192 SEA FABLES EXPLAINED. 



a fish. The image of Dagon which fell upon its face to 

 the ground before "the ark of the God of Israel," was 

 probably of this latter form, for we read * that in its fall, 

 "the head of Dagon and 

 both the palms of his hands 

 were cut off upon the thres- 

 hold : only the stump (in the 

 margin, ' the fishy part ') of 

 Dagon was left to him." This 

 was evidently Milton's con- 

 ception of him : 



" Dagon his name ; sea-monster, 



upward man 

 And downward fish." f 



In some of the Nineveh 



sculptures of the fish-god 



. the head of 



the fish forms 



a kind of 



mitre on the 



head of the 



man, whilst 



the body of 



the fish ap* 



pears as a 

 FIG. S.-DAGON. cloak or cape 



From an Agate 



Signet. Nineveh. O V e r his 



shoulders and 



FIG. 4. DAGON. From Lamy's 

 Apparatus Biblicus. 



back. The fish varies in length; in some cases the tail 

 almost touches the ground ; in others it reaches but little 

 below the man's waist. 



i Samuel v. 4. 



f ' Paradise Lost,' Book i. 1. 462. 



