Dagon
Created: February 2017
| Updated: February 2017
This article uses material from the Dagon article on the Lovecraft wiki at Fandom and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License.
Overview
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.
Size
At very advanced age, some True Merrow 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 fifty feet in height.
Description
Dagon is an enormous specimen of True Merrow who has been mentioned in texts since ancient times. He is worshipped by a devout cult of humans and Merrow, who revere him as a 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 Merrow who have been confused with the original Dagon. All Merrowcontinue 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 Merrow wrestling with whales.
Inspiration
Lovecraft most likely based Dagon on the ancient Mesopotamian deity of the same name, who was a god of fish, fishing and fertility.