Dagon
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DAGON (DEITY) [Heb dāgôn (דָּגֹון)]. Dagon is attested as the patron deity of the middle Euphrates region centered around Tuttul, Mari, and esp. Terqa, from the 3d millennium b.c.e. The earliest reference to the worship of this god is in the inscriptions of Sargon of Akkad, though proper names containing the Dagon element are common from the middle of the 3d millennium b.c.e. throughout Mesopotamia (Roberts 1972: 18; Pettinato and Waetzoldt 1985: 239–48). As divine ruler of his land, Dagon was responsible for king and people; this is well attested in spheres of military expansion, fertility, living and deceased human rulers, and divine advice (Kupper 1947: 150–52). A number of messages from Dagon to his territory have survived. By dream, by ecstatic possession, and by oral command, male and female prophets and commoners related Dagon’s messages on topics ranging from war and peace (Dossin 1978: 9, 122–23, no. 80; 1948: 128–32) to preparations for a funeral (Kupper 1950: 64–65, no. 40).
Whether or not the cult was adopted from the area around Terqa, Dagon was a popular and enduring deity in Mesopotamia (Menzel 1981: 51–53) and Syria (Schaeffer 1935: 155–56); the Assyrian king Shamshi-Adad I honored the deity by building the temple Ekisiqa in Terqa (GARI 1: 24–25). The cult appears to have been established in Palestine by the second half of the 2d millennium b.c.e. since a name with the Dagon element appears in the Amarna Letters (Artzi 1968: 163–64). There is little information on Dagon and his cult along the E Mediterranean. While the god’s name appears in the texts of Ugarit (Del Olmo 1981: 69–70; Xella 1981: 388), little information is provided aside from the fact that he is Baal’s father and a ritual reference. Furthermore, the name is lacking from some Ugarit god lists altogether (de Moor 1970: 219). Two inscriptions which might refer to the existence of Dagon in Palestine include the word dgn, but it is uncertain what this word means in this context (KAI 14:19; Montalbano 1951: 390–91).
All biblical references to Dagon appear in literary narratives and may not be considered primary data. Temples are reported for Dagon as a Philistine deity (1 Sam 5:1–7; Judg 16:23; 1 Chr 10:10; 1 Macc 10:83–84; 11:4) in the cities of Ashdod, Beth-shan, and perhaps Gaza. Yet, no archaeological evidence has independently confirmed such a temple to Dagon in any of these sites. Several place names also include Dagon’s name (Montalbano 1951: 391), thus confirming the deity’s importance for the area. This importance may also be assumed from the use made of Dagon in biblical texts through the end of the 2d century b.c.e.
Aside from Dagon’s attributes as a patron deity, this god’s cosmic character remains unknown. Three major theories have been posited for the function of Dagon. It was long thought the god was related to the Semitic root dg ‘fish’ (ERE 4: 387); this understanding was supported by references in Jerome and in the Talmudic tradition (Montalbano 1951: 394; Holter 1989: 145). A case was made that Dagon was related to Odakon, a fish-man character in Berossus’ Babyloniaca (ERE 4: 387; Fontenrose 1957: 278). Though both arguments were rejected early in the 20th century (ERE 4: 387; RLA 2: 101), they were later revived. The fish aspect is still argued to be a secondary attribute (Fontenrose 1957: 278–79; Holter 1989: 146–47), while the Odakon connection (Fontenrose 1957: 278) is now considered highly improbable given that the Berossus mss are not uniform in the name of the fish-human (Burstein 1978: 19 n. 42; Montalbano 1951: 395).
