Dragon Mythology - Dragons in Culture & in the Bible
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All Cultures Have Dragon Stories
People from all cultures have told stories about dragons for thousands of years.
The Rainbow Serpent featured in African and Australian Aboriginal mythologies. It was a snake-like creature that carved gullies and rivers. It provided water for humans but if provoked it flooded the land.
One of the oldest images of a dragon is of a Rainbow Serpent in a 6000 year-old Australian Aboriginal rock painting.
Indian and Chinese dragons were serpents too - snake-like creatures with scales and legs. These serpents could fly without wings and had a dual nature of good or evil. Serpents were revered for providing wisdom, fertility and rain. Dragon breath turned to clouds, rain and lightning.
Alchemy developed from ancient Egypt way before the bible was written. Egyptian dragons symbolised evil. Judaism and Christianity evolved from the Middle East and their dragons symbolised evil too. Some breathed fire.
As Christianity spread to Europe, so did dragon folklore. In Medieval times, people scared each other with tales of dragons. Knights and saints became heros for defeating dragons. The most famous dragon-slayer was St George.
Western dragons were more dangerous than Eastern dragons. They were bad-tempered, aggressive and lethal, with a taste for human flesh. They had lion-feet and bat-wings and breathed fire. They were hunted for their treasure or to rescue a hostage, usually a princess.
Some Dragons From Around the World
China Futs-Lung, underworld dragon that guarded precious metals and gems.
Japan Sui Rui, dragon that ruled rain. Rain runs red with blood when in pain.
England Bisterne Dragon, stole cows from a village and then snatched people. A knight slew the dragon after luring it with milk.
Scotland Loch Ness Monster, sea-serpent from a lake in Scotland
Russia Chudo Yudo, fire-breathing dragon with 12 heads.
Australia Bunyup, (meaning 'devil') lived in swamps and ate people.
New Zealand Taniwha, a scaly water beast with sharp teeth and magical powers.
Iran Azi Dahaka, demonic serpent dragon with three heads.
Greece Hydra, dragon with nine heads, which grew back twice as many if cut off.
Sweden Fafnir, evil dragon with black blood and venomous fumes. Hoarded treasure.
France La Tarasque, dragon that pooed on people. Had six legs, wings, a mane like a lion and a long scaly tail.
Egypt Apep, evil serpent that threatened to destroy the sun god, Ra
South America Quetzalcoatl, feathered serpent with colourful wings that flew off to become Venus.
India Naga, water-serpent that could have multiple heads and magically transform into a human form.
Africa Nana-Buluku, rainbow-serpent dragon that formed mountains with its droppings and rivers from writhing.
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Oriental Dragons
Dragons in the Bible
Mythical creatures including dragons feature in all religions, including Christianity. A talking serpent is in Genesis and flying serpents are in Isaiah.
Leviathan was a sea-serpent mentioned in Job, Isaiah and Psalms. Leviathan is described as an enormous, multi-headed, scaly, fire-breathing serpent who could make the sea boil.
Behemoth was a large bull-like beast that grazed on grass and had a tail that moved like a cedar tree.
Both Leviathan and Behemoth are monsters of Jewish folklore.
In the original KJV and Catholic bible, there is an account of Daniel and a dragon. Daniel fed the dragon a mixture of pitch, fat and hair which made it explode.
Many strange mythical creatures feature in the book of Revelation. The Apocalypse Dragon is described as a flying, red serpent dragon with 7 heads and 10 horns. It has a terrible hiss and likes to eats babies. It is identified as the devil or Satan (whose legend has evolved just like dragons have).
Similar creatures to Behemoth and Leviathan appear in Pagan Ugaritic mythology that predated Christianity and Judaism. Much of the Christian bible is borrowed from older religions of the Pagan Ugartics and Zorastrians.
Living Dragons
Why did people believe in dragons? Myths are stories that are partly true, but have been mostly made-up to sound more frightening or exciting. Stories were passed on from ancestors memories of things they feared but did not understand.
The most ancient dragons are serpents. Serpents are most likely based on snakes. Snakes are still revered in China and India.
Ancient humans may have found dinosaur bones and teeth and wondered where they came from.
They would have seen huge reptiles like crocodiles, iguanas, monitor lizards.
A giant squid with tentacles 10m (33 ft) long could be imagined as a dragon with many heads.
Ancient people were terrified of creatures like bats and aye ayes. People in medieval times were particularly superstitious and believed animals were evil spirits.
Oral stories were told for thousands of years before being written down. Details changed like in the game of chinese whispers. Stories were embellished and exaggerated.
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Modern Dragons
Most people these days realise dragons are mythical creatures. Dragons still feature in modern fantasy-fiction by authors like JK Rowling and JRR Tolkien.
