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88-732: A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with reptile-like traits. Dragon may also refer to: Dragon A dragon is a magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in Western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as winged, horned, and capable of breathing fire. Dragons in eastern cultures are usually depicted as wingless, four-legged, serpentine creatures with above-average intelligence. Commonalities between dragons' traits are often
176-401: A Phoenician prince, was instructed by Apollo to follow a heifer and found a city wherever it laid down. Cadmus and his men followed the heifer and, when it laid down, Cadmus ordered his men to find a spring so he could sacrifice the heifer to Athena. His men found a spring, but it was guarded by a dragon, which had been placed there by the god Ares , and the dragon killed them. Cadmus killed
264-430: A Yeouiju which had fallen from heaven. Another explanation states they are hornless creatures resembling dragons who have been cursed and thus were unable to become dragons. By other accounts, an Imugi is a proto-dragon which must survive one thousand years in order to become a fully-fledged dragon. In either case, they are said to be large, benevolent, python -like creatures that live in water or caves, and their sighting
352-529: A black dragon who was born to a poor family in Shandong . When his mother saw him for the first time, she fainted and, when his father came home from the field and saw him, he hit him with a spade and cut off part of his tail. Li burst through the ceiling and flew away to the Black Dragon River in northeast China, where he became the god of that river. On the anniversary of his mother's death on
440-574: A culture to try to explain why Chinese dragons are considered basically good and representative of government, but the great majority (although not all) European dragons are evil and often represent chaos. Jones' theory was opposed in an article by Paul Jordan-Smith in the Spring 2002 issue of Western Folklore and by other authors. Jordan-Smith criticized the lack of evidence given to prove why dragon myths could not have been passed from culture to culture. He also notes that it cannot be demonstrated that
528-621: A detailed description of the Leviathan, who is described as being so powerful that only Yahweh can overcome it. Job 41:19–21 states that the Leviathan exhales fire and smoke, making its identification as a mythical dragon clearly apparent. In some parts of the Old Testament, the Leviathan is historicized as a symbol for the nations that stand against Yahweh. Rahab, a synonym for "Leviathan", is used in several Biblical passages in reference to Egypt . Isaiah 30:7 declares: "For Egypt's help
616-475: A different power, rank, and ability, so people began establishing temples across the countryside dedicated to these figures. Many traditional Chinese customs revolve around dragons. During various holidays, including the Spring Festival and Lantern Festival , villagers will construct an approximately sixteen-foot-long dragon from grass, cloth, bamboo strips, and paper, which they will parade through
704-684: A general protective emblem. It seems to have originally been the attendant of the Underworld god Ninazu , but later became the attendant to the Hurrian storm-god Tishpak , as well as, later, Ninazu's son Ningishzida , the Babylonian national god Marduk , the scribal god Nabu , and the Assyrian national god Ashur. Scholars disagree regarding the appearance of Tiamat , the Babylonian goddess personifying primeval chaos, slain by Marduk in
792-493: A head made of flint . Thunderstorms and earthquakes were thought to be caused by Apep's roar and solar eclipses were thought to be the result of Apep attacking Ra during the daytime. In some myths, Apep is slain by the god Set . Nehebkau is another giant serpent who guards the Duat and aided Ra in his battle against Apep. Nehebkau was so massive in some stories that the entire earth was believed to rest atop his coils. Denwen
880-543: A hybridization of reptilian , mammalian , and avian features. The word dragon entered the English language in the early 13th century from Old French dragon , which, in turn, comes from Latin draco (genitive draconis ), meaning "huge serpent, dragon", from Ancient Greek δράκων , drákōn (genitive δράκοντος , drákontos ) "serpent". The Greek and Latin term referred to any great serpent, not necessarily mythological. The Greek word δράκων
968-526: A kind of giant serpent that either possesses supernatural characteristics or is otherwise controlled by some supernatural power. The first mention of a "dragon" in ancient Greek literature occurs in the Iliad , in which Agamemnon is described as having a blue dragon motif on his sword belt and an emblem of a three-headed dragon on his breast plate. In lines 820–880 of the Theogony , a Greek poem written in
