From China to the Mediterranean and More, Here’s How Different Cultures Envision Dragons

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From China to the Mediterranean and More, Here’s How Different Cultures Envision Dragons

The mythical beasts have fired up cultures around the world.
Bridgeman Images

Humans have been telling stories of dragons for millennia. Depending on the region of the world, a dragon might be a **** or a monster, a bringer of water or *****, or a figure of fortune or ******. These scaly, mythical creatures appear in the lore of countless societies, from the pool-dwelling, peaceable dragons of the East to the fiery, venomous demons of the West.

As anthropologist David E. Jones theorized in his 2000 book,

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, dragon stories may be linked to

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of snakes and other dangerous animals. Anatomically unfamiliar and sometimes venomous, snakes are one of the most

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phobias. Our ***** of them was hard-wired through evolution, as evidenced by primates’ natural aversion to serpents. Jones argued that the idea of the dragon “was formed by the nature of our own shadowy progenitors’ encounters with the creatures who hunted them over millions of years.” In the centuries since, tales of the mythical beasts have spawned

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, iconic literature and entertainment franchises alike.

But while the otherworldly dragons, lizards and giant serpents scattered throughout cultural history may share scales, fangs and tails, their abilities—as well as their reputations—vary. These are some of the world’s most prevalent dragon myths.

China

A 16th-century Ming dragon medallion

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Dragons’ claws plunge 4,000 years deep into ******** culture. In Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism, these legged, fanged serpents are not *****-breathers, but rather

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who bring rain and breathe clouds from their nostrils. Said to reside at the bottoms of pools and lakes, dragons symbolized majesty and power in ancient China. As one scholar

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in the 11th century, “None of the animals is so wise as the dragon.” During China’s Han dynasty, emperors co-opted dragon imagery, using the symbol to

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to the monarchy.

To this day, the dragon ******** an important ******** cultural symbol. A substance known as

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(crafted from the fossilized ******** of prehistoric creatures) is still an ingredient in traditional medicine. Every year, ******** New Year parades are anchored by colorful

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held aloft by puppeteers.

Japan

An Edo ******* painting of a ********* dragon

National Museum of ****** Art

To the east in Japan, mythical snake-like beasts don’t enjoy quite the same reputation as in China. The most famous such ********* monster is perhaps

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, an eight-headed serpent. According to

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mythology, the creature resembled a giant snake-dragon hybrid, embodying

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, sorrow and destruction. Orochi moved across Japan, menacing its people and thriving on a diet of humans—specifically, ******* ******. Like most famed dragons, he was due for a slaying.

Legend

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that Orochi conducted his last reign of ******* in the region of Izumo, where he demanded one girl for each of his eight mouths. Orochi’s conduct earned him the disdain of even the Shinto trickster ****,

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, who formed a plan of revenge. The **** lured Orochi to a place where the serpent thought eight fresh virgins were waiting for him—a veritable feast. Instead, he found eight ***** of

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set out by Susanoo. Orochi consumed the wine and became very ******. While the serpent was vulnerable, the trickster **** cut off his heads.

India

An illustration of Indra ******** Vritra

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One of Hinduism’s most fearsome antagonists is

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, leader of the dasas—demonic creatures with innumerable eyes and heads. Often depicted as a three-headed dragon, Vritra was an anti-**** who prevented and snuffed out life through many means. Like his ******** counterparts, this dragon was a keeper of water, but he took the task more literally. Vritra withheld rain, causing drought and ******. He also stole and ate

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, sacred animals symbolic of divine goodness in Hinduism. And sometimes, Vritra hid the sun.

According to the

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, an Indian text dated to more than 3,000 years ago, the Hindu deity

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, king of the gods, defeated Vritra’s misanthropic habits once and for all. To end the draconic ******’s droughts, Indra battled and ******* Vritra, freeing the rain, enabling sunlight and creating a new order.

The Middle East

Tiamat, a Mesopotamian goddess sometimes portrayed as a serpent or dragon

Alamy

The ancient people of

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—a region that stretched over what’s now Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey—believed the world began with a dragon slaying. In a Mesopotamian creation myth, the **** Marduk battled the goddess Tiamat, mother of the gods and embodiment of the sea, sometimes portrayed as a serpent or dragon. Marduk drove an arrow through Tiamat’s heart, then split her body in two, creating the heavens from one piece and the earth from the other. In the popular roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons, a five-headed, draconic deity bears the goddess’ name.

