ish form derive his name from the Semitic "dag = a
fish", and suggest that after the idol fell only the fishy part (dago)
was left. On the other hand, it was argued that Dagon was a corn god,
and that the resemblance between the words Dagan and Dagon are
accidental. Professor Sayce makes reference in this connection to a
crystal seal from Phoenicia in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, bearing
an inscription which he reads as Baal-dagon. Near the name is an ear
of corn, and other symbols, such as the winged solar disc, a gazelle,
and several stars, but there is no fish. It may be, of course, that
Baal-dagon represents a fusion of deities. As we have seen in the case
of Ea-Oannes and the deities of Mendes, a fish god may also be a corn
god, a land animal god and a god of ocean and the sky. The offering of
golden mice representing "your mice that mar the land",[43] made by
the Philistines, suggests that Dagon was the fertilizing harvest god,
among other things, whose usefulness had been impaired, as they
believed, by the mistake committed of placing the ark of Israel in the
temple at Ashdod. The Philistines came from Crete, and if their Dagon
was imported from that island, he may have had some connection with
Poseidon, whose worship extended throughout Greece. This god of the
sea, who is somewhat like the Roman Neptune, carried a lightning
trident and caused earthquakes. He was a brother of Zeus, the sky and
atmosphere deity, and had bull and horse forms. As a horse he pursued
Demeter, the earth and corn goddess, and, like Ea, he instructed
mankind, but especially in the art of training horses. In his train
were the Tritons, half men, half fishes, and the water fairies, the
Nereids. Bulls, boars, and rams were offered to this sea god of
fertility. Amphitrite was his spouse.

An obscure god Shony, the Oannes of the Scottish Hebrides, received
oblations from those who depended for their agricultural prosperity on
his gifts of fertilizing seaweed. He is referred to in Martin's
_Western Isles_, and is not yet forgotten. The Eddic sea god Njord of
Noatun was the father of Frey, the harvest god. Dagda, the Irish corn
god, had for wife Boann, the goddess of the river Boyne. Osiris and
Isis of Egypt were associated with the Nile. The connection between
agriculture and the water supply was too obvious to escape the early
symbolists, and many other proofs of this than those referred to could
be given.

Ea's "faithful spouse" was the g