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#17327730089161056-465: A large number of Asian countries has been influenced by Chinese culture, such as Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and so on. Chinese tradition has always used the dragon totem as the national emblem, and the "Yellow Dragon flag" of the Qing dynasty has influenced the impression that China is a dragon in many European countries. The Korean dragon is in many ways similar in appearance to other East Asian dragons such as
1144-532: A reward. The word "dragon" has come to be applied to the legendary creature in Chinese mythology , loong (traditional 龍, simplified 龙, Japanese simplified 竜, Pinyin lóng ), which is associated with good fortune, and many East Asian deities and demigods have dragons as their personal mounts or companions. Dragons were also identified with the Emperor of China , who, during later Chinese imperial history,
1232-467: A spiritual battle. In Ferdowsi's Shahnameh , the Iranian hero Rostam must slay an 80-meter-long dragon (which renders itself invisible to human sight) with the aid of his legendary horse, Rakhsh . As Rostam is sleeping, the dragon approaches; Rakhsh attempts to wake Rostam, but fails to alert him to the danger until Rostam sees the dragon. Rakhsh bites the dragon, while Rostam decapitates it. This
1320-996: A study which found that approximately 39 people in a hundred are afraid of snakes and notes that fear of snakes is especially prominent in children, even in areas where snakes are rare. The earliest attested dragons all resemble snakes or have snakelike attributes. Jones therefore concludes that dragons appear in nearly all cultures because humans have an innate fear of snakes and other animals that were major predators of humans' primate ancestors. Dragons are usually said to reside in "dark caves, deep pools, wild mountain reaches, sea bottoms, haunted forests", all places which would have been fraught with danger for early human ancestors. In her book The First Fossil Hunters: Dinosaurs, Mammoths, and Myth in Greek and Roman Times (2000), Adrienne Mayor argues that some stories of dragons may have been inspired by ancient discoveries of fossils belonging to dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. She argues that
1408-628: Is a giant serpent mentioned in the Pyramid Texts whose body was made of fire and who ignited a conflagration that nearly destroyed all the gods of the Egyptian pantheon. He was ultimately defeated by the Pharaoh , a victory which affirmed the Pharaoh's divine right to rule. The ouroboros was a well-known Egyptian symbol of a serpent swallowing its own tail. The precursor to the ouroboros
1496-650: Is an Attic red-figure kylix dated to c. 480–470 BC, showing a bedraggled Jason being disgorged from the dragon's open mouth as the Golden Fleece hangs in a tree behind him and Athena , the goddess of wisdom, stands watching. A fragment from Pherecydes of Athens states that Jason killed the dragon, but fragments from the Naupactica and from Herodorus state that he merely stole the Fleece and escaped. In Euripides's Medea , Medea boasts that she killed
1584-494: Is associated with good luck. Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China. Like some other dragons, most Japanese dragons are water deities associated with rainfall and bodies of water, and are typically depicted as large, wingless, serpentine creatures with clawed feet. Gould writes (1896:248), the Japanese dragon is "invariably figured as possessing three claws". A story about
1672-574: Is careful to point out that not all stories of dragons and giants are inspired by fossils and notes that Scandinavia has many stories of dragons and sea monsters, but has long "been considered barren of large fossils." In one of her later books, she states that, "Many dragon images around the world were based on folk knowledge or exaggerations of living reptiles, such as Komodo dragons , Gila monsters , iguanas , alligators , or, in California, alligator lizards , though this still fails to account for
1760-467: Is described in the form of cattle: "You won the cows, hero, you won the Soma ,/You freed the seven streams to flow" ( Rigveda 1.32.12 ). In another Rigvedic legend, the three-headed serpent Viśvarūpa , the son of Tvaṣṭṛ , guards a wealth of cows and horses. Indra delivers Viśvarūpa to a god named Trita Āptya , who fights and kills him and sets his cattle free. Indra cuts off Viśvarūpa's heads and drives
1848-604: Is immortal, but Sophocles and Euripides both describe Heracles as killing him, although neither of them specifies how. Some suggest that the golden apple was not claimed through battle with Ladon at all but through Heracles charming the Hesperides. The mythographer Herodorus is the first to state that Heracles slew him using his famous club. Apollonius of Rhodes , in his epic poem, the Argonautica , describes Ladon as having been shot full of poisoned arrows dipped in
