Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/680

 DACIER

602

DAGON

claims of Hinduism itself. All this augurs well for the cause of truth.

Tavernier, Travels in Imh" i[r,,i;- ['.iun'TER, Travels in Hindustan (1684); Wilks. .S'" i ; il,e City of Dacca

(1820): RlOKBAti, Directory f'u \, V icariate of West-

em Bengal (1S55); Huntki;. -•>-;', 'n,/ .{'{■ount of Bengal (1874), V, VI, IX; Bradley Biht. Uunmncc of an Eastern Capital (1906); numerous references in Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, Calcutta Review, etc.

P. J. Hdrth.

Dacier, Andre, a French philologist, b. at Castres, 6 April, 1651 ; d. 18 Sept., 1722. He was a Huguenot and studied under Tanneguy Lefevre at Saumur. While visiting Paris he was presented to the Due de Montausier who engaged him to edit Pomponius Festus in the collection of Latin authors A d usum Del- phini (Paris, IGSl; Am.sterdam, 1(399). In 1683 he married Anne Lefevre, the daughter of his former pre- ceptor and, two years later he and his wife abjured Protestantism. At this time Dacier published a trans- lation of the works of Horace and a commentary on them (Paris, 1681-89), the text being that of Tanne- guy Lefevre published at Saumur in 1671. The trans- lation is quite accurate for the period, but the commen- tary is far too diffuse and is distinctly illustrative of the taste for allegory that persistetl fur into the seven- teenth century. According to Dacier, Horace knew everything, and the commentator even discovered that the poet had read the books of Moses and followed the method of Solomon in the Book of Proverbs to in- spire a horror of adultery. In Dacier, however, are also found good explanations and judicious observa- tions. He was mainly a translator, and his work in this line included "Marcus Antoninus" (Paris, 1690); Ari.stotle's "Poetics" (Paris, 1692); the "CEdipus" and "Electra" of Sophocles (Paris, 1692); Plutarch's "Lives" (five lives, Paris, 1694; complete, Paris, 1721; Am.sterdam, 172.3); Hippocrates (4 works, Paris, 1697); Plato (selections; Paris, 1699); Pytha- goras and Hierocles (Paris, 1706) and Epictetus and Simplicius (Paris, 1715). He was appointed keeper of books in the king's study and, in 1695 entered the Academy of Inscriptions and the French Academy of which he became the secretary.

Anne D.\cier {nee Leficvre), the wife of Andr6 Da- cier, b. at Saumur in 1651 ; d. 17 April, 1720. She re- ceived the same instruction as her brother and at the age of twenty-three published an edition of fragments from the Alexandrian poet Callimachus (Paris, 1674). She divideil her time between translations (Anacreon and Sappho, 1681; several plays by Plautus and Aristophanes, 1683-1684; Terence, 1688; Plutarch's "Lives" in her husband's translation; "The Iliad", 1699; "The Odyssey", 1708) and the editions of the collection Ad usum Delphini (Florus, 1674; Dictys and Dares, 1684, and Aurelius Victor, 1681). She had a certain vigour that her husband lacked; "In intellectual productions common to both" says an epigram used by Boileau, ".she is the father." In the notice on Dacier in the "Siecle de Louis XIV" Voltaire declares: " Madame Dacier is one of the prod- igies of the century of Louis XIV". However, .she was no bluestocking and refused to give her opinion in scholarly doliahw, agreeing with Sophocles that "si- lence is tlio ornament of women." She reared her three cliildrcn admirably.

