Dagon
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(some think this word derives from “dagan” — grain, others from a word meaning “large fish”) (Judg. 16:23; 1 Sam. 5:2–7) — this was the name of the Philistine idol, with a human head and hands, but the body of a fish. He was worshiped in the city of Gaza (Judg. 16:23), in Ashdod (1 Sam. 5:1–3), where his temple was burned by Jonathan in the time of the Maccabees (1 Macc. 10:83, 84), in Beth-dagon, where there was a shrine or temple of Dagon, on the borders of the tribe of Judah (Josh. 15:41), in a city of the tribe of Asher (Josh. 19:27), and in several other places.
The fall and destruction of the idol, when the Ark of God, having been brought from Eben-ezer to Ashdod, was carried into the temple of Dagon and set beside the idol, represents one of the most remarkable events of Jewish history;