Proto-Indo-European The tale of a hero slaying a giant serpent occurs in almost all
Indo-European mythology. In most stories, 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 is so named because he is the third man on earth, but a three-headed serpent named steals them.
*Tritos pursues the serpent and is accompanied by
*Hanér, whose name means "man". Together, the two heroes slay the serpent and rescue the cattle.
Ancient Greece vase painting depicting
Heracles slaying the
Lernaean Hydra, 375–340 BC The ancient Greek word usually translated as "dragon" (
drákōn,
genitive drákontos) could also mean "snake", but it usually refers to a kind of giant serpent that either possesses supernatural characteristics or is otherwise controlled by some supernatural power. Scholar Daniel Ogden characterizes the ancient Greek word as meaning
"a snake and something more". 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 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 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. dragon disgorges the hero
Jason 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 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 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 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 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 is an Attic red-figure
kylix dated to 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 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. red-figure kylix-krater ( 350–340 BC) showing Cadmus fighting the dragon of
Ares In the
founding myth of
Thebes,
Cadmus, 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 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 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. In the fifth century BC, the Greek historian
Herodotus reported in Book IV of his
Histories that western Libya was inhabited by monstrous serpents and, in Book III, he states that
Arabia was home to many small, winged serpents, which came in a variety of colors and enjoyed the trees that produced
frankincense. Herodotus remarks that the serpent's wings were like those of bats and that, unlike vipers, which are found in every land, winged serpents are only found in Arabia. The second-century BC Greek astronomer
Hipparchus ( 190 BC – 120 BC) listed the constellation
Draco ("the dragon") as one of forty-six constellations. Hipparchus described the constellation as containing fifteen stars, but the later astronomer
Ptolemy ( 100 – 170 AD) increased this number to thirty-one in his
Almagest. In the
New Testament, Revelation 12:3, written by
John of Patmos, describes a vision of a
Great Red Dragon with seven heads, ten horns, seven crowns, and a massive tail, an image which is clearly inspired by the vision of the
four beasts from the sea in the
Book of Daniel and the
Leviathan described in various Old Testament passages. The Great Red Dragon knocks "a third of the sun ... a third of the moon, and a third of the stars" out of the sky and pursues the
Woman of the Apocalypse. Revelation 12:7–9 declares: "
And war broke out in Heaven. Michael and his angels fought against Dragon. Dragon and his angels fought back, but they were defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in Heaven. Dragon the Great was thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called Devil and Satan, the one deceiving the whole inhabited World – he was thrown down to earth and his angels were thrown down with him." Then a voice booms down from Heaven heralding the defeat of "the Accuser" (
ho Kantegor). In ,
Flavius Philostratus discussed dragons (δράκων, drákōn) in India in
The Life of Apollonius of Tyana (II,17 and III,6–8). The
Loeb Classical Library translation (by F.C. Conybeare) mentions (III,7) that, "In most respects the tusks resemble the largest swine's, but they are slighter in build and twisted, and have a point as unabraded as sharks' teeth." According to a collection of books by
Claudius Aelianus called
On Animals,
Ethiopia was inhabited by a species of dragon that hunted elephants and could grow to a length of 180 feet (55 m) with a lifespan rivaling that of the most enduring of animals. In the 4th century,
Basil of Caesarea, on chapter IX of his
Address to Young Men on Greek Literature, mentions mythological dragons as guarding treasures and riches.
Ancient Rome In Latin, dragons were known as ( ) – a term derived from the Greek – or (). The Roman conception of dragons was largely borrowed from Greece, though the Romans provided more elaborate and extensive accounts of dragon battles that appeared in Greek mythology. In these retellings, they often gave greater emphasis to the dragons themselves, who were sometimes anthropomorphised and – according to Ogden – "treated with a certain degree of sympathy". The Romans created few original dragon myths, the only notable example being the story of the Dragon of the Bagrada river (now known as the
Medjerda River, located in modern-day
Algeria and
Tunisia). In this tale, which is attested from the 1st century BC and set during the
First Punic War,
Marcus Atilius Regulus and his army encounter a giant snake, which does not allow them to pass through the river, consuming and crushing a number of soldiers. The serpent is impervious to javelins, and is defeated by means of
ballistas; its skin, measuring 120 feet, is stripped from its corpse.
