SEA FABLES EXPLAINED.
he was worshipped in Chaldea, at Erech (" the place of the
ark "), as the sacred and intelligent fish-god, the teacher
of mankind, the god of science and knowledge. There he
was also called Oes, Hoa, Ea, Ana, Anu, Ann, and Oan.
Noah was worshipped, also, in Syria and .\Iesopotamia,
and in Egj'pt, at "populous
No," * or Thebes — so named
from " Theba," " the ark."
The history of the coffin of
Osiris is another version of
Noah's ark, and the period
during which that Egyptian
divinity is said to have been
shut up in it, after it was set
afloat upon the waters, was
precisely the same as that
during which Noah remained
in the ark.
Dagon, also — sometimes
called Odacon — the great fish-
god of the Philistines and
Babylonians, was another
phase of Cannes. " Dag," in
Hebrew, signifies "a male
fish," and " Aun " and " Oan "
were two of the names of
Noah. " Dag-aun " or " Dag-
oan " therefore means " the fish Noah." He was portrayed
in two ways. The more ancient image of him was that
of a man issuing from a fish, as described of Oannes by
Berosus ; but in later times it was varied to that of a man
whose upper half was human, and the lower parts those of

• Nahum iii. 8,
  

FIG, 3. — DAGOX. From a bos