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To a site dedicated to the mythical beast- the dragon.

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	Once upon a time when men were infancy and life was riddled with mystery and peril; it was the time of dragons . Dragons freely roamed the heavens and the earth; they existed everywhere and in every corner of the world, but did these serpent-like creatures truly exist? What are dragons? Where did they come from and what role did they play in society?

Currently, there is no scientific proof that dragons have ever lived, however ancestors had an unshakable belief them. Dragons were more then fictional characters and our ancestor�s beliefs in them were as solid as the heroes who faced them in combat. Nevertheless, does possessing an unweaving faith make them real? Did they simply exist in our ancestor�s minds and hearts? Were they simply an illustration of early men�s fears, which were nurtured by prehistoric wanderers and the unidentified creatures they meet in their travels? Have dragons survived through the generations because they are an embodiment of an �underlying principle of all morality-the eternal contrast and contest between Good and Evil, typified by the incessant struggle of man with the forces of nature and with his twofold self?� Over a thousand years ago, dragons were familiar creatures all over the world, and what they looked like and how they behaved was common knowledge. What may seem even more incredible was the fact that even over four hundred years ago dragon sightings were socially acceptable. There exist even references to dragons in their daily lives, such as this statement; �The dragon is eating the sun�. Another aspect that may have contributed to the belief in dragons and in medieval bestiary was Sir John Manderville, who �Travels� are based on fourteenth century east. An example of this was the descriptions of the deserts around the tower of Babylon as being filled with dragons, serpents, and various other venomous creatures. Other publications also displayed their beliefs in dragons such as the book �History of Four-footed Beast� which possessed a detailed section on dragons. As well, one of most truthful observers in thirteenth century may have unwillingly contributed to the beliefs in dragons, Marco Polo. Marco Polo while traveling in Caragian, wrote �of ferocious �serpents� two paces in length and thick as cask, with two squat forelegs near head, claws like a lion, enormous heads, eyes �bigger then loaves� and a mouth that could swallow a man in one gulp.� In reality, our ancestors may have seen dragons in unidentified creatures and in events they didn�t understand from raging storms to earthquakes. May haps, in today�s society much that what was unexplainable in our ancestor�s lives can now be explained, but the attraction to these beasts still exists today. There even exist those who call themselves �dragonologist� however dragonology is steeped with mythology and theories based on the Darwin�s theory of evolution. They claim that dragons could have existed that we just not discovered the scientific proof to back these claims, and that all myths have an element of truth within them. No matter if they did or didn�t exist, the fact remains that much of what is known about dragons is based on mythology, theories, and the fictional creation in the minds of writers. Were these earlier writings based in fact, and were they the first source to bring these creatures to life? The appearance of dragons in mythology is rich and vast crossing all cultural boundaries and appearing in all cultures from the Orient to Europe and even South American. Many of these myths possess common themes such as a hero or god overcoming a beast which is often shown to be serpent-like in appearance in the progress of creating the world or its destruction. The dragon often times represents evil, chaos, cruelty and destruction, a force to be overcome, dominated, controlled or destroyed. Since dragons often symbolized evil and primeval chaos in earlier stories, they are often linked with sea, water, and storms. The images of these creatures may reflect upon man�s fear of reptiles, snakes, and crocodiles. One of the first written myths displaying the dragon and a hero slaying a dragon is the Babylonian Creation Epic. Essentially, the epic begins by stating that in the beginning naught existed, not the land, gods, or men, only two elements existed, named Apsu and Tiamat. Apsu was a spirit of fresh water and the abyss, and Tiamat was a monster of chaos and a spirit of salt water. Tiamat is described as female with a scaly serpentine body, legs, and a horn on her head. She was designated as fearsome and chaotic, may haps this was a reflection of sexual