[159] I fancy it might be traced also in the Phœnician fish-god, Dagon. The Saturday Review (June 4, 1870) in its review of Cox’s “Mythology,” says—“Dagon cannot be divided Dag-on, the fish ‘On,’ for a Semitic syllable cannot begin with a vowel; and if the necessary breathing ‘aleph’ were inserted (which it is very unsafe to do), it would then mean ‘the fish of On,’ which is not the signification required.” But it is the signification which would fit in here; moreover, might not the terminal “aon,” or “haon,” suggested, have been originally, i.e. before displacement by “boustrophedon”—Noa or Noah? I give this suggestion with all proper diffidence, and with some genuine misgiving as to the “breathing aleph.” I find that Bryant (“Mythology,” iii. p. 116) makes a similar suggestion.
Bunsen (“Egypt,” iv. 243) says—“Dagon is Dagan, i.e. corn. This is also implied by the Greek form of it—Sitôn, wheat-field (comp. p. 219). We have in the Bible, Dagon, a god of the Philistines, a name usually supposed to be derived from ‘dag,’ fish; the god has a human form ending in a fish, like the fish-shaped goddess, Derketo-Atergatis. It is clear, from Philo’s own account, that the Phoenician Poseidon was a god of this kind, and it is difficult to find any other name for him. Yet we cannot say that Dagon is very clearly explained. Here is a god of agriculture, well authenticated, both linguistically and documentally, Dagan, i.e. wheat, and he is the Zeus of agriculture.” Vide p. 219. P. 261 says Dagon must not be confounded with “Dagan,” but without reconciling it with the above at p. 243, on the contrary, we find “Dagon, Dagan = corn (the fish-man).” At p. 241, quoting from the text of Philo, it is said still more pointedly—“Dagon, after he had discovered corn and the plough, was called Zeus Arotnios.” Comp. p. 204.
Believing (vide [ch. xii].) in the tradition of mythology, even among savages, I could not but be much struck on coming upon the following passage in Roggeveen’s voyage, to find—in his account of the Eastern Islanders—the same conjunction of the bull and fish implied in the traditional names of their idols:—“The name of the largest idol was called Taurico, and the other Dago; at least, these were the words they called to them by, and wherewith they worshipped them. These savages had great respect for the two idols, Taurico and Dago, and approached them with great reverence ... and to supplicate for help against us, and to call upon with a frightful shout and howling of Dago! Dago!” (“Historical Account of Voyages Round the World,” 1774, i. 469, 470.)
After showing the resemblance of a feast at Argos to other commemorative feasts of the Deluge, Boulanger (vide infra, i. 83) says—“Les Argiens avoient encore une autre fête pendant laquelle ils précipitoent dans un abîme un agneau.... ils étoient armés de javelines, ils appelloient Bacchus au son des trompettes et l’invitoient _à semontrer hors de l’eau_; cette apparition n’arrivoit pas fréquemment sans doute” (comp. supra, 197, and 237). “Plutarque remarque que lors qu’ils précipitoient l’agneau, ils avoient soin de cacher leurs trompettes et leurs javelines. Nous ne prétendons point expliquer tous ces mystères.” Is it that they feared, with armed weapons in their hands, to evoke the apparition of the old man “whose conquests were all peaceful” (p. 216), and who, as Manco Capac (p. 326), “shut his ears when they spoke to him of war.”
[160] This closely corresponds to the description of Oannes given by Sanchoniathon, “Ap. Euseb.” (Bryant, ii. 301), i.e. with two heads (comp. infra, [p. 220]), the human head being placed below the head of a fish:—“ἀλλην κεφαλην ὑποκατω της τοῦ ἰχθυος κεφαλης.”
[161] Vide similar traditions of the man-bull in India and Japan. Bryant, iii. 589, who adds, “We shall find hereafter that in this (Parsee) mythology there were two ancient personages represented under the same character, and named L’Homme Taureau; each of whom was looked upon as the father of mankind.” Compare pp. [158], [189], the two Menus and the two Osiris.
[162] The prayer used in the worship of Dionysos at Elis, preserved by Plutarch, ended with “Ἄξιε Ταυρε—Ἄξιε Ταυρε,” worthy bull! (vide Bunsen’s “Egypt,” iv. 446.) Compare [p. 215] with Dionysius = Bacchus = Noah; also of the three Samothracian names of the Kabiri—viz., Axieros, Axiokerse, Axiokersos. Bunsen says, “the syllable Axi or Axie which is found in all three, cannot be anything but the Greek word ‘Axios,’ which was used in the worship of Dionysos at Elis” (id., vide infra).
