SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 





he was worshipped in Chaldea, at Erech (" the place of the 

 ark "), as the sacred and intelligent fish-god, the teacher 

 of mankind, the god of science and knowledge. There he 

 was also called Oes, Hoa, Ea, Ana, Anu, Ann, and Oan. 

 Noah was worshipped, also, in Syria and ]\Iesopotamia, 



and in Egj'pt, at "populous 

 No," * or Thebes — so named 

 from " Theba," " the ark." 



The history of the coffin of 

 Osiris is another version of 

 Noah's ark, and the period 

 during which that Egyptian 

 divinity is said to have been 

 shut up in it, after it was set 

 afloat upon the waters, was 

 precisely the same as that 

 during which Noah remained 

 in the ark. 



Dagon, also — sometimes 

 called Odacon — the great fish- 

 god of the Philistines and 

 Babylonians, was another 

 phase of Cannes. " Dag," in 

 Hebrew, signifies "a male 

 fish," and " Aun " and " Oan " 

 were two of the names of 

 Noah. " Dag-aun " or " Dag- 

 oan " therefore means " the fish Noah." He was portrayed 

 in two ways. The more ancient image of him was that 

 of a man issuing from a fish, as described of Oannes by 

 Berosus ; but in later times it was varied to that of a man 

 whose upper half was human, and the lower parts those of 

 * Nahum iii. 8, 



FIG, 3. — DAGOX. From a bos 

 reluf. Kiniroud. 



