Dagon

דגor דגן Piscis.DAGON, the God of the Philistines. The name of Dagon signifies a fish, and it is our opinion that Dagon was represented like a woman, with the lower parts of a fish,

as the Heathens represented the Tritons or Syrens. The Author of the great Etymologicum says, that Dagon was Saturn; others will have it that he was Jupiter, others again Venus. The Egyptians worshipped this Goddess under the form of a fish; because in Typhon’s war against the Gods, Venus concealed Ovid. Metam. l. 5. Fab. 5. Diodor. l. 2. p. 65. seu 92.herself in this shape. Diodorus the Sicilian says, that at Askelon a famous City of the Philistins, the goddess Derceto, or Atergatis, was worshipped under the figure of a woman, with the lower parts of a fish. Lucian¹ in like manner describes the goddess Derceto. Now this goddess was the same as Venus. There is therefore a great deal of probability, that Dagon was this deity².

Scripture shews pretty clearly, that the statue of Dagon was made in an human figure, at least the upper part of it; for it says that the Ark of the Lord being placed in Dagon’s Temple, the next day when the Priests proposed to come into the Temple, they found the head and hands of Dagon upon the threshold of the door, while the rest of the trunk belonging to the statue 1 Sam. v. 4, 5.continued in its place. See our Dissertation concerning the original, and the Gods of the Philistins, prefixed to our Comment on the first book of Samuel. There was a Temple of Dagon at Gaza, which was pulled down by Sampson. There was another at Azoth, where the Philistins laid up the Judg. xvi. 23, &seq. 1 Sam. v. 1, 2, 3. Josh. xv. 41. Josh. xix. 27.Ark of God. There was a city in the Tribe of Judah called Beth-Dagon, or the house of Dagon; and another of the same name upon the frontiers of Asher. Eusebius speaks likewise of a town called Caphar-Dagon, or the Field of Dagon, lying between Jamnia and Diospolis. Philo-Biblius in his translation of Sanchoniathon says, that by Dagon is meant Siton, or the God of Apud Eusęb. præpar. l. 1.wheat. Dagon does indeed signify wheat in the Hebrew; but who is this God of wheat? It is probably Ceres; for the Hebrews had no feminine name to signify Goddesses: and Elian informs us, that among the several names given to Ceres, Sito was one; as who should say, the Goddess of wheat, because she was believed to be the inventress of agriculture, and of this grain. She was represented with a plow, ears of wheat, fruits and poppies about her head or in her hands; and was joined with Bacchus the inventor of wine. In the mysteries they went together, and their feasts were celebrated jointly.

But we find her likewise described with fish in some medals³, which answers to the name of Dagon, derived from the root Dag, a fish. In one of these medals which is of the city of Syracuse, the fishes to the number of four, are disposed in the field of the Medal about the Goddess’s head, which is crowned with fruits. In another there are fishes to be seen about a bull’s head, which is upon the reverse of a Medal likewise of Syracuse with the head of Ceres. In Philo Biblius, Dagon is brother to Saturn, as in the Greek Authors, Ceres is sister to the same Saturn. Ceres enjoy’d the embraces of her brother, according to the Greeks; Atergatis is sister to the same Saturn, according to Philo Biblius.

Ibidem, P. 93, & 275.Lastly, Ceres is sometimes described with the attributes of Isis the goddess of the Egyptians, to whom likewise was ascribed the invention of husbandry, wheat, and fruits, and who was honoured as the Moon. In an antique statue of Ceres, found at Toul, there are observed to be ears of corn about her head, in the nature of hair or rays. Berosus, speaking of Oannes, says, that he had the body and head of a fish, that above this head was another, and that below the tail of the fish there appeared the feet of a man. This, say they, is the true figure of Dagon, who had different names Vaillant Appendic. hist. Ptolemaeorum.in different countries. We find an Egyptian Medal which represents half the body of a woman with a Cornu-copia in her hands, with the tail of a fish bent behind, and feet made like those of a crocodile or sea-calf. Such might be the figure of the goddess Dagon. The Rabbins vary about its figure, because they speak only by conjecture. Some describe it like a man in the upper parts, and a fish below; others on the contrary like a fish above, and like a man below: others again make it either all man Diodor. Sic. Bibl. lib. 2.or all fish.

Diodorus Siculus says, that at Askelon, a city in Palestine, Derceto or Atergatis was worshipped under the form of one having the face of a woman, and all the lower parts of a fish; almost as they describe the Nereids. There was a very deep pond near Askelon filled with fish, consecrated to this Goddess, from which the people of the town abstain’d through superstition, upon a belief that Venus having heretofore cast herself into this pond, was there metamorphosed Herod. l. 1.into a fish.

Herodotus relates, that the Scythians having made an irruption into Palestine, with a design of falling upon Egypt, Psammeticus, King of Egypt, diverted this blow by the great sums of money which he brought them. Some Scythians getting into Askelon, plundered the temple of Venus the Celestial, which is one of the most ancient temples that the world ever knew. The Goddess being irritated, sent an ignominious and painful disease among them, the Hemorrhoids, which was communicated to their posterity, as a punishment of the sacrilege committed by them. Here we see that Herodotus calls the very same Goddess Venus the celestial, whom others name Atergatis or Derceto, and we believe to be Dagon. Salmas. in Solin.Salmasius is of opinion, that Dagon is the same as Ceto, a great sea-fish. Ceto the sea-monster, to which Andromeda was exposed at Joppa, and Derceto the goddess of the Askelonites, are the same deity. Selden will Selden de Diis Syr. Syntagm. 2. c. 3.have it, that Atergatis is the same as Dagon, and that the name of Atergatis is deriv’d from the Hebrew Adir-Dagan, magnificent fish. The name of magnificent is often given to the true God and to false deities. Diana the Persian or Venus, was, as they say, changed into a fish upon throwing herself into the waters of Babylon. Manilius says;

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