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 dagén, 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.? 
Cylinder seals depict 3 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 § GILGAMESH CARRYING FISH. 
it has been suggested that they do From La an Oa ia 
represent Dagan. ‘ 
The delineation of fish on vases, etc.,4 and of a fish in a 
1 Oannes of Berosus is identified with Enki (otherwise Ea) by Langdon, 
Pome Sumérien, 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. 
2 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. 
3 Cf. Heuzey, Sceau de Goudéa (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 cylinder 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. 
4 Recherches Archéologiques, vol. XIII. of Delegation en Perse, by Pottier, 
Paris, 1912, figs. 117, 204, etc. 