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#17327730089161936-505: Is most likely derived from the Greek verb δέρκομαι ( dérkomai ) meaning "I see", the aorist form of which is ἔδρακον ( édrakon ). This is thought to have referred to something with a "deadly glance", or unusually bright or "sharp" eyes, or because a snake's eyes appear to be always open; each eye actually sees through a big transparent scale in its eyelids, which are permanently shut. The Greek word probably derives from an Indo-European base * derḱ- meaning "to see";
2024-474: Is often shown playing with on kagamibuta . The shachihoko is a creature with the head of a dragon, a bushy tail, fishlike scales, and sometimes with fire emerging from its armpits. The fun has the head of a dragon, feathered wings, and the tail and claws of a bird. A white dragon was believed to reside in a pool in Yamashiro Province and, every fifty years, it would turn into a bird called
2112-588: Is one of the national symbols of Bhutan . In the Dzongkha language, Bhutan is known as Druk Yul "Land of Druk", and Bhutanese leaders are called Druk Gyalpo , "Thunder Dragon Kings". The druk was adopted as an emblem by the Drukpa Lineage , which originated in Tibet and later spread to Bhutan. The tale of a hero slaying a giant serpent occurs in almost all Indo-European mythology . In most stories,
2200-430: Is so named because he is the third man on earth, but a three-headed serpent named * Ng hi steals them. *Tritos pursues the serpent and is accompanied by *H a nér , whose name means "man". Together, the two heroes slay the serpent and rescue the cattle. The ancient Greek word usually translated as "dragon" (δράκων drákōn , genitive δράκοντοϛ drákontos ) could also mean "snake", but it usually refers to
2288-410: Is that over millions of years of evolution , members of a species will evolve an instinctive fear of their predators , and he proposes ways in which these fearful images may be merged in artistic or cultural expression to create the dragon image and, perhaps, other kinds of hybrid monster. Finally he suggests sociological reasons for why such images may be perceived differently at different stages of
2376-578: Is the third trial of Rostam's Seven Labors . Rostam is also credited with the slaughter of other dragons in the Shahnameh and in other Iranian oral traditions, notably in the myth of Babr-e-Bayan . In this tale, Rostam is still an adolescent and kills a dragon in the "Orient" (either India or China, depending on the source) by forcing it to swallow either ox hides filled with quicklime and stones or poisoned blades. The dragon swallows these foreign objects and its stomach bursts, after which Rostam flays
2464-575: Is traditionally said to have originated after the poet Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo River and people raced out in boats hoping to save him. But most historians agree that the custom actually originated much earlier as a ritual to avert ill fortune. Starting during the Han dynasty and continuing until the Qing dynasty, the Chinese emperor gradually became closely identified with dragons, and emperors themselves claimed to be
2552-503: Is worthless and empty, therefore I have called her 'the silenced Rahab '." Similarly, Psalm 87:3 reads: "I reckon Rahab and Babylon as those that know me..." In Ezekiel 29:3–5 and Ezekiel 32:2–8, the pharaoh of Egypt is described as a "dragon" ( tannîn ). In the deuterocanonical story of Bel and the Dragon from the Book of Daniel , the prophet Daniel sees a dragon being worshipped by
2640-506: The Homeric Hymn to Apollo , the god Apollo uses his poisoned arrows to slay the serpent Python , who has been causing death and pestilence in the area around Delphi . Apollo then sets up his shrine there. The Roman poet Virgil in his poem Culex , lines 163–201 Appendix Vergiliana: Culex , describing a shepherd having a fight with a big constricting snake , calls it " serpens " and also " draco ", showing that in his time
2728-602: The Pistis Sophia , an early Gnostic text, describes "a great dragon whose tail is in its mouth". In medieval alchemy, the ouroboros became a typical western dragon with wings, legs, and a tail. A famous image of the dragon gnawing on its tail from the eleventh-century Codex Marcianus was copied in numerous works on alchemy. Ancient people across the Near East believed in creatures similar to what modern people call "dragons". These ancient people were unaware of
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2816-1110: The mušḫuššu of ancient Mesopotamia ; Apep in Egyptian mythology ; Vṛtra in the Rigveda ; the Leviathan in the Hebrew Bible ; Grand'Goule in the Poitou region in France ; Python , Ladon , Wyvern and the Lernaean Hydra in Greek mythology ; Kulshedra in Albanian Mythology ; Unhcegila in Lakota mythology ; Quetzalcoatl in Aztec Culture ; Jörmungandr , Níðhöggr , and Fafnir in Norse mythology ;