The Semitic root dgn, when translated as “grain,” is also seen as the original meaning of the name Dagon (Langdon 1931: 78; Dhorme 1950: 135; EncJud 5: 1222). The equation of Dagon with sitōn in Philo of Byblos (recorded in Eus. P.E. 1.10.16) supports such a theory, yet the notion of Dagon as a god of grain finds no solid evidence in the ANE. Albright, followed by several others, argues that Semitic “grain” may have been named after the god Dagon rather than the other way around (Albright 1920: 319 n. 27; Montalbano 1951: 395–96; Wyatt 1980: 377; Attridge and Oden 1981: 87 n. 87); but this suggestion depends on an unknown chronology (Holter 1989: 142).
The Albright note suggested that Dagon was named as a storm god on the basis of an Arabic root dg, which he translated “be cloudy, rainy,” and argued that the fertility aspect of Dagon was related to this weather aspect. This theory has been widely accepted (Montalbano 1951: 394; Caquot and Sznycer 1980: 15; Wyatt 1980: 377–79; Holter 1989: 142); yet the name must be derived from a root not attested in the ancient world and the fertility aspect is as likely to be related to a patron deity as to a storm deity.
Thus the cosmic character of Dagon eludes definition. The deity is equated to too many foreign deities to posit that any of them really was seen as the same “kind” of divinity (Fontenrose 1957: 277; Laroche 1968: 524; Wyatt 1980: 379; Baumgarten 1981: 195; Lipiński 1983: 308, 309; Pettinato and Waetzoldt 1985: 235–36). Whatever the god represented for his devotees, however, he certainly endured through the centuries.
Bibliography
Albright, W. F. 1920. Gilgames and Engidu, Mesopotamian Genii of Fecundity. JAOS 40: 307–35.
Artzi, P. 1968. Some Unrecognized Syrian Amarna Letters (EA 260, 317, 318). JNES 27: 163–71.
Attridge, H. W., and Oden, R. A., Jr. 1981. Philo of Byblos: The Phoenician History: Introduction, Critical Text, Translation, Notes. CBQMS 9. Washington, DC.
Baumgarten, A. I. 1981. The Phoenician History of Philo of Byblos: A Commentary. Études Préliminaires aux Religions Orientales dans l’Empire Romain 89. Leiden.
Burstein, S. M. 1978. The Babyloniaca of Berossus. SANE 1/5. Malibu.
Caquot, A., and Sznycer, M. 1980. Ugaritic Religion. Iconography of Religions 15/8. Leiden.
Del Olmo Lete, G. 1981. Mitos y leyendas de Canaan segun la tradicion de Ugarit. Fuentes de la Ciencia Biblica 1. Madrid.
Dhorme, E. 1950. Les avatars du dieu Dagon. RHR 138: 129–44.
Dossin, G. 1948. Une révélation du dieu Dagan à Terqa. RA 42: 125–34.
———. 1978. Correspondance féminine. ARM 10. Paris.
Fontenrose, J. 1957. Dagon and El. Oriens 10: 277–79.
Holter, K. 1989. Was Philistine Dagon a Fish-God? Some New Questions and an Old Answer. Scandinavian Journal of the OT 1: 142–47.
Kupper, J. R. 1947. Un gouvernement provincial dans le royaume de Mari. RA 41: 149–83.
———. 1950. Correspondance de Kibri-Dagan, Gouverneur de Terqa. ARM 3. Paris.
Langdon, S. H. 1931. Semitic. Vol. 5 in The Mythology of All Races. Boston.
Laroche, E. 1968. Documents en langue Hourrite provenant de Ras Shamra. Ugaritica 5: 447–544.
Lipiński, E. 1983. Review of The Phoenician History of Philo of Byblos, by Albert I. Baumgarten. BO 40: 305–10.
Menzel, B. 1981. Assyrische Tempel, Bd. 1: Untersuchungen zu Kult, Administration und Personal.Studia Pohl: Series Maior 10/1. Rome.
Montalbano, F. J. 1951. Canaanite Dagon: Origin, Nature. CBQ 13: 381–97.
Moor, J. C. de. 1970. The Semitic Pantheon of Ugarit. UF 2: 187–228.
