Video: Why do so many cultures have dragon legends?
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| dragon Detail of a dragon from the Nine Dragon Wall, relief in glazed tile, 1756; in Bei Hai Park, Beijing. |
A dragon, in the mythologies, legends, and folktales of various cultures, is a large lizard- or serpent-like creature, conceived in some traditions as evil and in others as good.
In medieval Europe (the period of European history from the years 500 to about 1500) , dragons were usually depicted (shown) with wings and a barbed tail and as breathing fire.
In Greece the word drakōn, from which the English word was derived, was used originally for any large serpent (see sea serpent), and the dragon of mythology, whatever shape it later assumed, remained essentially a snake.
In general, in the Middle Eastern world (Egypt, Iraq etc.), where snakes are large and deadly, the serpent or dragon was symbolic of the principle of evil. Thus, the Egyptian god Apepi, for example, was the great serpent of the world of darkness.
Ancient Egyptian art depicting Apepi being warded off by a god. Tomb of pharaoh Ramses I. Thebes West, about 1307 BC
But the Greeks and Romans, though accepting the Middle Eastern idea of the serpent as an evil power, also at times conceived the drakontes as good.
On the whole, however, the evil reputation of dragons was the stronger, and in Europe it outlived the idea of dragons being good. Christianity confused the ancient benevolent (good) and malevolent (evil) serpent deities (gods). In Christian art the dragon came to be symbolic of sin (wrongdoing or evil) and paganism (religions that are not Christian) and, as such, was fought by saints.
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| This painting, from about 1480, illustrates a scene from the well-known legend of Saint George, a knight, battling and defeating a dragon that had been terrorizing a city and demanding human sacrifices, including a princess. |
The dragon’s form varied from the earliest times. The Chaldean (the Chaldeans lived in the Middle East about 2,500 years ago) dragon Tiamat had four legs, a scaly body, and wings, whereas the biblical dragon of Revelation, “the old serpent,” was many-headed like the Greek Hydra.
Because they not only possessed both protective and terror-inspiring qualities but also had decorative effigies, dragons were early used as warlike emblems, as indicated in the story of the ancient Greek King Agamemnon (from Homer’s poem Iliad), who had on his shield a blue three-headed snake.
Norse warriors (who lived in what is now Norway and Sweden about 1,000 years ago and were also known as Vikings) painted dragons on their shields and carved dragons’ heads on the prows (fronts) of their ships.
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| A modern recreation of a Norse ship with a carved dragon on its prow |
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| Sigurd, also known as Siegfried, a great hero of Germanic myth, is the slayer of the dragon Fafnir |
In England before the year 1000, the dragon was among the royal ensigns (flags) in war. In the 20th century the dragon was officially incorporated in the armorial bearings of the Prince of Wales (son of the King or Queen of England).
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| The coat-of-arms of the Prince of Wales |
In East Asian mythologies the dragon retains its prestige and is conceived as a beneficent creature. The Chinese dragon, lung, represents yang, the principle of heaven, activity, and maleness in the yinyang of Chinese cosmology (mythology about how the world began). From ancient times it was the emblem of the imperial family, and until the founding of the republic (1911) the dragon adorned the Chinese flag.
The dragon came to Japan with much of the rest of Chinese culture, and there (as ryū or tatsu) it became capable of changing its size at will, even to the point of becoming invisible. Both Chinese and Japanese dragons, though regarded as powers of the air, are usually wingless. Dragons also figure in the ancient mythologies of other Asian cultures, including those of Korea, India, and Vietnam.
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| A dragon balloon in a parade in Singapore |
The Korean Dragon is called a yong. There are three main types. The Korean dragon’s features are slightly different from Chinese dragons. In Korea, the Dragon was worshiped as a sacred one equipped with weapons and functions representing many animals, it meant great leap, ascension, and hope and, at the same time, the symbol of the greatest authority on earth.
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| A dragon and Jijang-bosal (The Bodhisattva of the Afterlife) at Daewonsa Temple in Pohang, Gyeongsangbuk-do. |
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| Dragon made out of bamboo on display by Hangang-no near Samgakji subway station, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, to celebrate Yongsan-gu's 124th anniversary. https://koreantempleguide.com/yong-dragons-%EC%9A%A9/ |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_dragon
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| Smaug the Great, the dragon from the book, The Hobbit, written in the 1930s. The painting is by the book's author, J.R.R. Tolkien. He went on to write the book The Lord of the Rings. |
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