DAGON 



367 



especially in the building of temples, but at night he plunged 

 again into the sea.^ 



Authorities disagree whether Dagon derives his name from 

 the Hebrew Dag, signifying fish, or ddgdn, sheaf or agriculture. 



Sanchouniathon early held, as do 



most modern writers, the latter 

 view. Reichardt errs in his con- 

 jecture that the representation in 

 De Sarzec (p. 189) shows the deity 

 holding in his hand ears of corn, 

 instead of what really is a palm 

 branch of the conventional type. 2 



Cylinder seals depict ^ river 

 gods, some with streams rising 

 from their shoulders, or flowing 

 from their laps, or from vases in 

 their laps, and containing fish, and 

 others half men and half fish. 

 Mythological beings with fish head- 

 dress occur not only on seals but 

 on the Ninevite reliefs, etc., where 

 it has been suggested that they do 

 represent Dagan. 



The deUneation of fish on vases, etc.,* and of a fish in a 



^ Oannes of Berosus is identified with Enki (otherwise Ea) by Langdon, 

 Poime Sumifrien, etc. (Paris, 1919), p. 17. Tradition generally makes the 

 earliest founders or teachers of civilisation come from the sea. Manco Capac 

 and Mama Ocllo, the children of the sun god, rose, however, not from the 

 sea, but from Lake Titicaca, when they brought to the ancient Peruvians 

 government, law, a moral code, art, and science. Their descendants styled 

 themselves Incas. 



* See G. F. Hill, Some Palestinian Cults in the Greek and Roman Age, 

 in Proceedings of the British Academy (London, 1911-12), vol. V. p. 9. 



' Cf. Heuzey, Sceau de GoudJa (Paris, 1909), p. 6 ; also W. Hayes Ward, 

 Seal Cylinders of Western Asia (Washington, 1910), figs. 288-289 ; see also 

 figs. 199, 661. The large number of seals, almost entirely cylinder, which 

 have been found in the excavations is probably owing to every Assyrian of 

 any means always carrying one hung on him. The use to which they were 

 put was precisely similar to that of our signet ring. An Assyrian, instead of 

 signing a document, ran his cyUnder over the damp clay tablet on which the 

 deed he was attesting had been inscribed. No two cylinder seals were absolutely 

 alike, and thus this method of signature worked very well. The work on the 

 cylinders is always intaglio ; the subjects represented are very various, 

 including emblems of the gods, animals, fish, etc. 



* Ri'cherches ArcMologiques, vol. XIII. of Delegation en Perse, by Pettier, 

 Paris, 1912, figs. 117, 204, etc. 



GILGAMESH CARRYING FISH, 



From La Revue d'Assryiologie, 

 VI. 57 



