Dagon – The fish God
Dagon was the principal deity of the Philistines, whose ancestors migrated to Palestinian shores from Crete. He was the god of fertility and crops. Dagon also figured prominently in the Philistine concepts of death and the afterlife. In addition to his role in the religion of the Philistines, Dagon was worshiped in the more general society of Canaanite peoples.
Early Beginnings
Some years after the arrival of the Minoan forefathers of the Philistines, the immigrants adopted elements of Canaanite religion. Eventually, the primary religious focus shifted. The worship of the Great Mother, the original religion of the Philistines, was traded for the paying of homage to the Canaanite deity, Dagon.
Within the Canaanite pantheon, Dagon seems to have been second only to El in power. He was one of four sons born to Anu. Dagon was also the father of Baal. Among the Canaanites, Baal eventually assumed the position of god of fertility, which Dagon had previously occupied. Dagon was sometimes associated with the half fish female deity Derceto. Click here for more. Below is the mitre of the pope compared to the fish god Dagon which was wore by the priest.
The female Dagon
Derketo or Derceto was honored in Northern Syria in the capacity of a goddesses of fruitful moisture, the Moon and fishery, partly at Canaanites and Phoenicians, but especially at Philistines where she was considered as a female form of Dagon and, like him, was imaged with bottom of a body of a fish and, according to "Metamorphoses" of Roman poet Ovid (43 B.C. - nearby 18 A.D.)
