Dagon

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Dagon
ダゴン
SMT1 SFCDCW

SFC artwork from Shin Megami Tensei

Artwork from Devil Children White Book

Origin Levantine culture
Race(s) GodDevil Children White Book

TyrantShin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei: Tokyo Requiem
Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2

VileMajin Tensei
Majin Tensei: Blind Thinker

YomaDevil Children Light Book and Dark Book
Devil Children Fire Book and Ice Book
Alignment(s) Dark-ChaosShin Megami Tensei
Shin Megami Tensei: Tokyo Requiem

Dagon is a Demon in the Megami Tensei franchise.

Profile

Origin

Dagan,[a] also spelled Dagon,[b] is a deity who was worshiped in ancient Syria, especially in the cities Tuttul and Terqa in the mid-Euphrates Valley.[1] In the mid-Euphrates Valley, Dagan was seen as the supreme deity: he was the father of the gods and the creator of heaven and earth, and kings were bestowed their authority by him.[2] His wife was most likely Shalash.[3]

In Ugaritic sources, Dagan is named as the father of Baal. However, he plays no role himself in the Baal Cycle,[4][5] and he was perceived as a foreign deity.[6]

In his Phoenician History, Philo of Byblos mentions Dagon as a brother of El (whom Philo equates with Kronos), and he glosses his name as meaning "grain" (cf. Hebrew דָּגָן dāg̱ān).[7] Philo also narrates that Kronos (El), after overthrowing their father (whom Philo calls Ouranos), gave one of their father's pregnant concubines to Dagon as a wife, and she gives birth to a child named Demarous (i.e. Baal).[8] Philo further states that Dagon discovered grain and the plow[7][c] and equates him with Zeus Arotrios (Zeus the plowman).[9] The connection of Dagon with grain is not corroborated by other ancient sources.[10]

When mentioned in the Bible, Dagon is called a god of the Philistines with temples in Gaza and Ashdod. According to the Book of Judges, the temple in Gaza was destroyed by Samson,[11] and in the First Book of Samuel, it is said the Ark of the Covenant was placed by a statue of Dagon in his temple in Ashdod.[11] No archaeological evidence of Dagon's worship amongst the Philistines is known to have survived,[12] but most scholars accept the biblical claim that Dagon was worshiped by the Philistines.[13] In addition to the aforementioned accounts, the First Book of Maccabees mentions that Jonathan Maccabaeus destroyed the temple of Dagon in Ashdod;[11] note that this was long after the Philistines had ceased being a distinct people.[14]

Dagon was incorporated into H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos, starting with his second story, Dagon, first written in 1917. Here, Dagon is represented as a Philistine "Fish-God" being worshiped by the Deep Ones, beings described as being human in form but with "webbed hands and feet, shockingly wide and flabby lips, glassy, bulging eyes, and other features less pleasant to recall". The visage of Dagon began tormenting a German man, until the story abruptly ends as the man panics at the sight of a window.[15] The fate of the man is implied in The Call of Cthulhu, where a suicide by jumping out of the window is mentioned in passing.[16]

Design

Dagon's Shin Megami Tensei design has fish-like characteristics. This is because outdated scholarship portrayed Dagan as a fish god due to superficial resemblance of his name with the Hebrew word for "fish" (דָּג, romanized dāg̱),[17] which is also reflected in his official profiles. This flawed idea was also used to produce the incarnation of Dagan seen in the Cthulhu Mythos.

Gameplay

Shin Megami Tensei
Name Level HP MP
Dagon 74 888 262
Strength 31
Intelligence 18
Magic 19
Vitality 23
Agility 18
Luck 7

Species Race Alignment CostSummon Cost CPMagnetite used while in party
Demonic Tyrant Dark-Chaos (231) ♄Macca2368 45
Attack Accuracy Defense Evasion M. Attack M. Effect Moon PhaseDemon Aggression
154Most versions/152Mega-CD 26Most versions/25Super CD-ROM²/23Mega-CD 82Most versions/81Super CD-ROM²/103Mega-CD 20 21 20 1
Resistances
Boss (1): "Resists Guns & Ice."
Sword Gun Fire Ice Elec Force Nerve Almighty
×1 ×¼×0.25 ×1 ×¼×0.25 ×½×0.50 ×1 NulNull ×1
Expel Death Magic Bind Charge Dex Needle Non-Elem.
NulNull NulNull ×⅝×0.625 NulNull ×¾×0.75 ×⅞×0.875 NulNull ×1
Basic Attack Element Hit(s) Target
Sword 1-3 Single enemy
Magic Skills
Skill Attribute Cost Description
Zionga Electric 9 MP Strong lightning strikes one enemy, Shocking it.
Tarunda Magic 4 MP Reduces the enemy's attack.
Marin Karin Magic 6 MP Charms one enemy.