2904-406: The samurai Minamoto no Mitsunaka tells that, while he was hunting in his own territory of Settsu , he dreamt under a tree and had a dream in which a beautiful woman appeared to him and begged him to save her land from a giant serpent which was defiling it. Mitsunaka agreed to help and the maiden gave him a magnificent horse. When he woke up, the seahorse was standing before him. He rode it to
2992-691: The Akkadian Period ( c. 2334 – 2154 BC) until the Neo-Babylonian Period (626 BC–539 BC). The dragon is usually shown with its mouth open. It may have been known as the (ūmu) nā’iru , which means "roaring weather beast", and may have been associated with the god Ishkur (Hadad). A slightly different lion-dragon with two horns and the tail of a scorpion appears in art from the Neo-Assyrian Period (911 BC–609 BC). A relief probably commissioned by Sennacherib shows
3080-620: The Chinese and Japanese dragons . It differs from the Chinese dragon in that it developed a longer beard. Very occasionally, a dragon may be depicted as carrying an orb known as the Yeouiju (여의주), the Korean name for the mythical Cintamani , in its claws or its mouth. It was said that whoever could wield the Yeouiju was blessed with the abilities of omnipotence and creation at will, and that only four-toed dragons (who had thumbs with which to hold
3168-423: The Hebrew Bible , in the Book of Psalms , Psalm 74 , Psalm 74:13–14, the sea-dragon Leviathan , is slain by Yahweh , god of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah , as part of the creation of the world. Isaiah describes Leviathan as a tanin ( תנין ), which is translated as "sea monster", "serpent", or "dragon". In Isaiah 27:1, Yahweh's destruction of Leviathan is foretold as part of his impending overhaul of
3256-581: The Sanskrit root दृश् ( dr̥ś- ) also means "to see". Draconic creatures appear in virtually all cultures around the globe and the earliest attested reports of draconic creatures resemble giant snakes. Draconic creatures are first described in the mythologies of the ancient Near East and appear in ancient Mesopotamian art and literature. Stories about storm-gods slaying giant serpents occur throughout nearly all Near Eastern and Indo-European mythologies. Famous prototypical draconic creatures include
3344-540: The Sumiyoshi temple, where he prayed for eight days. Then he confronted the serpent and slew it with an arrow. It was believed that dragons could be appeased or exorcised with metal. Nitta Yoshisada is said to have hurled a famous sword into the sea at Sagami to appease the dragon-god of the sea and Ki no Tsurayuki threw a metal mirror into the sea at Sumiyoshi for the same purpose. Japanese Buddhism has also adapted dragons by subjecting them to Buddhist law ;
3432-457: The Babylonian creation epic Enûma Eliš . She was traditionally regarded by scholars as having had the form of a giant serpent, but several scholars have pointed out that this shape "cannot be imputed to Tiamat with certainty" and she seems to have at least sometimes been regarded as anthropomorphic. Nonetheless, in some texts, she seems to be described with horns, a tail, and a hide that no weapon can penetrate, all features which suggest she
3520-545: The Babylonians. Daniel makes "cakes of pitch, fat, and hair"; the dragon eats them and bursts open. Azhi Dahaka (Avestan Great Snake) is a dragon or demonic figure in the texts and mythology of Zoroastrian Persia, where he is one of the subordinates of Angra Mainyu. Alternate names include Azi Dahak, Dahaka, and Dahak. Aži (nominative ažiš) is the Avestan word for "serpent" or "dragon. The Avestan term Aži Dahāka and
3608-487: The Chinese lunar calendar, Old Li returns home, causing it to rain. He is still worshipped as a rain god. In China, a dragon is thought to have power over rain. Dragons and their associations with rain are the source of the Chinese customs of dragon dancing and dragon boat racing . Dragons are closely associated with rain and drought is thought to be caused by a dragon's laziness. Prayers invoking dragons to bring rain are common in Chinese texts. The Luxuriant Dew of
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3696-497: The Colchian dragon herself. In the final scene of the play, Medea also flies away on a chariot pulled by two dragons. In the most famous retelling of the story from Apollonius of Rhodes's Argonautica , Medea drugs the dragon to sleep, allowing Jason to steal the Fleece. Greek vase paintings show her feeding the dragon the sleeping drug in a liquid form from a phialē , or shallow cup. In the founding myth of Thebes , Cadmus ,
3784-491: The Crown Prince wore four-taloned dragon insignia. Korean folk mythology states that most dragons were originally Imugis (이무기), or lesser dragons, which were said to resemble gigantic serpents. There are a few different versions of Korean folklore that describe both what imugis are and how they aspire to become full-fledged dragons. Koreans thought that an Imugi could become a true dragon, yong or mireu , if it caught
