Dagon

Dagon or Dagan ( ; ) was a god worshipped in ancient Syria, across the middle of the Euphrates, with primary temples located in Tuttul and Terqa, though many attestations of his cult come from cities such as Mari and Emar as well. In settlements situated in the upper Euphrates area, he was regarded as the "father of gods" similar to Mesopotamian Enlil or Hurrian Kumarbi, as well as a lord of the land, a god of prosperity, and a source of royal legitimacy. A large number of theophoric names, both masculine and feminine, attests that he was a popular deity. He was also worshiped further east, in Mesopotamia, where many rulers regarded him as the god capable of granting them kingship over the western areas. Attestation of Dagan from coastal areas are much less frequent and come mostly from the northern city of Ugarit, where Dagan's cult had a limited scope. According to the Hebrew Bible, Dagan was also the national god of the Philistines, with temples at Ashdod and Gaza, but there is no extrabiblical evidence confirming this. The extrasolar object designated Fomalhaut b is named after Dagon.

Dagon or Dagan ( ; ) was a god worshipped in ancient Syria, across the middle of the Euphrates, with primary temples located in Tuttul and Terqa, though many attestations of his cult come from cities such as Mari and Emar as well. In settlements situated in the upper Euphrates area, he was regarded as the "father of gods" similar to Mesopotamian Enlil or Hurrian Kumarbi, as well as a lord of the land, a god of prosperity, and a source of royal legitimacy. A large number of theophoric names, both masculine and feminine, attests that he was a popular deity. He was also worshiped further east, in Mesopotamia, where many rulers regarded him as the god capable of granting them kingship over the western areas. Attestation of Dagan from coastal areas are much less frequent and come mostly from the northern city of Ugarit, where Dagan's cult had a limited scope. According to the Hebrew Bible, Dagan was also the national god of the Philistines, with temples at Ashdod and Gaza, but there is no extrabiblical evidence confirming this. The extrasolar object designated Fomalhaut b is named after Dagon. ==Etymology== stele detailing a sacrifice for Dagan, 13th century BCE Multiple origins have been proposed for Dagan's name. According to Philo of Byblos, the Phoenician author Sanchuniathon explained Dagon as a word for "grain" ( ). Historian Manfred Hutter considers it possible that the god's name derives from the root *dgn (to be cloudy), which he interprets as a sign that he was originally a weather god. However, the notion of Dagan being a weather god is rejected by most researchers of this deity (see the Dagan and weather gods section below). Lluís Feliu in his monograph The God Dagan in Bronze Age Syria rejects both of these theories and concludes that Dagan's name originated in a pre-Semitic language spoken in inland Syria. This theory is supported by Alfonso Archi as well. Multiple other ancient Syrian deities are regarded as originating in such a substratum, including Aštabi, Ishara and Kubaba. The association with a Hebrew word for "fish" (as in , ) in medieval exegesis has led to an incorrect interpretation of Dagan as a water deity with fish-like features. In Mesopotamia, Dagan was equated with Enlil due to their shared role as "fathers of gods." This equation was eventually codified by the god list An = Anum, which additionally equated their spouses with each other. However, which of the two parts of this equation was viewed as the primary god varied. In Mari, it was Dagan who received Enlil's epithets, and in Emar the logographic writing d KUR, a shortened version of Enlil's epithet d Kur-gal (Great Mountain), stood for Dagan's name in the late Bronze Age. It is unclear if this equation was responsible for the logographic writing of the name of Emar's city god as d NIN.URTA, as the god of Emar is unlikely to be Dagan's primary son Hadad (whose name was written logographically as d IŠKUR), and in Hurrian sources from Syria d NIN.URTA is the war god Aštabi rather than a weather god. In Hurrian tradition, Dagan was equated with Kumarbi, though only because of shared senior position in the respective pantheons. Kumarbi was nonetheless called "the Dagan of the Hurrians," and Shalash was viewed as his spouse due to this syncretic process. However, she is absent from Hurrian myths about Kumarbi. In the Mesopotamian god list, An = Anum, Dagan was placed in the circle of Enlil; this is similar to another western deity, Ishara. The same document equates him with Enlil and his wife Shalash with Ninlil. There is some evidence that in Mesopotamia Dagan was connected with the poorly known tradition about conflict between the gods and Enmesharra, for example a passage stating that "with Dagan's authority [gods] have been guarding Enmešarra from time immemorial" is known; Dagan might however be a synonym of Enlil rather than a distinct deity in this context according to Wilfred G. Lambert. The fragmentary myth Uraš and Marduk (here the male god from Dilbat, not the earth goddess) mentions Dagan, similarly most likely fully equated in this context with Enlil. A legendary king of Purushanda who serves as an opponent of Sargon of Akkad in the epic King of Battle bears the name Nūr-Dagan. ==In popular culture== Dagon has appeared or is referenced in many works of popular culture. However, most depend on the biblical account and associated fish god speculation rather than on primary sources and modern research. Notable examples include John Milton's epic poems Samson Agonistes and Paradise Lost, "Dagon" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" by H. P. Lovecraft, Dagon by Fred Chappell, Middlemarch by George Eliot, King of Kings by Malachi Martin, and Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Also, the extinct prehistoric beaked whale species, Dagonodum mojnum, is named after Dagon. ==External links== Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses – Dagan Reallexikon der Assyriologie und vorderasiatischen Archäologie – Dagan

Text derived from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1378030322 under CC BY-SA 4.0; modifications have been made.