discrimination and men�s fears. Their union was tempestuous and obscure at the best of times, and was described as being more cursed then blessed. They produced a brood of children that were an assortment of gods & goddesses to monsters. As the children grew up like all children do, they challenged their parents. Apsu did not like their children challenging them and planned on destroying them against Tiamat wishes, however one learned of Apsu�s plans and Ea struck first, overthrowing and killing Apsu. Tiamat in her grief and rage set out to avenge his death. She did this by producing a wide range of monstrous offspring which included giant serpents, roaring dragons, lion-demons, scorpion-men, and centaurs, but before her brood could set out on their path of destruction, one of her pervious children; Marduk challenged her in single combat. An epic battle occurred between the two, with Marduk slaying Tiamat and winning the battle. He took the tablets of destiny for his award and set himself up as the supreme ruler of the universe. With the table lets he created the heaven and earth, raising dry land, and assigning task to the other gods and goddesses as well as appointing the moon as the keeper of time, and with the blood of a slain god he created men. The earliest representation of Tiamat is an engraving on a cylinder-seal which shows her having a thick snake-like body, with two arm-like appendages, its tongue is extended and its head is crowned with one goat-like horn. She may be the earliest representation of a dragon, and may be linked to even the fish-god Ea, who slewed her mate, Apsu for in one reference he was described as being a composition of a creature with a fish�s body and tail. He was a water-god who governed over all waters on earth. However this but one description of her, for another suggestion that she was a creature with the head, shoulders and forelimbs of a lion, a body covered with scaly feathers, two wings, the hind legs like those of an eagle, and protruding, deeply forked tongue like that of a snake. But no matter, what description is accepted, she still is the embodiment of a dragon, and is the first written reflection of one. However, she is hardly the only such creature that appears in myths for each culture possessed their own myths and descriptions of dragons. There existed Sito in Egypt which was often depicted in the form of a circle, holding its own tail in its mouth and as such in Egyptian myths it was common for gods and goddesses to change their form, and have often been depicted in human guise, or part human, part animal, or serpent-like. A local goddess of Thebes, Meretseger often appears as a snake with a human head that punished those who were bad with a poisonous bite. Others were Sobek, a crocodile god of rivers and lakes, Apep or Apop who was a serpent-dragon who everyday attempted to engulf the sun in darkness, and sometimes when he succeeded would cause a solar eclipse. Many of these serpent-like gods and goddesses were both feared and honored, but the mythology that is probably most known is the Greek. The most striking element of Greek mythology is the human frailty. Each god and goddess of ancient Greece had their own distinctive personalities. They were immortal but possess all the vices and virtues of men from the inclination to get angry, petulant, jealous or drunk, however they were more then interesting stories for the origins lay in the incarnation of the process of creation. In the beginning was Chaos, who in turn gave birth to the others, the first being Gaea, the Earth, and in turn she gave birth to Uranus, the sky and with him she borne Chronos, Time, and Rhea. Together it was Time and Rhea who gave birth to the Olympian gods, as in other cultures some of the gods and goddesses were seen as monsters, more to point it was the union between Gaea and Tartarus, the underworld who produced a race of monsters, whose relationships were to prove tortuous to those of the upper world. Two of their offspring�s that were fearsome monsters were Echidna and Typhon. Echidna was half woman and half serpent, and she was granted perpetual youth. Typhon, who is sometimes identified with the Egyptian demon-god Seth, manifested himself as a powerful and destructive whirlwind, now known today as a typhoon. He was a creature that towered over the mountains and occasionally it was said that his head brushed against the stars. He was said to posses a man�s form from head to thigh, but he sprouted a hundred dragons� heads and had numerous wings; his longer limbs were large coiling serpents. He was a mighty destructive force, however Zeus was the one god who stood against him with his thunderbolts and a sickle made of adamant he began to pelted the beast. The breast fled with Zeus in hot