Silius Italicus provides the most detailed account of the story, writing that the serpent inhabited a cave and exuded a pungent odour. The Roman poet
Virgil, in his poem
Culex, describes a shepherd having a fight with a large
constricting snake.
Germanic from 1030, illustrating the
Völsunga saga on a rock in
Sweden. At (5),
Sigurd plunges his sword into
Fafnir's underside. In the
Old Norse poem
Grímnismál in the
Poetic Edda, the dragon
Níðhöggr is described as gnawing on the roots of
Yggdrasil, the world tree. In
Norse mythology,
Jörmungandr is a giant serpent that encircles the entire realm of
Miðgarð in the sea around it. According to the
Gylfaginning from the
Prose Edda, written by the thirteenth-century Icelandic mythographer
Snorri Sturluson,
Thor, the Norse god of thunder, once went out on a boat with the giant Hymnir to the outer sea and fished for Jörmungandr using an ox-head as bait. Thor caught the serpent and, after pulling its head out of the water, smashed it with his hammer,
Mjölnir. Snorri states that the blow was not fatal: "and men say that he struck its head off on the sea bed. But I think the truth to tell you is that the Miðgarð Serpent still lives and lies in the surrounding sea." Towards the end of the
Old English epic poem
Beowulf, a slave steals a cup from the hoard of
a sleeping dragon, causing the dragon to wake up and go on a rampage of destruction across the countryside.
Beowulf insists on confronting the dragon alone, even though he is of advanced age, but
Wiglaf, the youngest of the twelve warriors Beowulf has brought with him, insists on accompanying his king into the battle. Beowulf's sword shatters during the fight and he is mortally wounded, but Wiglaf comes to his rescue and helps him slay the dragon. Beowulf dies and tells Wiglaf that the dragon's treasure must be buried rather than shared with the cowardly warriors who did not come to the aid of their king. In the Old Norse
Völsunga saga, the hero
Sigurd catches the dragon
Fafnir by digging a pit between the cave where he lives and the spring where he drinks his water and kills him by stabbing him in the underside. At the advice of
Odin, Sigurd drains Fafnir's blood and drinks it, which gives him the ability to understand the
language of the birds, who he hears talking about how his mentor
Regin is plotting to betray him so that he can keep all of Fafnir's treasure for himself. The motif of a hero trying to sneak past a sleeping dragon and steal some of its treasure is common throughout many
Old Norse sagas. The fourteenth-century
Flóres saga konungs ok sona hans describes a hero who is actively concerned not to wake a sleeping dragon while sneaking past it. In the
Yngvars saga víðförla, the protagonist attempts to steal treasure from several sleeping dragons, but accidentally wakes them up.
