Note 923 — Chapter XXXIII · FISH-GODS—DAGON
Reading edition
Nineveh and Babylon, op. cit., pp. 343, 350. See also Le Mythe de Dagon, by Ménant; Revue de l’Hist. des Religions (Paris, 1885), vol. II. p. 295 ff., where a great variety of Assyrian fish-men may be found. Forlong (op. cit., I. 231) instances a cornelian cylinder in the Ouseley collection depicting Oannes or the Babylonian god or demi-god, attended by two gods of fecundity, on whom the Sun-god with a fish tail looks down benignantly. Forlong’s obsession detects in every representation, Indian or Irish, Assyrian or Australasian, some emblem of fecundity, while his ever-present “King Charles’s head” is some phallic symbol. We are almost reminded of the witty quatrain current some years back:
“Diodorus Siculus Made himself ridiculous By insisting that thimbles Were all phallic symbols!”