3872-516: The Hydra's heads was immortal, so Heracles buried it under a heavy rock after cutting it off. For his Eleventh Labor, Heracles must procure a golden apple from the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides , which is guarded by an enormous serpent that never sleeps, which Pseudo-Apollodorus calls " Ladon ". In earlier depictions, Ladon is often shown with many heads. In Pseudo-Apollodorus's account, Ladon
3960-415: The Hydra, but, by the end of the sixth century BC, it was agreed that the clubbed or severed heads needed to be cauterized to prevent them from growing back. Heracles was aided in this task by his nephew Iolaus . During the battle, a giant crab crawled out of the marsh and pinched Heracles's foot, but he crushed it under his heel. Hera placed the crab in the sky as the constellation Cancer . One of
4048-478: The Japanese Buddhist deities Benten and Kwannon are often shown sitting or standing on the back of a dragon. Several Japanese sennin ("immortals") have taken dragons as their mounts. Bômô is said to have hurled his staff into a puddle of water, causing a dragon to come forth and let him ride it to heaven. The rakan Handaka is said to have been able to conjure a dragon out of a bowl, which he
4136-689: The Middle Persian azdahāg are the sources of the Middle Persian Manichaean demon of greed "Az", Old Armenian mythological figure Aždahak, Modern Persian 'aždehâ/aždahâ', Tajik Persian 'azhdahâ', Urdu 'azhdahā' (اژدها), as well as the Kurdish ejdîha (ئەژدیها). The name also migrated to Eastern Europe, assumed the form "azhdaja" and the meaning "dragon", "dragoness" or "water snake" in the Balkanic and Slavic languages. Despite
4224-463: The Ogonchô, which had a call like the "howling of a wild dog". This event was believed to herald terrible famine. In the Japanese village of Okumura, near Edo , during times of drought, the villagers would make a dragon effigy out of straw, magnolia leaves, and bamboo and parade it through the village to attract rainfall. The Vietnamese dragon ( Vietnamese : rồng ) was a mythical creature that
4312-587: The Scandinavian legends, as no such animals (historical or otherwise) have ever been found in this region." Robert Blust in The Origin of Dragons (2000) argues that, like many other creations of traditional cultures, dragons are largely explicable as products of a convergence of rational pre-scientific speculation about the world of real events. In this case, the event is the natural mechanism governing rainfall and drought, with particular attention paid to
4400-484: The Spring and Autumn Annals , attributed to the Han dynasty scholar Dong Zhongshu , prescribes making clay figurines of dragons during a time of drought and having young men and boys pace and dance among the figurines in order to encourage the dragons to bring rain. Texts from the Qing dynasty advise hurling the bone of a tiger or dirty objects into the pool where the dragon lives; since dragons cannot stand tigers or dirt,
4488-480: The blood of the Hydra. In Pindar 's Fourth Pythian Ode , Aeëtes of Colchis tells the hero Jason that the Golden Fleece he is seeking is in a copse guarded by a dragon, "which surpassed in breadth and length a fifty-oared ship". Jason slays the dragon and makes off with the Golden Fleece together with his co-conspirator, Aeëtes's daughter, Medea . The earliest artistic representation of this story
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#17327730089164576-508: The cattle home for Trita. This same story is alluded to in the Younger Avesta , in which the hero Thraētaona , the son of Āthbya, slays the three-headed dragon Aži Dahāka and takes his two beautiful wives as spoils. Thraētaona's name (meaning "third grandson of the waters") indicates that Aži Dahāka, like Vṛtra, was seen as a blocker of waters and cause of drought. The Druk ( Dzongkha : འབྲུག་ ), also known as 'Thunder Dragon',
4664-471: The city as part of a dragon dance . The original purpose of this ritual was to bring good weather and a strong harvest, but now it is done mostly only for entertainment. During the Duanwu festival, several villages, or even a whole province, will hold a dragon boat race , in which people race across a body of water in boats carved to look like dragons, while a large audience watches on the banks. The custom
4752-463: The common hypothesis that dragon myths might be motivated by primitive discoveries of dinosaur fossils (he argues that there are widespread traits of dragons in folklore which are not observable from fossils), and claims that the common traits of dragons seem to be an amalgam of the principal predators of our ancestral hominids , which he names as the raptors , great cats (especially leopards ) and pythons . The hypothesis to which Jones conforms
4840-580: The creature that he ran away. In Chinese legend, the culture hero Fu Hsi is said to have been crossing the Lo River , when he saw the lung ma , a Chinese horse-dragon with seven dots on its face, six on its back, eight on its left flank, and nine on its right flank. He was so moved by this apparition that, when he arrived home, he drew a picture of it, including the dots. He later used these dots as letters and invented Chinese writing , which he used to write his book I Ching . In another Chinese legend,
