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The Poker Gods
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Dagon The Fish God
Dagon the fish god (pictured on the right) is one of a number of idols that the
fish may call to when their chip stack is being plundered by a shiver of sharks
at the poker table.
The Philistines celebrated Dagon, as did the Hebrews; in both cases the name
Dagon is derived from Dag, which means fish.
The Philistines only said that Dagon was the combination of man and fish,
though common representations show his form similar to that of the Hebrews
version who said that Dagon, ‘from his navel down, had the form of a fish,
and from his navel up, the form of a man.’ |
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The Babylonians had their own fish-god Oannes. Their myth tells that a being
emerged from the Erythraean Sea who was part man - part fish and was adopted
into the Babylonian culture from the earliest days of their history.
Not wanting to miss out on the action, Hindu mythology tells that Matsya was
the first Avatar of Vishnu in the form part fish - part man and provides the
most colourful story.
According to Hindu legend as Matsya was washing his hands in a river, a little
fish swam into his hands and begged him to save its life; Matsya put the fish in
a jar. Later when fully grown the fish cautioned Matsya of an oncoming flood
which would destroy all life. Because of this forewarning there was time enough
to make preparations and thus with some seeds, re-establish life on earth. Matsya
is generally represented as a four-armed figure with the upper torso of a man and
the lower of a fish.
Other cultures that celebrate fish gods include the Greeks whose god of nature
Pan became a fish from the waist down, when he jumped into a river after being
attacked by Typhon; and the Sumerians whose god Adapa is portrayed as a man
wearing the skin of a fish.
An epic poem, Paradise Lost, written in the 17th-century by John Milton originally
published in ten books tells;
Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man
And downward fish; yet had his temple high
Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast
Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon,
And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds.
So if you look around the poker table and can't spot the fish, you'll have plenty
of choice for divine inspiration. |
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