| and Asher. #Jos 19:27| Dagon was represented with the face and hands of a man and the tail of a fish. #1Sa 5:5| The fish-like form was a natural emblem of fruitfulness, and as such was likely to be adopted by seafaring tribes in the representation of their gods.

DA'GON (diminutive, to express endearment, of fish), the national god of the Philistines. His corresponding goddess was Atargatis or Derceto, and they were at times worshipped in a common temple. Atargatis is manifestly related to Astarte. There were temples of Dagon at Gaza, where Samson performed his final feat of strength in pulling down the pillars, Jud 16:23; at Ashdod, where the idol miraculously fell down before the ark of the covenant, 1 Sam 5:1-4 (this temple was destroyed by Jonathan in the Maccabaean war, 1 Maec 10:83-84; 1 Maec 11:4; Joseph., Ant., 13,4,& 5); at Beth-dagon, in Judah, Josh 15:41, and in Asher, Josh 19:27; and elsewhere. Dagon was represented with the face and hands of a man and the body of a fish, the fish part signifying fecundity. The worship of a fish-god was not original with the Philistines or the The Fish-God. (From a bas-relief from Khorsabad. Botia.) Phoenicians, who also were Dagon's worshippers, but with the Assyrian Babylonians, upon whose monuments are representations of such a god, under the name Odakon, sporting in the sea surrounded by fishes and marine animals. He was said to have emerged from the sea and to have been "one of the great benefactors of men," because he taught them the use of letters, the arts, religion, and agriculture.

Diminutive (expressing endearment) of dag, "a fish." The male god to which Atargatis corresponds (2 Maccabees 12:26), the Syrian goddess with a woman's body and fish's tail, worshipped at Hierapolis and Ascalon. Our fabulous mermaid is derived from this Phoenician idol. She corresponds to the Greek foam-sprung Aphrodite. The divine principle supposed to produce the seeds of all things from moisture. Twice a year, water was brought from distant places and poured into a chasm in the temple, through which the waters of the flood were said to have been drained away (Lucian de Syr. Dea, 883). Derived from tarag, targeto, "an opening," the goddess being also called DERCETO; or else addir, "glorious," and dagto, "a fish." The tutelary goddess of the first Assyrian dynasty, the name appearing in Tiglath. Dag-on was the national god of the Philistines, his temples were at Gaza and Ashdod (Judges 16:21-30; 1 Samuel 5:5-6). The temple of Dagon, which Samson pulled down, probably resembled a Turkish kiosk, a spacious hall with roof resting in front upon four columns, two at the ends and two close together at the center. Under this hall the Philistine chief men celebrated a sacrificial meal, while the people assembled above upon the balustraded roof. The half-man half-fish form (found in bas-relief at Khorsabad) was natural to maritime coast dwellers. They senselessly joined the human form divine to the beast that perishes, to symbolize nature's vivifying power through water; the Hindu Vishnu; Babylonian Odakon. On the doorway of Sennacherib's palace at Koyunjik there is still in bas-relief representations of Dagon, with the body of a fish but under the fish's head a man's head, and to its tail women's feet joined; and in all the four gigantic slabs the upper part has perished, exactly as 1 Samuel 5:4's margin describes: now in the British Museum. The cutting off of Dagon's head and hands before Jehovah's ark, and their lying on the threshold (from whence his devotees afterward did not dare to tread upon it), prefigure the ultimate cutting off of all idols in the great day of Jehovah (Isaiah 2:11-22). Beth-Dagon in Judah and another in Asher (Joshua 15:41; Joshua 19:27) show the wide extension of this worship. In his temple the Philistines fastened up Saul's head (1 Chronicles 10:10).