4928-508: The dragon from Beowulf ; and aži and az in ancient Persian mythology, closely related to another mythological figure, called Aži Dahaka or Zahhak . Nonetheless, scholars dispute where the idea of a dragon originates from, and a wide variety of hypotheses have been proposed. In his book An Instinct for Dragons (2000), anthropologist David E. Jones suggests a hypothesis that humans, like monkeys , have inherited instinctive reactions to snakes, large cats , and birds of prey . He cites
5016-487: The dragon and fashions a coat from its hide called the babr-e bayān . In some variants of the story, Rostam then remains unconscious for two days and nights, but is guarded by his steed Rakhsh . On reviving, he washes himself in a spring. In the Mandean tradition of the story, Rostam hides in a box, is swallowed by the dragon, and kills it from inside its belly. The king of China then gives Rostam his daughter in marriage as
5104-452: The dragon in revenge, either by smashing its head with a rock or using his sword. Following the advice of Athena, Cadmus tore out the dragon's teeth and planted them in the earth. An army of giant warriors (known as spartoi , which means "sown men") grew from the teeth like plants. Cadmus hurled stones into their midst, causing them to kill each other until only five were left. To make restitution for having killed Ares's dragon, Cadmus
5192-617: The dragon king of the West Sea. And King Munmu of Silla who, on his deathbed, wished to become a dragon of the East Sea in order to protect the kingdom. Dragon patterns were used exclusively by the royal family. The royal robe was also called the dragon robe (용포). In the Joseon dynasty , the royal insignia, featuring embroidered dragons, were attached to the robe's shoulders, the chest, and back. The King wore five-taloned dragon insignia while
5280-823: The dragon lore of northern India may have been inspired by "observations of oversized, extraordinary bones in the fossilbeds of the Siwalik Hills below the Himalayas " and that ancient Greek artistic depictions of the Monster of Troy may have been influenced by fossils of Samotherium , an extinct species of giraffe whose fossils are common in the Mediterranean region. In China, a region where fossils of large prehistoric animals are common, these remains are frequently identified as "dragon bones" and are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine . Mayor, however,
5368-475: The dragon of the pool will cause heavy rain to drive the object out. Rainmaking rituals invoking dragons are still very common in many Chinese villages, where each village has its own god said to bring rain and many of these gods are dragons. The Chinese dragon kings are thought of as the inspiration for the Hindu myth of the naga. According to these stories, every body of water is ruled by a dragon king, each with
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#17327730089165456-461: The emperor Qi are both described as being carried by two dragons, as are Huangdi, Zhuanxu , Yuqiang , and Roshou in various other texts. According to the Huainanzi , an evil black dragon once caused a destructive deluge, which was ended by the mother goddess Nüwa by slaying the dragon. A large number of ethnic myths about dragons are told throughout China. The Houhanshu , compiled in
5544-490: The existence of dinosaurs or similar creatures in the distant past. References to dragons of both benevolent and malevolent characters occur throughout ancient Mesopotamian literature. In Sumerian poetry , great kings are often compared to the ušumgal , a gigantic, serpentine monster. A draconic creature with the foreparts of a lion and the hind-legs, tail, and wings of a bird appears in Mesopotamian artwork from
5632-429: The fears of ancestral hominids are coded into the human brain. He concludes his review by writing "One is tempted to say, as Dorothy Parker once did, that this is a book not to be tossed aside lightly but thrown violently. But no, it is not worth spending even that much energy on." D. Ogden writes that Jones' ideas "might offer pause for thought given the universality of dragon-slaying narratives". He adds, though, that
5720-484: The fifth century BC by Fan Ye , reports a story belonging to the Ailaoyi people, which holds that a woman named Shayi who lived in the region around Mount Lao became pregnant with ten sons after being touched by a tree trunk floating in the water while fishing. She gave birth to the sons and the tree trunk turned into a dragon, who asked to see his sons. The woman showed them to him, but all of them ran away except for