On this symbol of the bull in connection with Noah and the Ark vide Bryant (ii. 416, et seq. 439). He says, “Every personage that had any connection with the history of the Ark was described with some reference to this hieroglyphic ... that the Apis and Mnenis (Menes) were both representations of an ancient personage is certain; and who that personage was may be known from the account given of him by Diodorus. He speaks of him by the name of Mnenes, but confines his history to Egypt, as the history of Saturn was limited to Italy; Inachus and Phoroneus to Argos; Deucalion to Thessaly ... the same person who in Crete was styled Minos, Min-nous, and whose city was Min-Noa; the same who was represented under the emblem of Men-taur, or Mino-taurus (Minotaur). Diodorus speaks of Mnenes as the first lawgiver,” &c., &c.... [Mnenes or Menes may embody traditions of Noah and Misraim, as Osiris does of Adam and Noah.] At p. 422–435 [plate], we find Menes represented as a bull with the sacred dove.... Plutarch (Isis and Osiris) says the bulls, Apis and Mnenes, were sacred to Osiris ... and Eustath. (in Dion. v. 308) says of the Tauric Chersonese, “that the Tauric nation was so named from the animal Taurus or bull, which was looked upon as a memorial of the great husbandman Osiris, who first taught agriculture, and to whom was ascribed the invention of the plough.” ... Lycophron (v. 209 and scholia) says, Ταυρος, Διονυσος. Plutarch says Dionusus (vide supra, [p. 203]) was styled Βουγενης, or the offspring of a bull, by the people of Argos, who used to invoke him as a resident of the sea, and entreat him to come out of the waters. The author of the Orphic hymns calls him “Taurogenes.” Ταυρογενης Διονυσος ευφροσυνην πορε Θνητοις. Ταυρογενης, is precisely of the same purport as Θηβαιγενης [ark-born], and the words of this passage certainly mean “that the ark-born deity Dionusus restored peace and happiness to mortals.” [Noah’s name in Scripture signifies “peace and consolation”— Νωε ἑβραισϊαναπαυσις (rest), Hesychius.]... The title given to Diana—viz. Taurione, is remarkable, for “Taurus was an emblem of the Ark, and by Taurione was signified the arkite dove.” Taurus, and ione from Οινας of the Greeks, and Ionas of the eastern nations = dove, and curiously in an inscription in Gruter, Diana is at the same time called “Regina undarum,” and “decus nemorum” (Bryant, ii. 434). The connection of Diana, Juno, and Venus with the dove and rainbow is very striking, but would lead to too long a digression. So, too, would a discussion as to how Noah or the Ark (secondarily) came to be associated with the bull, as a hieroglyphic. Compare the above with the ox-heads and bull dance in the Mandan commemoration of the Deluge, infra, [ch. xi].
[163] Since writing the above I have found the following note in Rawlinson’s “Herodotus,” i. 623, on Ninip:—“There is, however, another explanation of the name Bar-sam or Bur-shem, of which some notice must be taken. It has been already stated that if the Noachid triad be compared with the Assyrian, Ana will correspond with Ham, Bel-Nimrod with Shem, and Hoa with Japhet.”
The following passage, also from Rawlinson’s “Herodotus,” i. 609, appears to me valuable in proof of the transition from ancestral to solar worship, or at least of their interfusion:—“The sun was probably named in Babylonia both San and Sanei, before his title took the definite Semitic form of Shamas, by which he is known in Assyrian and in all the languages of that family.” Now, standing by itself, this might not appear very significant; but compare it with the following passages connecting Ham with the sun:—“By the Syrians the sun and heat were called ... Chamba; by the Persians, Hama; and the temple of the sun, the temple of Ammon or Hammon.” Mr Bryant shows that Ham was esteemed the Zeus of Greece and the Jupiter of Latium. Mr G. Higgins’ “Anacalypsis,” p. 45. Bryant says, “the worship of Ham, or the sun, as it was the most ancient, so it was the most universal of any in the world.” These passages may possibly be so interpreted as to support a solar theory, but is it not at least suspicious to see the name of the central luminary so apparently identified with historical characters whose memory is distinctly preserved aliunde in the traditions of their descendants? Compare Nimrod, ch. viii. [164], et seq.