The slightly newer legends of Persia—the region now known as Iran—employ dragons in a more familiar way: as earthly monsters cut down by humans, often in service of helpless ******. Such stories cemented heroic reputations for a select few Persian men. In the

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, or The Book of Kings—an epic history of Iran’s ancient rulers—

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, a king of the ancient

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, slayed dragon-like beasts known as azi. In another story, the hero Thraetaona ******* an azi named Dahaka, rescuing a shepherd’s two daughters who’d been abducted by the ******. In yet

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, a prince named Isfandiyar defeated a *****-breathing, coiled dragon in one of seven challenges he had to complete to free his captive sisters.

The Mediterranean

An artist’s depiction of a dragon fighting an elephant

Alamy

Dragons and evil serpents are recurring figures in classical literature of ancient Greece and Rome. The genre’s most notable monster is the Hydra, defeated by

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(also known as Heracles) of Greek myth and

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.

Hercules, a *********son of Zeus,

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his wife and children while under the influence of a curse by his jealous stepmother, Hera. As punishment, he was ordered to complete 12 labors, the

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of which was ******** the Hydra, a nine-headed, serpentine monster that lived in the swamps of Lerna. Accompanied by his nephew, Iolaus, Hercules lured the ****** out of the water by ********* flaming arrows at it. During the hand-to-scale combat that followed, the Hydra wrapped its tail around Hercules’ foot. The hero tried to avoid the monster’s venom-filled fangs while striking its heads with his club. Each time Hercules snuffed one out, two more heads grew in its place, forcing the demigod and his nephew to come up with an alternative strategy. As Hercules cut off the Hydra’s heads, Iolaus cauterized the stumps with a burning torch to prevent new growth, allowing the pair to defeat the monster.

The Roman historian

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wrote a good deal about dragons, too, once

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that the ****** could strangle an elephant with its tail. While this description resembles the abilities of an earthly python, even that powerful, squeezing snake couldn’t accomplish such a feat. And Pliny wasn’t exactly an authority on animal facts: He also recorded the traits and habits of the

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.

Western Europe

Saint George and the Dragon, Paolo ********, circa 1470

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The dragons that permeate modern Western literature share few characteristics with their ancient ******** counterparts. China’s dragons are respected, majestic and life-bringing, while Europe’s are pure evil and nuisance. They’re malevolent, greedy, fiery and sometimes even

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.

The archetypal ********* dragon hails from the north. A

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creature that flies by flapping its leathery wings, the dragon possesses a fearsome, lizard-like face and tail, and it breathes ***** to get its way. These dragons love treasure, and when they find some, they guard it with their lives.

Perhaps the oldest and most influential dragon in Western literature comes from the Old English epic poem

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. The story’s horde-guarding ****** “flies by night encircled by *****,” according to

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. After a man stole from its treasure, the enraged dragon began to wreak havoc on a village. The epic poem’s eponymous hero, then an aging warrior, stepped in. He and his companion managed to pierce the ******’s soft underbelly with blades, but not before it bit Beowulf in the neck, inflicting a fatal wound. “He at once understood that the poison within [the dragon’s] ******* welled up with deadly evil,” the translation states.

The dragon featured in Beowulf has inspired many modern Western epics. Readers of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit will recognize similar traits in the talkative dragon Smaug. Witches and wizards are tasked with stealing from treasure-protecting beasts in J.K. Rowling’s

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. And fans of George R.R. Martin’s

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series might recognize the same anatomical attributes in the “children” of Daenerys Targaryen. As all such stories illustrate, humans’ near-universal, ancient interest in fangs and scales has yet to fade.

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Filed Under:

Ancient Greece,

Ancient Rome,

China,

********* History,

folklore,

India,

Japan,

Legend,

Middle East ,

Myth,

Pop culture,

Religion

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#China #Mediterranean #Heres #Cultures #Envision #Dragons

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