Dagon (Hastings' Dictionary)

The principal deity of the Philistines, whose worship, however, seems to have extended beyond the Pliil. country, as is proved by the geographical name Beth-dagon (which see), and perhaps by the later name Dagon (Jos. Ant. XIII. viii. 1 ; Wart, I. ii. 3). It has commonly been held by scholars that the name is a diminntive, and so a term of endearment, from daff, which signifies fish, and hence that D. was worshipped tmder the form of a fish. He has been generally identified with a Bab.

god who is represented on seals and elsewhere as having in part that form. And though there is nothing in the biblical account to confirm this view, there is also nothing to contradict it. D. had face and hands, and, according to the Sept., feet also (1 S 5*) ; but this is not inconsistent with his having in part the shape of a fish. The pictures of the Bab. fish-god show face and hands, and in some instances feet. Indeed, one is strongly tempted to find in the phrase ' only D.

remained,' the meaning ' only little fish remained,' the point being that, after the head and hands of D. were cut off, nothing was left of him save the fish-shaped part. Nevertheless, Sayce and others now insist that D. was not a fish- god, and that the resemblance of name is a mere coincidence. The Bab. fish-god was Ea, the patron god of the city of Eridu, the god of the ocean, of water, of -nTsdom.

In some sense Ea was god of the sea, Anu of the sky, and Bel (Baal) of the earth and the under- world. Bel is closely associated with Anu, but not with Ea. And D. appears in the inscriptions as one of the names or one of the forms of Bel. The name and worship of D. were upon either theory imported into Pal. from Babylonia. The name is held to have been originally Sumerian, but a Semitic derivation was found for it in con- nexion with its use to designate the god of aijri- culture. D.

was identified with dagan, the iJeb. word for com, when corn is thought of as an agricultural product. Presumably, D. was worshipped in Phoenicia as well as in Philistia. There is a Phoen. cylindrical seal of crystal now in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, on which, according to Sayce, the name Baal-dagon is written in Phoen. letters, with an ear of com engraved near it, and other symbols, such as the winged solar disc, a gazelle, and several stars, but no figure of a fish. Eusebius {Prcep.

Evang. i. 6) quotes Philo Byblius of the 2nd cent. A.D. as citing the ancient Phcen. legends that go under the name of Sanchoniathon, to the efiiect that Ouranos (Anu) married his sister the earth, 'and by her had four sons, Ilus (El), who is called Kronos, and Betylus, and D., which signifies "com," and Atlas.' 'I)., after he had discovered bread-corn and the plough, was called Zens Arotrios.' The Phoen. Dagon, then, like the Bab., is properly Zeus of the plough.'

With this agree all the notices found m OT in regard to the Phil. Dagon. He had temples in Gaza and Ashdod (Jg 16^, 1 S 5'-'), and presumably in the other PhU. cities. His worship among the Philistines was national, and not merely local (I Ch 10'", 1 S 5'-6'»). His worship did not exclude that of other Baals (2 K I'-').

The Philistines regarded him as giWng them victory over their enemies, rejoicing before liini when Samson was in their power, and placing Saul's head in his temple (Jg 16^, 1 Ch lO'"). But he was eminently the god of agriculture ; they acknowledged J"'s victory over him through the mice that marred their fields, and offered golden mice in token of the acknowledgment (I S 6'-'). Apparently, the worship of D. among the Philis- tines was conducted with a highly developed and technical ritual.

We may infer this from the elaborate discussions and arrangements for return- ing the ark, as described in 1 S 5. 6, the golden mice and golden tumours as a guilt-otfering, the new cart, the new milch kine with their calves shut up at home. The worship of D. at Gaza con- tinued to a late period. During the Maccabasan wars Jonathan destroyed the temple of D. there (1 Mac 10«"« 11*; Jos. ArU. XUI. iv. 4, 5). LiTKRATUEB.

— Sayce, BCM 326-327 ; Sayce in S5 Timet, May 27, 1893 ; Smith, HQHL 164 ; Moore, Judga, 368 1. ; Wellh. and Driver on 1 8 6< ; Oj/. Beb. Lex. $.v. W. J. BeECHER. DAISAN (B Aaicrar, A A«<r-), 1 Es 5".— Called Rezin, Ezr 2«, Neh 7". The form in 1 Eb is due to confusion of i and l. DALAN (A AaXdr, B 'K<ri.r, AY Ladan), 1 Es 6* =Delaiah, Ezr 2'.