sideration, he was
specially worshipped by the Amorites, just as his equivalent
Hadad was by the inhabitants of Damascus, neighbours of the
Amorites, and perhaps themselves Amorites.

Rammanu;* Dagon, patron god of fishermen and husbandmen, seems to
have watched over the fruitfulness of the sea and the land.** We are
beginning to learn the names of the races whom they specially protected:
Rashuf the Amorites, Hadad and Rimmon the Aramaeans of Damascus, Dagon
the peoples of the coast between Ashkelon and the forest of Carmel.
Rashuf is the only one whose appearance is known to us. He possessed the
restless temperament usually attributed to the thunder-gods, and was,
accordingly, pictured as a soldier armed with javelin and mace, bow and
buckler; a gazelle's head with pointed horns surmounts his helmet, and
sometimes, it may be, serves him as a cap.

* Hadad and Rimmon are represented in Assyrio-Chaldaean by
one and the same ideogram, which may be read either Dadda-
Hadad or Eammanu. The identity of the expressions employed
shows how close the connection between the two divinities
must have been, even if they were not similar in all
respects; from the Hebrew writings we know of the temple of
Rimmon at Damascus (_2 Kings_ v. 18) and that one of the
kings of that city was called Tabrimmon = "llimmon is good"
(_1 Kings_ xv. 18), while Hadad gave his name to no less
than ten kings of the same city. Even as late as the Graeco-
Roman epoch, kingship over the other gods was still
attributed both to Rimmon and to Hadad, but this latter was
identified with the sun.

** The documents which we possess in regard to Dagon date
from the Hebrew epoch, and represent him as worshipped by
the Philistines. We know, however, from the Tel el-Amarna
tablets, of a Dagantakala, a name which proves the presence
of the god among the Canaanites long before the Philistine
invasion, and we find two Beth-Dagons--one in the plain of
Judah, the other in the tribe of Asher; Philo of Byblos
makes Dagon a Phoenician deity, and declares him to be the
genius of fecundity, master of grain and of labour. The
representation of his statue which appears on the Graeco-
Roman coins of Abydos, reminds us of the fish-god of
Chaldaea.

Each god had for his complement a goddess, who was proclaimed
"mistress" of the city, _Ba