5808-488: The fourteenth emperor of the Xia dynasty , was given a male and a female dragon as a reward for his obedience to the god of heaven, but could not train them, so he hired a dragon-trainer named Liulei, who had learned how to train dragons from Huanlong. One day, the female dragon died unexpectedly, so Liulei secretly chopped her up, cooked her meat, and served it to the king, who loved it so much that he demanded Liulei to serve him
5896-667: The gods Ashur , Sin , and Adad standing on its back. Another draconic creature with horns, the body and neck of a snake, the forelegs of a lion, and the hind-legs of a bird appears in Mesopotamian art from the Akkadian Period until the Hellenistic Period (323 BC–31 BC). This creature, known in Akkadian as the mušḫuššu , meaning "furious serpent", was used as a symbol for particular deities and also as
5984-428: The hero is some kind of thunder-god . In nearly every iteration of the story, the serpent is either multi-headed or "multiple" in some other way. Furthermore, in nearly every story, the serpent is always somehow associated with water. Bruce Lincoln has proposed that a Proto-Indo-European dragon-slaying myth can be reconstructed as follows: First, the sky gods give cattle to a man named *Tritos ("the third"), who
6072-462: The incarnations of a divine dragon. Eventually, dragons were only allowed to appear on clothing, houses, and articles of everyday use belonging to the emperor and any commoner who possessed everyday items bearing the image of the dragon was ordered to be executed. After the last Chinese emperor was overthrown in 1911, this situation changed and now many ordinary Chinese people identify themselves as descendants of dragons. The impression of dragons in
6160-446: The most famous Chinese dragons is Ying Long ("responding dragon"), who helped the Huangdi , the Yellow Emperor, defeat the tyrant Chiyou . The dragon Zhulong ("torch dragon") is a god "who composed the universe with his body." In the Shanhaijing , many mythic heroes are said to have been conceived after their mothers copulated with divine dragons, including Huangdi, Shennong , Emperor Yao , and Emperor Shun . The god Zhurong and
6248-424: The negative aspect of Aži Dahāka in mythology, dragons have been used on some banners of war throughout the history of Iranian peoples. The Azhdarchid group of pterosaurs are named from a Persian word for "dragon" that ultimately comes from Aži Dahāka. In Persian Sufi literature, Rumi writes in his Masnavi that the dragon symbolizes the sensual soul ( nafs ), greed and lust, that need to be mortified in
6336-624: The orbs) were both wise and powerful enough to wield these orbs, as opposed to the lesser, three-toed dragons. As with China, the number nine is significant and auspicious in Korea, and dragons were said to have 81 (9×9) scales on their backs, representing yang essence. Dragons in Korean mythology are primarily benevolent beings related to water and agriculture, often considered bringers of rain and clouds. Hence, many Korean dragons are said to have resided in rivers, lakes, oceans, or even deep mountain ponds. And human journeys to undersea realms, and especially
6424-546: The phenomenon of the rainbow. In Egyptian mythology , Apep or Apophis is a giant serpentine creature who resides in the Duat , the Egyptian Underworld. The Bremner-Rhind papyrus, written around 310 BC, preserves an account of a much older Egyptian tradition that the setting of the sun is caused by Ra descending to the Duat to battle Apep. In some accounts, Apep is as long as the height of eight men with
6512-562: The physician Ma Shih Huang is said to have healed a sick dragon. Another legend reports that a man once came to the healer Lo Chên-jen, telling him that he was a dragon and that he needed to be healed. After Lo Chên-jen healed the man, a dragon appeared to him and carried him to heaven. In the Shanhaijing , a classic mythography probably compiled mostly during the Han dynasty , various deities and demigods are associated with dragons. One of
6600-462: The rearing of dragons. The Zuo zhuan , which was probably written during the Warring States period , describes a man named Dongfu, a descendant of Yangshu'an, who loved dragons and, because he could understand a dragon's will, he was able to tame them and raise them well. He served Emperor Shun, who gave him the family name Huanlong, meaning "dragon-raiser". In another story, Kong Jia ,
6688-452: The rest up the mountains. To this day, Vietnamese people often describe themselves as "Children of the dragon, grandchildren of the fairy" ( Con rồng cháu tiên ). In the Rigveda , the oldest of the four Vedas , Indra , the Vedic god of storms, battles Vṛtra , a giant serpent who represents drought. Indra kills Vṛtra using his vajra (thunderbolt) and clears the path for rain, which
6776-467: The same meal again. Since Liulei had no means of procuring more dragon meat, he fled the palace. One of the most famous dragon stories is about the Lord Ye Gao, who loved dragons obsessively, even though he had never seen one. He decorated his whole house with dragon motifs and, seeing this display of admiration, a real dragon came and visited Ye Gao, but the lord was so terrified at the sight of
