Dragon

Dragon, a fabulous reptilian monster in European and Oriental legend and mythology, similar to a crocodile and usually represented as having wings, huge claws, a serpent's tail, and fiery breath. In the ancient Near East, the dragon symbolizes evil and destruction. This conception is found, for example, in Enuma Elisha, a Mesopotamian creation epic written in about 2000 bc. One of the central figures of the legend is the goddess Tiamat, a dragon-like personification of the oceans, who headed the hordes of chaos and whose destruction was prerequisite to an orderly universe. In Egyptian belief, Apophis, dragon of darkness, was vanquished every morning by Ra, the sun god.

In the sacred writings of the ancient Hebrews, the dragon frequently represents death and evil. Christianity inherited the Hebraic conception of the dragon, and it is this one that figures in the major apocalyptic literature of the Bible (notably the Book of Revelation) and that appears in later Christian traditions. In Christian art, the dragon is a symbol of sin. Representations of it as crushed under the feet of saints or martyrs symbolize the triumph of Christianity over sin, and therefore paganism. The legend of St George and the dragon relates directly to this concept.

In Classical mythology, the dragon is associated with guardianship; the dragon of Ladon guards the golden apples in the garden of the Hesperides (a role taken up in medieval romance, where dragons often guard captive maidens). The Greeks and Romans also believed that dragons had the ability to understand and to convey to mortals the secrets of the Earth.

Both beneficent and terror-inspiring dragons feature in the folklore of the pagan peoples of northern Europe. In the Nibelungenlied, Siegfried kills a dragon and gains invulnerability by smearing his body in dragon's blood. One of the principal episodes of Beowulf also deals with combat with a dragon. The ancient Norsemen adorned the prows of their vessels with carved likenesses of dragons. Among the Celtic conquerors of Britain the dragon was a heraldic emblem, the symbol of sovereignty, and became a military standard during the Roman occupation in the 1st century bc. It also appeared on the shields of the Teutonic peoples that later invaded Britain, and it featured on the battle standards of English kings as late as the 16th century. Today it forms part of the armorial bearings of the Prince of Wales.

In the mythology of various Oriental countries, notably Japan and China, the dragon is the supreme spiritual power, the most ancient emblem in Oriental mythology and the most ubiquitous motif in Oriental art. Dragons represent celestial and terrestrial power, wisdom, and strength. They reside in water and bring wealth and good luck and, in Chinese belief, rainfall for crops. The dragon in traditional Chinese New Year's Day parades is believed to repel evil spirits that would spoil the new year. The five-clawed dragon became the Chinese Imperial emblem (the four-clawed being the common dragon). The three-clawed dragon is the Japanese dragon.

In Hindu mythology, Indra, god of the sky and giver of rain, slays Vitra, Dragon of the Waters, to release rainfall.