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The
dragon
is
a
legendary creature
with
serpentine or
otherwise
reptilian
traits that features in the
myths of many
cultures.
The two most familiar interpretations of
dragons are
European dragons,
derived from various European folk traditions, and the unrelated
Oriental dragons, derived from the
Chinese dragon
(lóng,龍,龙).
The word "dragon" derives from
Greek
δράκων (drakōn), "a serpent of huge size, a python, a
dragon" and that from δρακεῖν (drakein) aorist
infinitive active of the verb δέρκομαι (derkomai) "I
see clearly".[
Description
Dragons are usually shown in modern times
with a body like a huge lizard, or a snake with two pairs of
lizard-type legs, and able to
emit fire
from its mouth. The
European dragon
has bat-type wings growing from its back. A dragon-like creature
with no front legs is known as a
wyvern. Following discovery of how
pterosaurs
walked on the ground, some dragons have been drawn without front
legs and using the wings as front legs pterosaur-fashion when on the
ground, as in
the movie
Reign of Fire.
Overview
Like most
mythological creatures,
dragons are perceived in different ways by different cultures.
Dragons are sometimes said to breathe and spit fire or poison, and
ice. They are commonly portrayed as serpentine or reptilian,
hatching from
eggs and
possessing typically feathered or scaly bodies. They are sometimes
portrayed as having large yellow or red eyes, a feature that is the
origin for the word for dragon in many cultures. They are sometimes
portrayed with a row of dorsal spines, keeled scales, or leathery
bat-like wings. Winged dragons are usually portrayed only in
European dragons
while
Oriental versions of the dragon
resemble large snakes. Dragons can have a variable number of legs:
none, two, four, or more when it comes to early European literature.
Dragons always hate mirrors.[citation
needed] Also, some dragons in
Greek literature were known to have millions of legs at a time.
Modern depictions of dragons tend to be larger than their original
representations, which were often smaller than humans, but grew in
the myths and tales of man over the years.
Although dragons occur in many legends
around the world, different cultures have varying stories about
monsters that have been grouped together under the dragon label.
Dragons are often held to have major
spiritual significance in various religions and cultures around the
world. In many
Asian
cultures dragons were, and in some cultures still are, revered as
representative of the primal forces of
nature, religion and the
universe.
They are associated with
wisdom—often said to be wiser than
humans—and longevity. They are commonly said to possess some form of
magic or
other supernatural power, and are often associated with wells, rain,
and rivers. In some cultures, they are also said to be capable of
human speech.
The term
dragoon,
for infantry that moved around on
horseback yet still fought as foot
soldiers, is derived from their early
firearm, the
"dragon", a wide-bore musket that spat flame when it fired, and was
thus named for the mythical creature.
European
Main articles:
European dragon
and
Saint George
European dragons exist in folklore and
mythology among the overlapping
cultures of Europe.
I
Despite having
wings, the dragon is generally depicted as having an underground
lair or cave, making it an ancient creature of the earth element.
Chinese
Main article:
Chinese dragon
Chinese dragons
(simplified
Chinese:
龙;
traditional Chinese:
龍;
pinyin: lóng),
and
Oriental
dragons generally, can take on human form and are usually seen as
benevolent, whereas European dragons are usually malevolent though
there are exceptions (one exception being
Y Ddraig Goch,
The Red Dragon of Wales). Malevolent dragons also occur in the
mythology of
Persia (see
Azhi Dahaka)
and Russia, among other places.
Dragons are particularly popular in China
and the five-clawed dragon was a symbol of the Chinese emperors,
with the
phoenix or
fenghuang the
symbol of the Chinese empress. Dragon costumes manipulated by
several people are a common sight at Chinese festivals. Chinese
dragons can also develop wings over a life span of 3,500 years.
Japanese
Main article:
Japanese dragon
Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native
legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea and
India. Like these other Asian dragons, most Japanese ones 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)[3],
the Japanese dragon is "invariably figured as possessing three
claws".
Vedic
In the
early Vedic religion,
Vritra (Sanskrit:
वृत्र (Devanāgarī)
or Vṛtra (IAST))
"the enveloper", was an
Asura and also a "naga"
(serpent) or possibly dragon-like creature, the
personification of
drought and
enemy of
Indra. Vritra
was also known in the
Vedas as Ahi ("snake"), and
he is said to have had three heads.
Persian
Aži Dahāka is the source of the modern
Persian word azhdahā or ezhdehā اژدها
(Middle Persian azdahāg) meaning "dragon", often used of a dragon
depicted upon a banner of war. The Persians believed that the baby
of a dragon will be the same color as the mother's eyes. In
Middle Persian
he is called Dahāg or Bēvar-Asp, the latter meaning "[he who has]
10,000 horses." Several other dragons and dragon-like creatures, all
of them malevolent, are mentioned in
Zoroastrian
scripture. (See
Zahhāk).
Semitic
In Jewish religious texts, the first
mention of a dragon-like creature is in the
Biblical works of
Job (26:13),
and
Isaiah (27:1)
where it is called Nachash Bare'ach, or a "Pole
Serpent".[4]
This is identified in the
Midrash Rabba
to Genesis 1:21 as
Leviathan
from the word Taninim
and God created the great sea-monsters.[5]
In Jewish astronomy this is also identified
with the
North Pole,
the star
Thuban which,
around 4,500 years ago, was the star in the
Draco constellation's
"tail".[4]
However this can also have been either
the
celestial pole
or the
ecliptic pole.
The ancient observers noted that Draco was at the top of the
celestial pole, giving the appearance that stars were "hanging" from
it, and in Hebrew it is referred to as Teli, from talah (תלה)
- to hang.[6]
Hebrew writers from Arabic-speaking locations identified the Teli
as Al Jaz'har, which is a Persian word for a "knot" or a
"node" because of the intersection of the inclination of the orbit
of a planet from the elliptic that forms two such nodes. In modern
astronomy these are called the
ascending node
and the
descending node,
but in the
medieval astronomy
they were referred to as "dragon's head" and "dragon's tail".[7]
Modern
literature
There are numerous examples of dragons in
modern literature, especially the fantasy genre.
In the 1937 fantasy novel
The Hobbit
by
J.R.R. Tolkien,
the major
antagonist is
a
dragon named
Smaug. Smaug
hoards a great treasure but is ultimately shot down with an arrow by
an
archer who
was told about a soft patch in Smaug's underbelly armor.
Dragonriders of Pern
is an extensive fantasy/science fiction series of novels and short
stories primarily written by
Anne McCaffrey.
Since 2004, McCaffrey's son Todd McCaffrey has also published Pern
novels, both in collaboration with Anne and on his own. The Pernese
use intelligent firebreathing dragons who have a telepathic bond
with their riders, formed by mental impressions the dragons receive
at the time they hatch from their eggs.
The possibility that dragons and humans
intershare genetic traits within certains lines of family was
investigated in the novel
Who is Charlie Keeper?
The concept of a dragon bonding at birth
with its rider was explored more recently in the 2003 fantasy novel
and subsequent motion picture,
Eragon,
which features a teenaged boy of that name and a young dragon named
Saphira.
Some modern pseudo-biological accounts of
dragons give them the
generic name
Draco, although the generic name
Draco is
used in real-world biology for a genus of small gliding agamid
lizard.
SOURCE
WIKIPEDIA
Art by Lisa
Copyright 2009, Seeds Of Time ~ The Fairies' Journey
Original Staff and Owners - Lisa, Rosie, And Eva
Nothing may be removed without the express permission of the the
owners
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