DAGON. - In the Old Testament it is the name of a god of the Philistines, whose cult is attested at Gaza (Judg. 16:23), at Ashdod (1 Sam. 5:1-7) in the time of the Judges and still in the time of the Maccabees (ca. 150 B.C., cf. 1 Macc. 10:83 ff.; 11:4). But the cult of D. in Palestine is older than the invasion of the Philistines, as attested by the name Daganathah of a prince mentioned in the letters of el-'Amârah, and by the local name Bethdagon of two cities, one of Judah and the other of Asher (Josh. 15:41; 19:27).
The original seat of the cult of Dagan (D.) is western Mesopotamia; the first mention of the god Dagana (Dagana) is found in an inscription of Sargon of Akkad (ca. 2500 B.C.); from numerous literary documents it appears that the cult gradually spread into Babylonia, Assyria, and Cappadocia. It was known also in Phoenicia, as appears from a fragment of Philo of Byblos (64-140 A.D.), who relates that, according to Sanchuniathon (last third of the 11th millennium [?]), D. was the brother of Kronos (El), god of agriculture and of wheat (Σίτων, Ζεύς ἀπότρας); this notice is confirmed by the inscriptions of two votive stelae found in a temple and by certain other texts from Ras Shamra (17th-15th centuries B.C.), which attest that D. was regarded as the father of Baal.
The name has not so far been explained; it is connected neither with dâghân ("wheat") nor with dâgh ("fish"). A late rabbinic legend, not confirmed by any ancient document, says that the god D. was represented in the form of a man with the body of a fish. The images of a god in the form of a man-fish, found on coins of Aradus and Ascalon, probably do not refer to the god D. The temple of D. mentioned in 1 Chron. 10:10 is not at Bethshan, but in the land of the Philistines.
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