But Madame Dacier belongs to the liistory of French literatvire and, in a measure, to the history of ideas because of her particijiation in the dispute about the ancients and moderns. In 1699 Madame Dacier published a translation of "The Iliad" with a preface which was ,a reply to Homer's critics. It was only in 1713 that Houdart de la Motte, a wit and vmpoetic versifier, published a translation of "The Iliad" in verse. The poem was reduced to twelve cantos, all its .so-called prolixity was eliminated and it was re- vised in acconl.iiice with eigliteenth century taste and made " reasonable and elegant ' '. Madame Dacier re-

futed this attack in " Les causes de la corruption du goiit" (Paris, 1714). The dogmatic part of this work consists of an analysis of the " Dialogue on Orators" by Tacitus and Madame Dacier addecl clever remarks on the infliience of climates. La Motte replied hu- mourously and courteously in his " Reflexions sur la critique" (Paris, 1714). In the course of the same year F^nelon, in his letter on the doings of the French Academy, ably and solidly defended the ancients, thus rendering their supporters a signal service. But the quarrel was prolonged, and in 1716 the Jesuit Hardouin publi-shed an apology for Homer. It was a new system of interpreting "The Iliad "and Madame Dacier attacked it in "Homere defendu centre I'apol- ogie du P. Hardouin on suite des causes de la corrup- tion du goLit " (Paris, 1716).

BozE, Histoire de rAco'h'mie des Inscriptions (Paris, 1740), 11,276; NiCERON, M..'H"'" I" :i nrvir a I'histoire des hommes illustres. III; Saim - i-, 1/ ..:..(res. III, 248; Mme. de Staal-Delaunay, .1/ I .MS. 1854), XXXIV, 752;

Sainte-Beuve, Cn„ /- / .../i, IX, 388; Egger. L'Hel-

Itnisme en France (Pans. 1S69I, II, 131; Rigault, Histoire de la querelle des anciens et des modemes (Paris, 1856), reprinted in (Euvres completes (Paris, 1859); Jal, Dictionnaire critique de biographic et d' histoire (Paris, 1872), 465; AssE in La Grande Encye., XIII, 742 sqq.

Paul Lejay,

Dagon, a Philistine deity. It is commonly ad- mitted that the name Dagon is a diminutive form, hence a term of endearment, derived from the Semitic root day, and means, accordingly, "little fish". The name, therefore, indicates a fish-shaped god. This the Bible also suggests when speaking of the Dagon worshipped in the temple of Azotus (I K., v, 1-7): he had face and hands and a portion of his body resem- bled that of a fish, in accordance with the most prob- able interpretation of " the stump of Dagon" (verse 5). From the received text of the Septuagint it would seem that he possessed even feet, although Swete's edition gives here a different reading; at any rate, this sentence, in the Greek translation, shows all the appearances of a gloss. With the description founti in the Bible coincides that which may be seen on the coins of various Philistine or Phcenician cities, on most of which Dagon is represented as a composite figure, himian as to the upper part of the body, fish- like as to the lower. From this it may well be inferred that Dagon was a fish-god, a fact not in the least sur- prising, as he seems to have been the foremost deity of such maritime cities as Azotus, Gaza (the early sites of which are supposed to be buried under the santl- mounds that run along the sea-shore), Ascalon, and Arvad. In the monuments — also most probably in the popular worship — Dagon is sometimes associated with a female half-fish deity, Derceto or Atargatis, often identified with Astarte.

A few scholars, however, waving aside these evi- dences, consider Dagon as the god of agriculture. This opinion they rest on the following statement of Philo Byblius: "Dagon, that is, corn" [the Hebrew word for corn is dugan]. " Dagon, after he had dis- covered corn and the plough, was called Zeus of the plough" (ii, Ki). The same writer tells us (in Euse- bius, Pnep. Evang., i, 6) that, according to an old Phoenician legend, Dagon was one of the four sons born of the marriage of Ann, the lord of heaven, with his sister, the earth. Moreover, on a seal bearing cer- tain symbolic signs, among which is an ear of corn, but not, however, the image of a fish, may be read tlie name of Baal-Dagon, written in Phtrnician characters. It is open to ciuestion whether these arguments out- weigh those in favour of the otlier opinion; so much .m) that the etymology adoiited by Pliilo Byblius might possilily be due to a misapprehension of the name. It should," ii(>rha])s, be admitted that, along the Mediter- ranean shore, a twofokl conception and representa- tion of Dagon wi-re developeil in the course of time as a result of the presumed twofold derivation of the