Pettinato, G., and Waetzoldt, H. 1985. Dagān in Ebla und Mesopotamien nach den Texten aus dem 3. Jahrtausend. Or 54: 234–56.
Roberts, J. J. M. 1972. The Earliest Semitic Pantheon. Baltimore.
Schaeffer, C. F. A. 1935. Les fouilles de Ras Shamra-Ugarit: sixème campagne (Printemps 1934): Rapport Sommaire. Syria 16: 141–76.
Schmökel, H. 1928. Der Gott Dagon, Ursprung, Verbreitung und Wesen seines Kultes. Leipzig.
Wyatt, N. 1980. The Relationship of the Dieties Dagan and Hadad. UF 12: 375–79.
Xella, P. 1981. I testi rituali di Ugarit—I: Testi. Studi Semitici 54. Rome.
Lowell K. Handy
Freedman, D. N. (1996, c1992). The Anchor Bible Dictionary (2:2). New York: Doubleday.
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DAGON Dagon was a merman, a Philistine fertility god who was in the upper half of his body a man, the lower half a fish. St. Jerome’s speculation that the etymology of his name was from Heb. dag (“fish”) or dagan (“grain”) is unsubstantiated. Samson (Judg. 16:23–24) pulled down the pillars in the temple of Dagon in Gaza, an event which Matthew Henry, in his Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, interprets as a type of Christ’s destruction of the devil’s kingdom (2.103).
1 Sam. 5:1–5 records that when the Philistines put the captured Ark of the Covenant on the threshold of Dagon’s temple the idol of Dagon had in the morning mysteriously fallen over facedown, knocking off both head and hands. This story was very popular in books of “historical wonders” such as Sir Walter Raleigh’s History of the World and George Sandys’s Relation of a Journey, which reinforced the biblical account among readers in the Renaissance. Another successful adjunct to the biblical account was made by Milton’s friend John Selden, in his book De Dis Syris (“On the Syrian gods”), which includes an anthropological elaboration of the story.
Milton accordingly makes Dagon one of the fallen angels, describing him expressly in biblical terms and drawing on Selden’s commentary (Paradise Lost, 1.457-66). William Cowper describes how when the “light” of Christian faith reached Britain, the gods Woden and Thor, “each tottering in his shrine, / Fell, broken and defac’d, at their own door, / As Dagon in Philistia long before” (“Expostulation,” 504-06). Edward Young, in his Night Thoughts, deals with the story of Samson at Gaza, and uses Samson’s tearing down the temple of Dagon as an image of the apocalyptic destruction of time. Blake cut out this passage as a prompt to illustration no. 537 in his watercolor designs for Young’s poem, then adapted the story of Dagon, fusing it with the story of Gideon’s destruction of the altar of Baal as well as the Vulcan myth, in his Book of Los.
Charles Lamb, in “Grace Before Meat,” whimsically remarks that “A man should be sure … that while he is pretending his devotions otherwhere, he is not secretly kissing his hand to some great fish—his Dagon—with a special consecration of no ark but the fat tureen before him.” In Moby-Dick, Melville was thinking of another fish when he dryly observed that the story that St. George killed a dragon, not a whale, “will fare like that fish, flesh, and fowl idol of the Philistines, Dagon by name,” and then recounts the calamitous fall to pieces before the ark.
Jeffrey, D. L. (1992). A Dictionary of biblical tradition in English literature. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
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Dagon — 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.)
Easton, M. (1996, c1897). Easton's Bible dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
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DAGON Deity worshiped throughout the Mesopotamian world. In the OT, Dagon is the principal god of the Philistines (Jgs 16:23; 1 Sm 5:2–7; 1 Chr 10:10). Shrines to Dagon were found in Israel’s territories (Beth-dagon, Jos 15:41; 19:27). See Canaanite Deities and Religion.
Elwell, W. A., & Comfort, P. W. (2001). Tyndale Bible dictionary. Tyndale reference library (345). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers.
