Dagon the Fish-God
Dagon was the god of the Philistines. This image shows that the idol was represented in the combination of both man and fish. The name "Dagon" is derived from "dag" which means "fish." Although there was a deep affection from Dagon's worshippers to their deity, the symbol of a fish in human form was really meant to represent fertility and the vivifying powers of nature and reproduction.
The Babylonians had a myth that a being emerged from the Erythraean Sea who was part man and part fish and thus adopted the deity into their culture in their earliest days in history. Their have also been discoveries of the fish-god in the sculptures found in Nineveh, Assyria.
List of Canaanite deities - Here
"When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the temple of Dagon and set it by Dagon. And when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again. And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only the torso of Dagon was left of it. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor any who come into Dagon's house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day."
- 1 Sam 5:2-5
"Now the lords of the Philistines gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god, and to rejoice. And they said: "Our god has delivered into our hands Samson our enemy!" When the people saw him, they praised their god; for they said: "Our god has delivered into our hands our enemy, The destroyer of our land, And the one who multiplied our dead."
- Judges 16:23-24
The most famous temples of Dagon were at Gaza (Judges 16:21-30) and Ashdod (1 Samuel 5:3,4; 1 Chronicles 10:10). The fish-like form was a symbol of fruitfulness, and as such was likely to be adopted by seafaring tribes in the representation of their gods, which is why Rome who ruled the seas easily adopted the mystery religion.
Search for pictures of the Dagon or Enki priests and you'll find they wore fish costumes with fish head hats similar to today's miter. The fish symbol Christians use today is literally one of the many marks of the beast Dagon.
Cybele was worshipped in Rome and was called the great queen mother goddess. Some scholars say the Basilica of Saint Peter actually stands upon the former site of Cybele's main temple.
There are some scholars who say the fish head hat of the priests of Enki (a Sumerarian god of the earth and world order) later became the miter of the bishops. Enki was part of the tri gods who was considered the god of 'water' and the one having devised men as slaves to the gods. Just as the Dagon priests sprinkled holy water in ceremony, so too did the priests of Enki- this god of water. He was even commonly represented as a half-fish, half-goat creature.
In actuality calling Christians fish, symbolizing them with the fish, and calling the disciples as fishers of men has little or nothing to do with the Jesus of Capernaum. Dagon's son was Baal the god of harvest. The many analogies of the fish and the mentions of harvests, wheat and tare, the seeds along with shining sunlight and water flowing to watering it, are all lures to converge the mystery cults in with the new compiled religion.
In fact the tradition of eating fish on Friday comes from many different pagan cultures. Aphrodite Salacia, the fish Goddess, was worshipped by her followers on her sacred day of Friday. They ate fish and engaging in orgies. Which is how the word "salacious" meaning lustful became used. The Christian church assimilated this tradition by requiring the faithful to eat fish on Friday.
Throughout the Mediterranean, mystery religions used fish, wine and bread for their sacramental meal and ancient Rome called Friday "dies veneris" or Day of Venus, the Pagan goddess. Venus is the one in the fable of the mystic egg of the Babylonians about the giant egg falling from heaven into the River Euphrates. The fishes rolled it to the bank where the doves having perched upon it, hatched it. What came out of this egg was Venus-also referred to as the morning star. Venus afterwards was called the Assyrian goddess or Astarte, the queen of heaven.
In all of these stories we find the tradition of Easter born from these mystery legends as Easter was just another name for Astarte. This festival in ancient Babylonianism of Astarte (known as Istar or Easter), was about her son coming back from the dead which is why the Easter celebration has the symbolic egg as well as the Astarte name for the celebration of the borrowed mythical resurrection of the Bright Morning Star -Jesus (Revelation 22:16).
Related Links
http://www.fortunecity.com/greenfield/bp/890/dagon.html
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