The Chinese still celebrate their dragons. The dragon is the only mythical creature in the Chinese zodiac but is the most important. Dragon year is celebrated every 12 years. The next dragon year is 2012. Those born in a dragon year are said to be energetic, confident and good leaders.
Chinese feng shui dragon coins are said to bring you wealth, wisdom and protection if carried in your pocket. Dragon myths endure.
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SloneGal - glad you liked it. Was fun to reseach
Great ~ a fascinating topic and a fun hub!!
(I wrote a hub about St George)
Wow Bailybear- there is so much more out there on dragons than I thought there was! So fascinating. I really enjoyed reading the Hub!
Dear Baileybear,Excellent hub!
Another great hub. It is interesting that the dragon mythology spanned so many different cultures.There must be some deep-rooted psychological thing going on there...something in the imagery that struck a chord. The pictures are terrific. Well done BB.
Trish - is your hub still to be published? I didn't see it. I cut out some detail I had about St George.
Simone & olagkhumlo - glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully there was something fresh and interesting that you both learned
Jane - I've seen dogs and cats jump at the sight of a hose or a rope - must think it's a snake. My guess is humans have a deep-rooted fear of snakes, yet the most ancient cultures revered them also. Plus humans seem to enjoy scaring themselves silly with stories told for thousands of years before anything was written down. What I found fascinating, is that dragons and religions evolved together
Very detailed hub. You took a lot of trouble with this one.
My theory remains that our ancient ancestors saw huge skeletons of creatures they couldn't identify and they let their imaginations run wild. What skeletons? I would say the skeletons or partial skeletons of dinosaurs.
To explain what can't really be logically explained because you don't have enough background knowledge you need religion. Or so another theory goes. This also tells you how magic and magical thinking came about.
What an interesting hub. I found out just a few days ago that the military regiment "The Dragoons" were named after a type of gun, a wheellock rifle with a dragon carved on it - guns were frequently named after a beast to give them some feeling of menace, hence the gun carriers took the french word 'dragon'and became 'dragoons', then the whole regiment took on the name :-)
I love dragons! Great idea for a hub. I was born in the year of the dragon also and I wonder if it has anything to do with the Mayan Kulkucan and the 12-21-12 Popul Vu prophesy?
Rod - I'd say they found bones & teeth of dinosaurs too. I've just started reading about the alchemists. Many practised in secret, because they risked being burned at the stake by the church. The church believed cats were demons, so tossed all the cats they could find into fires. Then they got an overpopulation of rats & the black plague.
Bumpsy - it's amazing in how many places dragon references appear. At least 3 countries have dragons on their flags too
Austinstar - did the Mayan's prophesise the end of the world or did their calender just run out then? Guess there is a class in philosophies with the chinese & the mayans
Cats were considered to be witch's familiars, a kind of personal demon. Other creatures from time to time also were considered to have the role of familiar. At the beginning of the final great plague to hit London not only cats but dogs were killed off. By that time the theory was that rising miasma (stench) from dung and other impurities was responsible for the black death. Well, as in past times the extermination of lots of dogs as well as cats led to the rat population going wild.
Smoking was considered to be a way of possibly protecting one's self from the black death. Young children were even forced to take up smoking to keep them safe from the disease. The wealthy had the smoke of the dragon - opium.
The poor had to contend with tobacco.
Sweet smelling herbs were also used to ward off the plague. Bags of dried sweet smelling herbs were put into bags and tied around the neck - nose gays. The theory was that since the black swellings that are a sign of the plague stink something awful anything sweet smelling should counteract the stink and thus the plague. The idea of counteracting bad smells with good smells to keep disease at bay persisted into the 19th Century.
Rod - that last paragraph is what the pocket-full-of-posies is from the song 'ring-a-ring-of-rosies' about the black death - many of those nursery rhymes are morbid.
Guess some would be hallucinating about dragons after smoking opium
Yes, you are right about the pocket-full-of-posies song and about how many nursery rhymes date back to dark days.
Oh, yes opium could do that. Check out Confessions of an Opium Eater by Thomas De Quincy (1821).
This hub has been nominated for the Top of the Class contest. To vote, please go to http://hubpages.com/hub/HubPages-Top-of-the-Class-
Well Baileybear what a great Hub this is and I've definitely voted it up in the contest! I seem to have an affinity with Bunyips, I fell in love with them in my school days many, many years ago :-)
Wow Baileybear, this hub is graphically fantastic! That is a helluva lot of dragons!
agvulpes - actually the Bunyip was one of the inspirations for this hub - I hadn't heard of one before. It sounded like the NZ Taniwha. Plus people on the religious forum were debating whether bible dragons were real
earnestshub - this is really just scratching at the surface. And then there's all the other mythical creatures - hundreds of them! Those goannas (monitors) are amazingly big creatures, aren't they?