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DAGON. In the OT Dagon is a principal deity of the Philistines worshipped in Samson’s time at Gaza (Jdg. 16:21–23), at Ashdod (to Maccabean days, 1 Macc. 10:83–85; 11:4) and at Beth-shan in the days of Saul and David (1 Sa. 5:2–7; 1 Ch. 10:10 with 1 Sa. 31:10). The true origin of this god’s name is lost in antiquity, and even his precise nature is uncertain. The common idea that he was a fish-deity appears to have no foundation in fact, being adumbrated in Jerome (BDB, p. 1121) and first clearly expressed by Kimhi in the 13th century ad (Schmökel), influenced solely by the outward similarity between ‘Dagon’ and Heb. dāḡ, ‘fish’. The fish-tailed divinity on coins from Arvad and Ascalon is linked with Atargatis and has no stated connection with Dagon (Dhorme and Dussaud). The common Heb. word dāḡān, ‘grain, corn’ (BDB, p. 186) may be derived from the name of the god Dagon or Dagan or be its origin; it is thus possible that he was a vegetation or grain god (cf. W. F. Albright, Archaeology and the Religion of Israel3, 1953, pp. 74 and 220, n. 15).
From at least 2500 bc onwards, Dagon received worship throughout Mesopotamia, especially in the Middle-Euphrates region, in which, at Mari, he had a temple (18th century bc) adorned with bronze lions (see illustration in A. Champdor, Babylon, 1959). Many personal names were compounded with Dagon.
In the 14th century bc and earlier, Dagon had a temple at Ugarit in N Phoenicia, identified by two stelae in it dedicated to his name; these are pictured in Syria 16, 1935, plate 31:1–2, opposite p. 156, and translated by Albright, op.cit., p. 203, n. 30. This temple had a forecourt (?), an antechamber, and probably a tower (plan in C. F. A. Schaeffer, The Cuneiform Texts of Ras Shamra Ugarit, 1939, plate 39), the whole probably taking the form of the ancient model illustrated by C. L. Woolley (A Forgotten Kingdom, 1953, p. 57, fig. 9). In the Ugaritic (N Canaanite) texts Dagon is father of Baal. At Bethshan, one temple discovered may be that of 1 Ch. 10:10 (see A. Rowe, Four Canaanite Temples of Beth Shan, 1, 1940, pp. 22–24). That Dagon had other shrines in Palestine is indicated by two settlements each called Bethdagon (Jos. 15:41; 19:27) in the territories of Judah and Asher. Rameses II mentions a B(e)th-D(a)g(o)n in his Palestinian lists (c. 1270 bc), and Sennacherib a Bit-Dagannu in 701 bc.
Bibliography. H. Schmökel, Der Gott Dagan, 1928, and in Ebeling and Meissner (eds.), Reallexikon der Assyriologie, 2, 1938, pp. 99–101; E. Dhorme and R. Dussaud, Les Religions de Babylonie et d’Assyrie … des Hittites … Phéniciens, etc., 1949, pp. 165–167, 173, 364f., 371, 395f.; M. Dahood, in S. Moscati (ed.), Le antiche divinità semitiche, 1958, pp. 77–80; M. Pope, in W. Haussing (ed.), Wérterbuch der Mythologie, 1, 1965, pp. 276–278. For Mari material, see J. R. Kupper, Les Nomades en Mésopotamie au temps des Rois de Mari 1957, pp. 69–71. k.a.k.
Wood, D. R. W., Wood, D. R. W., & Marshall, I. H. (1996, c1982, c1962). New Bible Dictionary. Includes index. (electronic ed. of 3rd ed.) (251). Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press.
