Dagon

Dagon
Also known as	Father Dagon
Mate	Mother Hydra
Affiliations	Great Old Ones
First appearance	"Dagon"
Created by	H. P. Lovecraft

🔀 This is an article about the character. For the story in which it first appeared, see Dagon (short story).

Dagon is a deity who presides over the Deep Ones, an amphibious humanoid race indigenous to Earth's oceans. He is first introduced in Lovecraft's short story "Dagon," and is mentioned extensively throughout the mythos. Also known as Father Dagon, he is a Great Old One and the consort of Mother Hydra.

He is worshipped by the Esoteric Order of Dagon, a secret cult based in Innsmouth.

Size

At a very advanced age, some Deep Ones reach enormous sizes. Such individuals engender the Cult of Dagon, who worship these creatures as deities. They are, in fact, entirely corporeal beings whose great age contributes to their massive size. There is fossil evidence that the oldest, largest of these beings reached sizes of over 50 feet in height. 

Description

Dagon is an enormous specimen of Deep One who has been mentioned in texts since ancient times. He is worshipped by a devout cult of humans and Deep Ones, who revere him as their deity. While apparently immortal, his longevity may be attributable to his fraternization with the Star Spawn, who sometimes select formidable specimens from a given species to protect, nurture, and empower for reasons known only to them.

It may also be that there has been more than one gigantic specimen of Deep Ones who have been confused with the original Dagon. All Deep Ones continue to grow slowly after they reach maturity, provided that they are within reach of steady diet. Indeed, there are ancient Dagon carvings that display what appear to be several gigantic Deep Ones wrestling with whales.

The biblical 'Philistines' worshipped the god Dagon, mentioned in the old testament in Judges 16:23.

Inspiration

Lovecraft most likely based Dagon on the ancient Mesopotamian deity of the same name, who was a god of fish, fishing and fertility.

Behind the Mythos

• George Olshevsky named the nonconvex snub polyhedra after some other Great Old Ones, with the Snub icosidodecadodecahedron as "Dagon".
• In 2001, there was a movie made called Dagon, which, despite the name, is based off of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth."
• In original The Witcher game Dagon is underwater being worshiped by the "vodyanoi" (likely based on the Deep Ones) and a small sect of humans as a god. It also serves as boss monster.
• Dagon is a leader card in Gwent: The Witcher Card Game. His ability allows him to create harmful weather effects on the opponent's side of the board.
• In A Song of Ice and Fire, Lord Dagon Greyjoy was ruler of the Iron Islands. The symbol of his people is a kraken and the chant of their baptism is "What is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger," all references to the mythos.
• Dagon was the name of a Philistine Idol in Old Testament in the Bible.

Gallery

Dagon statuette by SOTA Toys

Drawing of Dagon

Dagon (Providence)

Dagon (Megami Tensei)

Dagon (Good Omens)

Dagon (Call of Cthulhu, Dark Corners of the Earth)

Dagon (Call of Cthulhu, Dark Corners of the Earth)

Dagon, as it appears in Russell's Guide (merzo.net)

Hydra