abylonia, and taught the rude iidiabitantB the nse r letters, arts, religion, law, and agricnltare ; that, tier long intervals between, other similar beings ap- eared and commnnicated the same predoos lore in etail, and that the last of these was called Odahon QSaKuw). Selden is persuaded that this Odakon is be Philistine god Dagon (De DUi Syris, p. 266), a con- lusion in which Kiebuhr coincides {Giick, Amin, p. 77^ but from which Rawlinson dissents (Herod, i, SZ), The resemblance between Dagon and Atergatis q. d. 'T^^K and in, great fish) or Derketo (which is >at an abbreviation of the last name) is so great in »ther respects that Selden accounts for the only im- >ortant difference between them— that of sex— by re- Terring to the androgynous nature of many heathen ^ods. It is certain, however, that the Hebrew text, the Sept., and Philo Byblius (in Euseb. Prop. Ev. i, LO) make Dagon masculine (6 Aayutv). The fish-like form was a natural emblem of fruitfulness, and as such was likely to be adopted by sea&ring tribes in
Fish-god an Gems in BritiBh Mufleum.
the representation of their gods. (See Gdtze, Ditsert, de ('xdvoXarpit^, Lips. 1728.)
The most funous temples of Dagon were at Gaza (Judg. xvi, 21-.B0) and Ashdod (1 Sam. v, 6, 6 ; 1 Chron. x, 10). The former was employed as a theatre (see Faber, ArchdoL i, 444, 486), and was once over- thrown by Samson (Judg. xvi). The latter temple was destroyed by Jonathan in the Maccabsan wars (1 Mace. X, 84; xi, 4; Josephus, Ant, xiii, 4, 6). There would also seem to have been a third in the vicinity of Jericho, which was demolished by Ptolemy (Joseph. War^ i, 2, 8) ; and the site of which Schwars claims (Paktt, p. 168) to have discovered in a stream still bearing the name of Duga, or fish-river: it is but a relic of the ancient Doch^ or Docus (q. v.). Traces of the worship of Dagon likewise appear in the names Caphar-Dagon (near Jamnia), and Beth-Dagon in Ju- dah (Josh, xv, 41), and Asher (Josh, xix, 27). See Beth-daoon.
Besides the female figure of Atergates, there have lately been discovered among the Assyrian ruins (Bot> ta, pL 32-85) figures of a male fish-god, not only of the forms given above (Layard, Nineveh^ ii, 368), but occasionally with a human form and feet, the fish only covering the back like a cloak (Layard, Babglon^ p. 801). Colonel Rawlinson has also deciphered the name dagon on the cuneiform inscriptions (q. v.). See Ro-
ser, De Dagone, in UgoUni, Tkuaur, zziii; Sharpe ih Bonomi's Nkieveh, dd ed. p. 169.
Figore of Fiab-god at enfcrance of a ainftU Temple, Nimrond.
DAGOITS HOUSE (1 Sam. v, 6), or the houbb (1 Sam. V, 2) or templb of Dagon (1 Chron. x, 10), ')i!l^~n*^a, L e. Beth-Dagon, as it is elsewhere render- ed (Josh. XV, 41 ; xix, 27 ; so Bri^SayuWj 1 Ifacc. x, 88), or the sanctuary of Dagon, the god of the Philis- tines, mentioned in Judg. xvi, 28, and other places. See this etymology defended against the older one (which Fiirst retains, ffeb. Lex. p. 286) in Gesenius, Momiment. Phoen. p. 887, and Thesaur. p. 204. In the first two (and possibly also the third) of the above pas- sages, the temple of Dagon, situated in or near Ashdod (as stated under the foregoing article Dagon), is evi- dently intended ; the other collocations of these words [see Beth-] require a fidler elucidation than could well be given in the article Bbth-dagon (q. v.).
1. Bbth-dagon, in Josh, xv, 41, was one of the sec- ond group of "sixteen cities with their villages," which the sacred writer places in the lowlands (M^&^) of the tribe of Judah, apparently on the actufd plain which stretches westward towards the Philistine coast from *'the hill country" so often mentioned. This does not (as in Reland, Palattina, p. 636) designate a GederothrbeUidagon, as the name Gederoth occurs aione in 2 Chron. xxviii, 18, with the same description as it has in this place, as one of the cities of the lowlands of Judah. Gesenius and FOrst identify this Beth- dagon with the Caphar-dagon, which iu the time of Eusebius was a very large village (ic(u/ii| /xeytim}, in- ter Jamniam et Diospolin) in the neijghborhood of Jop- pa; but modem research has shown that this latter plaice, of which still remain some traces in Beit-Defan, a village between Y&& and Ludd, is considerably above the northern boundary of Judah. Our Beth- dagon, indeed, no longer exists by the same name (Van de Yelde's Map qjf Palestine and Memoir, p. 294). The same must be said of
2. Beth-daoon, mentioned in Josh, xix, 27, as one of the border cities of the tribe of Asher. Though, however, no modem landmark points out the site of
DAILEY
644
DAILY
tbifl north Beth-dagoii, it ii not difficult to discover, from the precise topographical statement of the sacred writer, that this city was situated at the point where the boundary-line of the tribe, after crossing the ridge south of the promontory of Carmel towards Uie east, intersects the stream of the Kishon, on the confines of Zebulon. It h remarkable that, as there is a mod- ern BeU'D^cm in the south which yet cannot be iden- tified with, but is far to the north-west of, the southern Beth-dagon, so there is still, in the central district of * the Holy Land, a second BeU-Dejan, which is equally fiir distant fh>m our northern Beth-dagon, only in the opposite direction of south-east In the fertile and beautiful plain of S&lim, a little to the east of N4bnlus (Shechem), Dr. Robinson descried at the east end of it, on some low hOls, a village called BeU-Dgcm (Bibl. Betearches, iU, 102; Later Betearcket, p. 298). This BeU-D(jan^ Robinson thinks, has no counterput in the Beth-dagons of the Bible. The French traveller, De Saulcy, is not of this opinion, but identifies the village near N4bulus with the Beth-dagon of Chron. x, 10 ; because "this village is only one day's march from Jilbonn, the locality in the mountain to the north-east of Jenin, which was unquestionably the scene of SauPs disaster" (Dead SeOy i, 101). If his conjecture be right, we must indicate tlds as the