DAGON, the name of a national god of the Philistines at Gaza and at Ashdod, or, as the Greeks called it, Azotus. Some philologists derive the term from the Hebrew dagan, corn, but it is more probably derived from the Hebrew dag, fish, with the ending on (Ewald, Hebr. Gram. § 341). This derivation is not only more in accordance with the principles of formation, but it is most decisively established by the terms employed in 1 Sam. v. 4. It is there said that Dagon fell to the earth before the Ark, that his head and the palms of his hands were broken off, and that "only Dagon was left on him." If Dagon is derived from dag, fish; and if the idol, as there is every reason to believe, had the body of a fish with the head and hands of a man; it is easy to understand why a part of the statue is there called Dagon in contradistinction to the head and hands; but not otherwise. That such was the figure of the idol is admitted by most modern scholars. It is also supported by the analogies of other fish deities among the Syro-Arabians. The temple of Dagon at Ashdod was destroyed by Jonathan the brother of Judas the Maccabee, about the year B.C. 148. (1 Mac. x. 84.)