Dagon (Phoenician: ๐ค๐ค๐ค, romanized: Dฤgลซn; Hebrew: ืึธึผืืึนืโ, Dฤgลn) or Dagan (Sumerian: ๐ญ๐๐ถ, romanized: da-gan ) is an ancient Mesopotamian and ancient Canaanite deity. He appears to have been worshipped as a fertility god in Ebla, Assyria, Ugarit, and among the Amorites. The Hebrew Bible mentions him as the national god of the Philistines with temples at Ashdod and elsewhere in Gaza. A long-standing association with a Canaanite word for "fish" (as in Hebrew: ืืโ, Tib. /dษหg/), perhaps going back to the Iron Age, has led to an interpretation as a "fish-god", and the association of "merman" motifs in Assyrian art (such as the "Dagon" relief found by Austen Henry Layard in the 1840s). The...