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Dagon (dayʹgahn), an ancient Semitic deity attested in the northern Mesopotamian area from the late third millennium and in the entire West Semitic area through biblical times. The etymology of the name is disputed; Jerome’s derivation of it from Hebrew dag, ‘fish,’ is far-fetched. More probable is the root attested in Arabic dagana, ‘to be cloudy, rainy,’ appropriate to a god of rain and fertility. The common Northwest Semitic word for grain, dagan, is to be derived from the fertility god, like Latin ceres, ‘bread, grain,’ from the god Ceres. The texts from Ugarit give no information about the god except that he is the father of Baal Haddu, the major god of fertility at Ugarit; Dagon does have a temple at Ugarit so he must have been honored in public worship.
The Philistines, after they settled on the coast of Palestine in the twelfth century b.c., honored Dagon. The Bible sees the god as the chief god of the Philistines, at least as the god to whom thanks were given after a victory. In 1 Sam. 5:2-7, God represented by the captured Ark in the temple at Ashdod causes the statue of Dagon to fall before him; the second fall destroys the statue. In Judg. 16:23, the imprisoned Samson pulls down around his head the temple of Dagon with the help of God. According to 1 Chron. 10:10, the Philistines hung up the head of Saul as a trophy in the temple of Dagon, presumably at Beth-shean (cf. 1 Sam. 31:12). 1 Macc. 10:83 and 11:4 mention a temple of Dagon in Ashdod. The place names, Beth-dagon in Judah (Josh. 15:41) and Beth-dagon in Asher (Josh. 19:27) preserve the name of the deity. R.J.C.
Achtemeier, P. J., Harper & Row, P., & Society of Biblical Literature. (1985). Harper's Bible dictionary. Includes index. (1st ed.) (202). San Francisco: Harper & Row.
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Dagon (Heb. dāg̱ôn)
A major West Semitic deity who became the national god of the Philistines after their arrival in Canaan. Dagon’s character remains disputed. One portrayal of Dagon as fish-god arose from a folk etymology based on Heb. dāg̱, “fish.” Another suggests Dagon as god of grain (dāg̱ān), the latter word taken from the deity’s name or vice versa. Yet another view sees such a fertility aspect as derived from Dagon’s primary role as a storm-god and reconstructs an etymology for the name based on Arab. dagana, “to be gloomy, cloudy.”
Dagon, whose name is commonly attested in theophoric names of the 3rd millennium b.c.e., is recognized in the inscription of Sargon of Akkad as the chief deity of upper Mesopotamia during that period (ANET, 268), an association that persists a millennium later at Ugarit, where he is called “Dagan of Tuttul.” Dagon figures prominently at 3rd-millennium Ebla (Syria) and during the Mari period (early 2nd millennium). While Dagon is virtually absent from Ugaritic mythology, his name appears in offering lists and dedications, and a major temple of the city has been tentatively identified as his.
Early worship of Dagon by the Canaanites, from whom the Philistines inherited their god, is reflected in the place name Beth-dagon. 1 Sam. 5:1–7 portrays Dagon as the national deity of the Philistines, represented by a cult statue and served by priests in his temple at Ashdod. In Judg. 16:23–24 the Philistines celebrate a festival honoring Dagon, whom they credit with delivering up their enemy Samson. The Philistines display Saul’s head in a temple of Dagon, located perhaps in Beth-shean (1 Chr. 10:10; cf. 1 Sam. 31:10). Dagon, who was still worshipped at his temple in Ashdod during the 2nd century, outlived the Philistines (1 Macc. 10:83).
Bibliography. D. E. Fleming, “Baal and Dagan in Ancient Syria,” ZA 83 (1993): 88–98; J. F. Healey, “The Underworld Character of the God Dagan,” JNSL 5 (1977): 43–51; F. J. Montalbano, “Canaanite Dagon: Origin, Nature,” CBQ 13 (1951): 381–97; N. Wyatt, “The Relationship of the Deities Dagan and Hadad,” UF 12 (1980): 375–79.
Joel Burnett
Freedman, D. N., Myers, A. C., & Beck, A. B. (2000). Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (307). Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans.