6864-457: The seventh century BC by the Boeotian poet Hesiod , the Greek god Zeus battles the monster Typhon , who has one hundred serpent heads that breathe fire and make many frightening animal noises. Zeus scorches all of Typhon's heads with his lightning bolts and then hurls Typhon into Tartarus . In other Greek sources, Typhon is often depicted as a winged, fire-breathing serpent-like dragon. In
6952-543: The two words were probably interchangeable. Hesiod also mentions that the hero Heracles slew the Lernaean Hydra , a multiple-headed serpent which dwelt in the swamps of Lerna . The name "Hydra" means "water snake" in Greek. According to the Bibliotheka of Pseudo-Apollodorus, the slaying of the Hydra was the second of the Twelve Labors of Heracles . Accounts disagree on which weapon Heracles used to slay
7040-472: The undersea palace of the Dragon King (용왕), are common in Korean folklore. In Korean myths, some kings who founded kingdoms were described as descendants of dragons because the dragon was a symbol of the monarch. Lady Aryeong , who was the first queen of Silla , is said to have been born from a cockatrice , while the grandmother of Taejo of Goryeo , founder of Goryeo , was reportedly the daughter of
7128-480: The universal order: בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא יִפְקֹד יְהוָה בְּחַרְבּוֹ הַקָּשָׁה וְהַגְּדוֹלָה וְהַחֲזָקָה, עַל לִוְיָתָן נָחָשׁ בָּרִחַ, וְעַל לִוְיָתָן, נָחָשׁ עֲקַלָּתוֹן; וְהָרַג אֶת-הַתַּנִּין, אֲשֶׁר בַּיָּם In that day the LORD will take His sharp, great, and mighty sword, and bring judgment on Leviathan the fleeing serpent — Leviathan the coiling serpent — and He will slay the dragon of the sea. Job 41:1–34 contains
7216-534: The universality of dragon images in the folklore of human societies. In the introduction, Jones conducts a survey of dragon myths from cultures around the world and argues that certain aspects of dragons or dragon-like mythical creatures are found very widely. He claims that even the Inuit have a reptilian dragon-like monster, even though (living in a frigid environment unsuited for cold-blooded animals) they had never seen an actual reptile . Jones then argues against
7304-468: The youngest, who the dragon licked on the back and named Jiu Long, meaning "sitting back". The sons later elected him king and the descendants of the ten sons became the Ailaoyi people, who tattooed dragons on their backs in honor of their ancestor. The Miao people of southwest China have a story that a divine dragon created the first humans by breathing on monkeys that came to play in his cave. The Han people have many stories about Short-Tailed Old Li,
7392-612: Was conceived as some form of dragoness. In the mythologies of the Ugarit region, specifically the Baal Cycle from the Ugaritic texts , the sea-dragon Lōtanu is described as "the twisting serpent / the powerful one with seven heads." In KTU 1.5 I 2–3, Lōtanu is slain by the storm-god Baal , but, in KTU 1.3 III 41–42, he is instead slain by the virgin warrior goddess Anat . In
7480-454: Was forced to serve Ares as a slave for eight years. At the end of this period, Cadmus married Harmonia , the daughter of Ares and Aphrodite . Cadmus and Harmonia moved to Illyria , where they ruled as king and queen, before eventually being transformed into dragons themselves. An Instinct for Dragons An Instinct for Dragons is a book by University of Central Florida anthropologist David E. Jones, in which he seeks to explain
7568-542: Was often used as a deity symbol and was associated with royalty. Similar to other cultures, dragons in Vietnamese culture represent yang and godly beings associated with creation and life. In the creation myth of the Vietnamese people , they are descended from the dragon lord Lạc Long Quân and the fairy Âu Cơ , who bore 100 eggs. When they separated, Lạc Long Quân brought 50 children to the sea while Âu Cơ brought
7656-531: Was the "Many-Faced", a serpent with five heads, who, according to the Amduat , the oldest surviving Book of the Afterlife , was said to coil around the corpse of the sun god Ra protectively. The earliest surviving depiction of a "true" ouroboros comes from the gilded shrines in the tomb of Tutankhamun . In the early centuries AD, the ouroboros was adopted as a symbol by Gnostic Christians and chapter 136 of
7744-618: Was the only one permitted to have dragons on his house, clothing, or personal articles. Archaeologist Zhōu Chong-Fa believes that the Chinese word for dragon is an onomatopoeia of the sound of thunder or lùhng in Cantonese . The Chinese dragon ( simplified Chinese : 龙 ; traditional Chinese : 龍 ; pinyin : lóng ) is the highest-ranking creature in the Chinese animal hierarchy. Its origins are vague, but its "ancestors can be found on Neolithic pottery as well as Bronze Age ritual vessels." A number of popular stories deal with
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