Many unusual and different animals have
been described, glamorized and romanticized down through history, but
dragons would
probably come out on top as far as
popularity and recognition go. In almost every culture around the world,
dragons have made an
appearance in myths and legends.
Dragon images have been found on the Ishtar
Gate of Babylon, on scrolls from China, in Egyptian hieroglyphs and
Ethiopian sketches,
on the prows of Viking ships, in bas relief
on Aztec temples, and on cliffs above the Mississippi River.
In fact, the book of Job says ‘Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook..
his breath kindleth coals and a flame goeth out of his
mouth... .’ (Job 41:1-34). In the Old
Testament, the term dragon is used once referring to the Pharaoh King of
Egypt as a dragon,
and the other times referring to animals;
for example, ‘ ... the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample
under foot’, ‘And I will
make Jerusalem heaps and a den of dragons
... ’ .
Out of Hebrew Biblical texts, we found Gilgamesh, hero of an ancient
Babylonian epic, who killed a huge reptile-like creature named
Khumbaba, or God Marduk. who defeated
dragon goddess Tiamat, who challenged the stability of cosmos.
In Persia, dragon histories were the main
subject for many artists during centuries XIII and XIV. The
Iskandar painting killing theDragon, made towards 1330, is a majestic
representation of this mythical story. Also, is the main
subject of the Shahnameh or "book of kings" written by Firdowsi.Dragons are rife in Greek mythology. Hercules
killed Ladon, a dragon that guarded the golden apple tree of the
goddess Hera, in orderto steal the apples. Jason and the
Argonauts stole the Golden Fleece guarded by a dragon. Cadmus
killed a dragon that was sacred toAres, the God of War, and
sowed its teeth from which sprung armed men. A dragon was the Standard (pennant) of
Romans. Last Roman emperors, had a lilac-purple dragon as
ceremonial standard called theDrakonteion and flew comets with their form.
The famous roman writer Pliny, author of the 37 volumes of
“Historia Naturalis” tell us about a dragon that was killed during the
reign of Emperor Claudius.In Egypt, the gigantic Dragon- serpent Apep,
which lived below the surface of the river Nile, fought the sun
god Re every night andtried to stop his journey in the sky. However
Ra defeated him every day, and triumphant raised again in the
sky allowing the sun toshine.
The early Britons provide the first European accounts of reptilian
monsters, one of which killed and devoured King Morvidus of Wales,
c. 336 BC. Another monarch, King Peredur,
however, managed to slay his monster at a place called Llyn Llion, in
Wales.
The epic Anglo-Saxon poem Beowulf tells how Beowulf (c. AD 495-583) of
Scandinavia killed a monster named Grendel, and its
supposed mother, as well as several
sea-reptiles, but eventually lost his life at the age of 88 in the
process of killing a flying reptile.
Other well-known stories involving medieval heroes and dragons include
Siegfried of the ancient Teutons (possibly the same person as
Sigurd of Old Norse, who slew a monster
named Fafnir), Tristan (or Tristram), King Arthur, and Sir Lancelot, of
Britain, and perhaps
the most famous of all, St George who
became the patron saint of England. Also they are present in the celtic world.
Prince named Froech, son of a princess descending from the
Tuatha De Danan, had to face adragon that guarded a magical rowan tree
which grew on an island in the center of a large lake. During
his task, he kills the dragon,but looses his own life too.Scandinavian people decorated the prow of
their ships with fearsome figureheads, such as dragons or
serpents. "Here be Dragons"was the phrase they used to mark the
end of the known world, the unexplored lands. In their mythology, we found Nidhogg, the
Midgard-serpent, the greatest enemy of the mighty god Thor.
According to the legend, using a chain baited with the head of an ox,
the Norse God Thor hauled the Midgard serpent from the sea.
The serpent took the bait, and a furious battle took place with
Thor and the serpent struggling to overcome each other,
but eventually, the exhausted Nidhogg escapedsliding back
beneath the water. Many years later, Thor finally killed the serpent on the
day of Ragnarok, a battle to end all battles.However Thor
himself also died on this day for
the poison which the serpent spit at him.In medieval times, dragons were seen as
loathsome beasts that embodied destruction and evil. They were
also symbolic of greed, rage,envy and apostasy (loss of religious faith). Throughout Middle
Ages, people enjoyed telling
scary stories about knights challengingdragons to battle. The
mighty dragon was a popular subject in the art and literature,
and they were represented in heraldry, palacesand churches. One of the most popular legends is the one
referring to Saint George. He becomes patron of crusaders and
everything else that had todo with knights, weapons and fights. He also
came to be considered as patron to the Crown of Aragon (Aragon,
Catalonia, Valenciaand Majorca) Portugal, Greece, Italy and
England. The most well-known episode from the saint's
life is the one represented the famous combat in which the
saint measured his strengthagainst that of a dragon in order to rescue a
young princess, eventually defeating the beast.
The dragon ensign was used by many armies. Under the later eastern Roman
emperors, the purple-dragon ensign became the
ceremonial standard, called the drakonteion.
In England, before the Norman Conquest in 1066, the dragon was chief
among the
royal ensigns in war, having been
instituted by Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur. Other kings who
used the dragon ensign were
Richard I, in 1191, when on crusade, and
Henry III, in 1245, when he went to war against the Welsh.
Alchemists in Middle Age, gave dragons the
name of Ouroboros, the serpent biting, devouring, eating its own
tail which symbolises thecyclic Nature of the Universe: creation out
of destruction, Life out of Death. The ouroboros eats its own
tail to sustain its life, in aneternal cycle of renewal. It is also an
emblem of immortality. Its endless representation with its tail
in its mouth, and the constantrenewal of its skin and vigor, enliven the
symbols of continued youth and eternity.
In Oriental cultures, dragons are seen in a far more positive light.
Revered as a primal force of nature, they represent power, longevity
and prosperity.
In China, dragons appear as the national symbol and the badge of the
royal family, and the dragon adorned the
Chinese flag until the founding of the Republic of China, in
1911. The symbol of the dragon is used by the emperor (anyone else who
used it was put to death). Chinese refer themselves as "descendants of
the dragon".
Chinese dragons are strongly associated with
water in popular belief. They are believed to be the rulers of
moving bodies of water,such as waterfalls, rivers, or seas and so
dragons are divided into: The Celestial Dragon (Tien-lung)
protects the the sky and palaces ofGods, The Spiritual Dragon (Shen-Lung) controls the
wind and the rain, The Earth Dragon (Ti-lung) controls rivers,
and water on theEarth and The Underworld Dragon (Fut's-Lung) guards
precious metals and gems.Hong Kong was considered to be a safe city
because of the nine mountains surrounding the area. Each
mountain represented a dragon.In Indonesia Dragons are called Nagas, and it
was believed that an ancestor of the Pallava dynasty, married to
a naga.
