DAGON, a national god of the Philistines, spoken of in Judg. xvi. 23; 1 Sam. v. 2; 1 Chron. x. 10; 1 Macc. x. 83. The name is derived from Dag, a fish, with the suffix of endearment,—the older etymology from Dagan, corn, suggested by Philo Byblius, being generally regarded as untenable. The principal temples of the god were at Ashdod (1 Sam. v. 1), and Gaza ( Judg. xvi. 1, 23), and the former existed until the time of the Maccabees, when it was destroyed (148 b.c.) by Jonathan, the brother of Judas (1 Macc. x. 84). Dagon was a fish-god of the male gender, as the form of the name indicates, the corresponding female deity being Atargatis. From 1 Sam. v. 4. it appears that his image was composed of the head and hands of a man and the tail of a fish. The words “the stump of” at the close of the verso are an interpolation of the translators; the original reads “only Dagon (i.e., the fish) was left.” Selden and Niebuhr identify the Philistine Dagon with the Dagon (Ώδάκωv) of the Babylonian mythology; but Rawlinson considers it “extremely doubtful” whether the two had any connection (Rawlinson’s Herodotus, 3d ed. i. 614). The fish was worshipped as the symbol of fertility, both on account of its own fecundity and as representing water, the life-giving and fertilizing element.

דגון, _corn_, from דגן, or דג, _a fish_, god of the Philistines. It is the opinion of some that Dagon was represented like a woman, with the lower parts of a fish, like a triton or syren. Scripture shows clearly that the statue of Dagon was human, at least, the upper part of it, 1 Sam. v, 4, 5. A temple of Dagon at Gaza was pulled down by Samson, Judges xvi, 23, &c. In another, at Ashdod, the Philistines deposited the ark of God, 1 Sam. v, 1–3. A city in Judah was called Beth-Dagon; that is, the house, or temple, of Dagon, Joshua xv, 41; and another on the frontiers of Asher, Joshua xix, 27.