Table of Contents
- Dagon was the Philistine’s name for a powerful one from the past, who like the Babylonian Oannes, was semiaquatic. (Eden Conspiracy)
- Lord of the Lower heavens (OAHSPE)
The familiar spirits now inspired Saul to change the words of the commandments to the LORD YOUR GOD, as a conciliatory stratagem to please the nations and tribes of people who worshiped Baal, Dagon, Ashtaroth, Haughak, and other Gods and Lords of the lower heavens.
OAHSPE Bible
On one occasion, a rival people group captures the Ark in a battle. This is recorded in I Samuel 4. Having brought it back into their community they proudly install it in the temple of their Powerful One, Dagon. The neighbours in question, the Philistines, are thrilled because they assume they have taken possession of an object vested with imperial power. However, the narrator of I Samuel 4 reports with some delight that the Philistines’ own vested object, a statue of their powerful one, Dagon, promptly falls down when in the presence of the Hebrew Golden Throne. This happens two days running, and on the second occasion the image of Dagon breaks into pieces..
In this detail the narrator reveals his clear conviction that YHWH is superior to Dagon. Represented respectively by the Ark and the statue, Dagon in effect bows down to YHWH on day one, and is destroyed by YHWH on day two.
Dagon was the Philistine’s name for a powerful one from the past, who like the Babylonian Oannes, was semiaquatic. Like Oannes in Babylon, and Asherah in Judaism, the Philistines remembered Dagon for having appeared in the deep past to teach their ancestors all the secrets of agricultural science and city-building. In other words, Dagon embodied the Philistine story of paleocontact. It is a tradition the YHWHistic narrator takes delight in mocking through the drama of the Ark and the statue.
The Eden Conspiracy
Half-man, half-fish figure
The name “Dagon” is often linked to the Hebrew word dag (“fish”), leading to the common ancient and medieval tradition of Dagon as a half-man, half-fish figure (merman-like, sometimes with a fish body from the waist down and human upper body). Some sources also associate him with grain or fertility. However, the Bible itself does not explicitly describe his appearance—only the broken statue in the temple.