Post-classical and
White Dragons from
Geoffrey of Monmouth's
History of the Kings of Britain The modern, western image of a dragon developed in
western Europe during the
Middle Ages through the combination of the snakelike dragons of classical Graeco-Roman literature, references to Near Eastern dragons preserved in the Bible, and western European folk traditions. The period between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries represents the height of European interest in dragons as living creatures. The twelfth-century
Welsh monk,
Geoffrey of Monmouth, recounts a famous legend in his
Historia Regum Britanniae in which the child prophet
Merlin witnesses the Romano-Celtic warlord
Vortigern attempt to build a tower on
Snowdon to keep safe from the
Anglo-Saxons, but the tower keeps being swallowed into the ground. Merlin informs Vortigern that, underneath the foundation he has built, is a pool with two dragons sleeping in it. Vortigern orders for the pool to be drained, exposing a
red dragon and a
white dragon, who immediately begin fighting. Merlin delivers a prophecy that the white dragon will triumph over the red, symbolizing England's conquest of Wales, but declares that the red dragon will eventually return and defeat the white one. This story remained popular throughout the fifteenth century. Dragons are generally depicted as living in rivers or having an underground lair or cave. They are envisioned as greedy and gluttonous, with voracious appetites. They are often identified with
Satan, due to the references to Satan as a "dragon" in the
Book of Revelation. The thirteenth-century
Golden Legend, written in Latin, records the story of
Saint Margaret of Antioch, a virgin martyr who, after being tortured for her faith in the
Diocletianic Persecution and thrown back into her cell, is said to have been confronted by a monstrous dragon, but she made the
sign of the cross and the dragon vanished. In some versions of the story, she is actually swallowed by the dragon alive and, after making the sign of the cross in the dragon's stomach, emerges unharmed. of
Saint George slaying the dragon, dating to 1270 The legend of
Saint George and the Dragon may be referenced as early as the sixth century AD, but the earliest artistic representations of it come from the eleventh century and the first full account of it comes from an eleventh-century
Georgian text. The most famous version of the story from the
Golden Legend holds that a dragon kept pillaging the sheep of the town of Silene in
Libya. After it ate a young shepherd, the people were forced to placate it by leaving two sheep as sacrificial offerings every morning beside the lake where the dragon lived. Eventually, the dragon ate all of the sheep and the people were forced to start offering it their own children. One day, the king's own daughter came up in the lottery and, despite the king's pleas for her life, she was dressed as a bride and chained to a rock beside the lake to be eaten. Then, Saint George arrived and saw the princess. When the dragon arrived to eat her, he stabbed it with his lance and subdued it by making the sign of the cross and tying the princess's
girdle around its neck. Saint George and the princess led the now-docile dragon into the town and George promised to kill it if the townspeople would convert to Christianity. All the townspeople converted and Saint George killed the dragon with his sword. In some versions, Saint George marries the princess, but, in others, he continues wandering. ,
Galicia (Spain)). Dragons are well known in myths and legends of
Spain, in no small part because St. George (Catalan Sant Jordi) is the patron saint of
Catalonia. Like most mythical reptiles, the Catalan dragon (Catalan drac) is an enormous serpent-like creature with four legs and a pair of wings, or rarely, a two-legged creature with a pair of wings, called a wyvern. As in many other parts of the world, the dragon's face may be like that of some other animal, such as a lion or a bull. As is common elsewhere, Catalan dragons are fire-breathers, and the dragon-fire is all-consuming. Catalan dragons also can emit a fetid odor, which can rot away anything it touches.
Gargoyles are carved stone figures sometimes resembling dragons that originally served as waterspouts on buildings. Precursors to the medieval gargoyle can be found on
ancient Greek and
Egyptian temples, but, over the course of the Middle Ages, many fantastic stories were invented to explain them. One medieval French legend holds that, in ancient times, a fearsome dragon known as
La Gargouille had been causing floods and sinking ships on the river
Seine, so the people of the town of
Rouen would offer the dragon a
human sacrifice once each year to appease its hunger. Then, around 600 AD, a priest named
Romanus promised that, if the people would build a church, he would rid them of the dragon. Romanus slew the dragon and its severed head was mounted on the walls of the city as the first gargoyle. Dragons are prominent in medieval
heraldry.
