Sunday, June 18, 2023

THE READING RHEUM: DAGON (1919)

 This short story, published in a fanzine in 1919 but also given a professional reprint in a 1923 WEIRD TALES, seems to be the first "Mythos Tale." The unnamed narrator, adrift on the ocean, happens on a strange black terrain thrown up by volcanic activity. He also finds a pagan shrine, and then witnesses a colossal fish-thing rise from the sea, possibly to worship at the shrine. The narrator somehow gets back to the States (paging Arthur Gordon Pym) and tells people that he beheld either the ancient Philistine god Dagon or one of his worshipers. No one believes him, but possibly the god or one of his emissaries overtakes the man and shuts him up. Because the creature seen at sea is so big I would tend to say it was the god himself but opinion is divided on this point. However, the Philistine deity is the central icon of the story whether he appears "on stage" or not, since he's the dominating force behind the shrine. 

The name "Dagon" is referenced in "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" but I don't believe the god himself manifests therein. 

Since "Dagon" is a fairly sketchy notion, I judge that it does not possess high mythicity.


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