Myth of the Week 024

Dagon was originally an East Semitic Mesopotamian fertility god who later evolved into a major Northwest Semitic god, reportedly of grain (as a symbol of fertility) and of fish and/or fishing (as symbol of multiplying).

“ ...Next came one

Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark
Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off,
In his own temple, on the grunsel-edge,
Where he fell flat and shamed his worshippers:
Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man
And downward fish; yet had his temple high
Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,

And Accaron and Gaza’s frontier bounds.”

— John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1

Horror fans will know the name Dagon well. There is a whole wiki page describing his appearances in popular culture. An appropriately campy horror film was produced in 2001, directed by Stuart Gordon of Re-Animator fame. It combined the traditional-mythic Dagon with H.P. Lovecraft's 1936 novella of the Cthulhu mythos, The Shadow over Innsmouth.