of Dagon:

The name of this idol, Dagon, signifies a fish, and it is supposed to be the Atergatis of the Syrians, corruptly called Derceto by the Greeks, which had the upper part like a woman, and the lower part like a fish; as Lucian informs us:

Δερκετους δε ειδος εν Φοινικη εθεησαμην, θεημα ξενον; ημισεη μεν γυνη; το δε οκοσον εκ μηρων ες ακρους ποδας, ιχθυος ουρη αποτεινεται.
"In Phoenicia I saw the image of Derceto; a strange sight truly! For she had the half of a woman, but from the thighs downward a fish's tail."
Diodorus (1. ii.) describing the same idol, as represented at Askelon, says, το μεν προσωπον εχει γυναικος, το δἀλλο σωμα παν ιχθυος.
"It had the head of a woman, but all the rest of the body a fish's."
Probably Horace alludes to this idol, in De Art. Poet. 4; Desinat in piscem, mulier formosa superne."
"The upper part a handsome woman, and the lower part a fish." If such was the form of this idol, then everything that was human was broken off from what resembled a fish.