Last Bible Special

EnemyAlly
Name Level HP MP
Dagon 55 620 137
Endurance 29
Intelligence 29
Strength 33
Agility 19
Luck 15
Location Jerusalem
Group Attack Defense XP Macca Drop Drop 2
E 126 139 567 ♄Macca430 Cult Mask (15%) White Sash (10%)
Resistances
Force Elec Ice Fire Debuff Death PCPoison and Confusion PSParalysis and Sleep
— — — — RsResist RsResist RsResist RsResist
×1 ×1 ×1 ×1 ×¼×0.25 ×¼×0.25 ×¼×0.25 ×¼×0.25
Basic Attack Hit(s) Hit Rate Attack Rate Spell Rate
1 80% 70% 30%
Magic Skills
Skill Attribute Cost Description
Ziodyne Electric 25 MP Magic that brings forth a great number of powerful lightning strikes.
Extra Skills
Skill Attribute Description
Sleep PS The special ability to send foes to sleep.
Name Level HP MP
Dagon 55 620 137
Endurance 29
Intelligence 29
Strength 33
Agility 19
Luck 15
Location Jerusalem
Group Attack Defense
E 126 139
Resistances
Force Elec Ice Fire Debuff Death PCPoison and Confusion PSParalysis and Sleep
— — — — RsResist RsResist RsResist RsResist
×1 ×1 ×1 ×1 ×¼×0.25 ×¼×0.25 ×¼×0.25 ×¼×0.25
Basic Attack Hit(s) Hit Rate
1 80%
Magic Skills
Skill Attribute Cost Description
Ziodyne Electric 25 MP Magic that brings forth a great number of powerful lightning strikes.
Mediahan Healing 50 MP Magic that completely restores everyone's HP.
Vitalja Support 4 MP Magic that raises the target's Endurance.
Extra Skills
Skill Attribute Description
Sleep PS The special ability to send foes to sleep.
Death Death The special ability to instantly kill foes.


Compendium

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Compendium Entries
Shin Megami Tensei
(A-Mode DDS)

Origin: Babylonia
An ocean god worshipped by the Philistines. It's said his name comes from the Hebrew sounds for fish (dag) and idon (aon). There used to be important temples for Dagon in Gaza and Ashdod. Dagon is identified as the same as the Babylonian god Oannes. He is depicted with a male appearance, with a human's upper body and a fish's lower.

Devil Children White Book きょだいな　からだは　ウロコに　おおわれている　はんぶん　さかなのデビル
Translation:
Devil Children Light Book and Dark Book カラダの上半身が　人間で　下半身が　魚の　人魚デビル　とても大きなカラダで　天界と地上を自由に　いききできる
Translation:
DemiKids Light Version and Dark Version

A formidable amphibious demon that can easily attack from under or above the sea.

Devil Children Fire Book and Ice Book 体の上半身が　人間で　下半身が　魚の　人魚デビル　とても大きな体で　天界と地上を自由に　いききできる
Translation:

Game Appearances

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment

Dagon appears in the PSP version as a boss in Tatsuya's Scenario.

Trivia

Nomenclature

Names in Other Languages
Language Name Meaning
English Dagon
Japanese ダゴン Dagon Dagon
ダコンLast Bible Special
 Dakon		 Misspelling of the above
Traditional Chinese 達貢 Dágòng Dagon

Gallery

Notes

  1. ↑ Ugaritic: 𐎄𐎂𐎐, romanized dgn
  2. ↑ Hebrew: דָּגוֹן, romanized Dāg̱ôn; Greek: Δαγών, romanized Dagṓn
  3. ↑ Philo portrays the Phoenician gods as humans who were deified by later generations; this approach is called euhemerism after the 4th-century BC Greek writer Euhemerus, who used the same approach with the Greek gods. Therefore, portraying Dagon as the discoverer of grain and the plow is Philo's way of rationalizing the deity Dagon.

References

General
Specific
  1. ↑ Feliu 2003, p. 303.
  2. ↑ Feliu 2003, pp. 304-306.
  3. ↑ Feliu 2003, pp. 288-292.
  4. ↑ Feliu 2003, pp. 300-301.
  5. ↑ "Baal, Son of Dagan: In Search of Baal's Double Paternity", Noga Ayali-Darshan. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 133(4), pp. 651-657. Published October-December 2013 by American Oriental Society. https://doi.org/10.7817/jameroriesoci.133.4.0651
  6. ↑ Feliu 2003, p. 302.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Baumgarten 1981, p. 190.
  8. ↑ Baumgarten 1981, p. 195.
  9. ↑ Baumgarten 1981, p. 182.
  10. ↑ Feliu 2003, pp. 283-284.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Emanuel 2016, p. 37.
  12. ↑ Emanuel 2016, pp. 52-56.
  13. ↑ Emanuel 2016, pp. 23-24.
  14. ↑ Emanuel 2016, p. 47.
  15. ↑ Lovecraft, H.P. (2018 [1917]). Dagon in Macabre Tales. Sirius Publishing. pp. 21-27
  16. ↑ Lovecraft, H.P. (2018). The Call of Cthulhu in The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories. Sirius Publishing.
  17. ↑ "Chronologically, the next suggestion for an etymological explanation of biblical Dagon dates to the IV-V century CE, when, first Saint Jerome and then certain mediaeval exegetes related the name of the god with Hebrew dāg ‘fish’, and as a result described Dagon as having the profile of a fish-god. This proposal has had few followers among modern researchers who connect him instead with the Odacon of Berossus." Feliu 2003, p. 280.
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