“If oxen, horses, lions had but hands To paint withal or carve, as men can do, Then horses like to horses, kine to kine, Had painted shapes of gods and made their bodies Such as the frame that they themselves possessed.” [921] For the Nimroud sculpture, see _Monuments of Nineveh_, _op. cit._, 2nd Series, Plate 6, while for the agate cylinder, see _Nineveh and Babylon_ (London, 1853), p. 343, where in a note Layard writes, “It is remarkable that on this cylinder the all-seeing eye takes the place of the winged human figure and the globe in the emblem above the sacred tree.” [922] For the data and authorities available in 1855 and examination into Oannes and Dagon, see J. B. Pitra, _Spicilegium Solesmense_, III., pp. 500, 501, 503. [923] _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!” [924] The goat-fish god dates as far back as Gudea, _c._ 2700 B.C. He was like the man-fish or fish-god, a symbol of Ea, the god of water, and probably derives from Capricorn. See Ward, p. 214, fig. 649; and p. 249, figs. 745, 747. [925] Cf. Ezekiel, VIII. 10, “Every form of creeping things and abominable beasts pourtrayed upon the wall round about.” [926] _Paradise Lost_, I., 462. [927] There was a Babylonian god Dagan whose name appears in conjunction with Anu and often with Ninurta (Ninib). Whether the Philistine Dagon is the same as the Babylonian Dagan cannot with our present knowledge be determined. The long and profound influence of Babylonia in Palestine in early times makes it quite possible that Dagon, like Anath, came thence. _Ency. Bibl._, p. 984. No evidence suggests Dagan as a Babylonian fish-god. Some authorities now hold that Dagan came to Babylonia with the Amoritic invasion towards the latter half of the third millennium. [928] For Derceto, see _antea_, p. 124, and for Atargatis, _antea_, pp. 127-8.