Uther Pendragon was famously said to have had two gold dragons crowned with red standing back-to-back on his royal
coat of arms. Originally, heraldic dragons could have any number of legs, but, by the late Middle Ages, due to the widespread proliferation of bestiaries, heraldry began to distinguish between a "dragon" (which could only have exactly four legs) and a "
wyvern" (which could only have exactly two). In myths, wyverns are associated with viciousness, envy, and pestilence, but, in heraldry, they are used as symbols for overthrowing the tyranny of Satan and his demonic forces. Late medieval heraldry also distinguished a draconic creature known as a "
cockatrice". A cockatrice is supposedly born when a serpent hatches an egg that has been laid on a dunghill by a rooster and it is so venomous that its breath and its gaze are both lethal to any living creature, except for a weasel, which is the cockatrice's mortal enemy. A
basilisk is a serpent with the head of a dragon at the end of its tail that is born when a toad hatches an egg that has been laid in a
midden by a nine-year-old cockatrice. Like the cockatrice, its glare is said to be deadly.
Post-classical Eastern , a three-headed dragon from
Russian folklore from
Sebastian Münster's
Cosmographie Universalis (1544). In
Albanian mythology and folklore,
stihi,
ljubi,
bolla, bollar, errshaja, and kulshedra are mythological figures described as serpentine dragons. It is believed that
bolla, a water and chthonic demonic serpent, undergoes
metamorphosis passing through four distinct phases if it lives many years without being seen by a human. The
bollar and
errshaja are the intermediate stages, while the
kulshedra is the ultimate phase, described as a huge multi-headed fire-spitting female serpent which causes drought, storms, flooding, earthquakes, and other natural disasters against mankind. She is usually fought and defeated by a
drangue, a semi-human winged divine hero and protector of humans. Heavy thunderstorms are thought to be the result of their battles. In
Slavic mythology, the words
"zmey",
"zmiy", or
"zmaj" are used to describe dragons. These words are masculine forms of the Slavic word for "snake", which are normally feminine (like Russian
zmeya). In
Romania, there is a similar figure, derived from the Slavic dragon and named
zmeu. Exclusively in Polish and Belarusian folklore, as well as in the other Slavic folklores, a dragon is also called (variously)
смок,
цмок, or
smok. In South Slavic folklores, the same thing is also called
lamya (ламя, ламjа, lamja). Although quite similar to other
European dragons, Slavic dragons have their peculiarities. In
Russian and
Ukrainian folklore,
Zmey Gorynych is a dragon with three heads, each one bearing twin goatlike horns. He is said to have breathed fire and smelled of
sulfur. It was believed that
eclipses were caused by Gorynych temporarily swallowing the sun. According to one legend, Gorynych's uncle was the evil sorcerer Nemal Chelovek, who abducted the daughter of the
tsar and imprisoned her in his castle in the
Ural Mountains. Many knights tried to free her, but all of them were killed by Gorynych's fire. Then a palace guard in
Moscow named
Ivan Tsarevich overheard two crows talking about the princess. He went to the tsar, who gave him a magic sword, and snuck into the castle. When Chelovek attacked Ivan in the form of a giant, the sword flew from Ivan's hand unbidden and killed him. Then the sword cut off all three of Gorynych's heads at once. Ivan brought the princess back to the tsar, who declared Ivan a nobleman and allowed him to marry the princess. A popular Polish folk tale is the legend of the
Wawel Dragon, which is first recorded in the
Chronica Polonorum of
Wincenty Kadłubek, written between 1190 and 1208. According to Kadłubek, the dragon appeared during the reign of
King Krakus and demanded to be fed a fixed number of cattle every week. If the villagers failed to provide enough cattle, the dragon would eat the same number of villagers as the number of cattle they had failed to provide. Krakus ordered his sons to slay the dragon. Since they could not slay it by hand, they tricked the dragon into eating calfskins filled with burning sulfur. Once the dragon was dead, the younger brother attacked and murdered his older brother and returned home to claim all the glory for himself, telling his father that his brother had died fighting the dragon. The younger brother became king after his father died, but his secret was eventually revealed and he was banished. In the fifteenth century,
Jan Długosz rewrote the story so that King Krakus himself was the one who slew the dragon. Another version of the story told by
Marcin Bielski instead has the clever shoemaker Skuba come up with the idea for slaying the dragon. Bielski's version is now the most popular. == Modern depictions ==