Excellent hub. Who ever knew there was so much to dragons. Thanks for the education.
toknowinfo - I learnt lots too. And I didn't even get time to read all the dragon mythology stories
Congrats, Baileybear! This Hub won Week 23 of the HubPages Top of the Class contest! It'll be featured on the Students page for the next three weeks :D
Awesome, Simone. Thanks!
There's heaps of info about dragons in books etc if anyone is interested in writing a more detailed series about dragons and/or other mythical creatures
Great Hub and congrats on the win. I was nominated this week so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Baileybear, congratulations on a very deserved Top of the Class win :-)
BigSean - thanks & congratulations on your nomination
agvulpes - thanks. Maybe you could write about the Bunyip? I didn't see much on the net about it
Congrats BB! Well done and well deserved.
thanks Jane.
Way cool hub! In Tonga, where I lived for thirteen years, they eat bats - they are definitely not afraid of them. Little boys catch them and show them to the tourists to impress them. Lately, with some movies for children, they seem quite friendly. Interesting hub.
elayne - eat them? Wow. The flying foxes (fruit bats) in Australia are quite cute - they have little dog faces.
Hi Baileybear,
Very interesting and informative hub about dragons. Keep up the good hubs.
Thanks, Mr Nice - glad you enjoyed it
Never heard of the Leviathan, I guess I need to read more.
Pamela - the Leviathan appears in Jewish mythology & earlier pre-biblical mythologies. According to the bible, God killed the Leviathan & fed it to the people. Many people take the bible literally
i've always been interested in dragons and this just fuels my interest even more! very curious how almost every culture around the world in ancient times had their own version of a dragon...much like they did with the faeries or "little folks". thanks for this wonderful piece. voted up and beautiful.
kitty - this hub was just a tiny snippet of the dragon mythology in culture. I was curious at how every culture has basically the same mythologies which is why I researched this hub
Fascinating, Baileybear. Very enlightening and entertaining.
On Egyptian dragons symbolizing evil, there is one story which portrays a golden dragon as helpful. In the story of the merchant prince, shipwrecked in a storm, a dragon rescues the lone survivor and nurses him back to health. The remarkable part of the story is that the dragon sometimes appeared as a dragon and sometimes as a man.
The story of Cadmus and the dragon is equally enigmatic. There, the hero (Cadmus, son of a Phoenician king) has given up his search for his sister, Europa (namesake of the continent), and has followed the advice of the Oracle at Delphi to found a great city (later known as Thebes, Greece). At the chosen location, Cadmus sends his men to retrieve some water. When they don't return, he sends the rest of his men. When they don't return, he investigates and finds them decimated in a field with a golden dragon resting at the far side. He attacks, and knocks out some of the dragon's teeth. Some versions have Athena suggesting he plant the teeth. Suddenly, up spring several soldiers who begin fighting amongst themselves. When their energy is spent, Cadmus talks them into helping him build his city. As they discuss this, the dragon silently flies away.
In the story of Jason and the Argonauts, Medea is the lovely princess of Colchis (modern Georgia). She helps Jason put the golden dragon to sleep in order for him to steel the golden fleece. She then follows her beloved back to Greece, but two children later, Jason betrays her for another woman. She then marries the king of Athens. And later, she is outcast by her new husband and is seen flying away on a golden dragon.
The story of the founding of Athens is also strange, because the founder, Cecrops, is half man, half snake.
Behind all of these stories might reside a real dragon. Could it be a mechanical aircraft which mastered the quiet technology of anti-gravity or spatial manipulation? Each of these stories takes on a more realistic quality when seen in this light.
The host of the Egyptian merchant prince may merely have been the dragon ship's captain.
Perhaps the soldiers who magically appeared out of nowhere next to Cadmus really came from the adjacent dragon ship. Cadmus thought it was a living, breathing creature, not realizing that it might be a hollow ship with soldiers as passengers.
And could it have been that Medea followed Jason back to Greece, flying the golden dragon ship stolen from the people she betrayed? And could she have used that same dragon to "wow" the king of Athens into marrying her? The same dragon ship on which she departed Athens in haste?
lonestar - yes, the dragons were believed to be real. People are captivated by dragons - someone good at writing fiction might make some good money spinning dragon tales
Hi, this was fascinating, its amazing how many cultures have dragons in their tales. Myths and legends always weave around dragons, and as you said many ancient people found dinosaur bones and presumed they were dragons, voted up! loved it! cheers nell
Nell, not only did they think dinosaur bones were from dragons, they thought they were from human giants
TheSloneGal 13 months ago
Very great info there Love things of the such could not have done a better job myself you wrote lots of details thanks.