pursues, and it was said that their struggle created the great furrows that became the riverbeds of the near east. However, Typhon was able to wrestle the sickle from Zeus, cutting off Zeus� hands and feet and imprisoning him in a cave which was guarded by a ferocious she-dragon, Delphyne. Using tricky, two of Zeus� sons were able to reach their father, renewing his strength and freeing him. Once free he began to attack Typhon again with his thunderbolts, and in the end, Zeus was able to trap Typhon in the Underworld where he threw Mount Etna on top of him. Still, like other myths of creation a ferocious monster, partly dragon and symbolizing chaotic storms is confronted by a god. The god is a weather god who uses thunderbolts as a weapon that is able to assert his supremacy among the gods. An offspring of Typhon and Echidna�s was the Hydra, who was slain by one of Zeus� bastard children, Hercules. Hercules was more of a victim of Hera�s jealousy, who had been driven mad by her and killed his own children, and atonement for this deed, he went into exile and into the service of his cousin, the King of Mycenae, who assigned Hercules the twelve labors. The second of his labors was to kill the Hydra. The Hydra had a dog-like or snake-like body and many leonine heads. The actual number of heads range from seven to fifty or more depending upon the legend known, however the fact that remains is that as he killed each head another would quickly take its place only with the assistance of Iolaos� was he able to defeat the Hydra. Another classical dragon-slayer of legend was Cadmus, who encounters a dragon while attempting to recover his sister Europa from the clutches of Zeus. He followed the directions of the Delphic oracle arriving to an area that later becomes the site for the city of Thebes. In this area the only water source was a spring that was sacred to Ares, the god of war, and was guarded by Ares� son, a ferocious dragon. In the legend, it is the Goddess Athena who advises Cadmus to extract the dragon�s teeth and sow them in the ground which he does; only a host of armed warriors appears. Cadmus tricks them and they attack each other, however for his award, Cadmus was turned into a serpent. These dragon�s teeth later appear in the life of Jason, who was the hero that was questing for the Golden Fleece. The fleece was guarded by a sleeping dragon, and some legends say that Jason had been swallowed by the sleeping and rescued by either the Goddess Athena or by the enchantress Medea, who he later married. In the end, the dragon had been lured back to sleep and Jason was able to claim the Golden Fleece. By the Middle Ages, the dragon haunted everyday life and became destined to play a role much more malevolent and terrifying role in men�s imaginations. The Middle Ages lead to the replacement of Gods and heroes by saints and knights in the struggle against the dragon, and the images of dragons may reflect the terrifying collapse of civilization into barbarism and violence. The dragon emerged from the Dark Ages stronger then ever, and may haps they bare influences from the East into the West, north and south. In the myths of the Nordic the dragons reflect their earthly setting for dragons were believed to often lurk in the cold sea or in gloomy lakes, to be glimpsed or imagined amid storms or fogs, adding peril to a harsh land. It is said that at the dawn of time only a yawning abyss stretched through space, and from this, land and water emerged. The first living creature was the giant Ymir, who alone gave birth to a man and woman. In this place, a central feature was an enormous ash tree called Yggdrasil, who supported the nine realms, that of gods, elves, dwarves, humans, the dead, and so on. It is said that the tree had three roots that reached into the worlds; Asgard, a walled city in which each god had a mansion; Midgard, where men lived, and Niflheim, which was dark and gloomy underworld. It was in Niflheim where the first lair of the Nordic dragon lived, called Nidhogger or as he was known as �Dread Biter�, who gnawed at the root of the universal tree, threatening to destroy it. As in earlier myths of dragons and gods, the slaying of the dragon brings forth change, but here, there is a difference for in Nordic myths the destruction of the dragon brings forth the apocalypse and then the re-creation of life. Oddly enough there is a resemblance between this and the Christian vision of Apocalypse provided by St. John the Divine in his revelations where the dragon is cast down as the world ends and �a new heaven and a new earth� replaces it. Nevertheless, the Nordic myth is unique in sense that the cataclysm of the Ragnarik is part of an eternal cycle of creation, destruction and re-creation. Again, a change between the Nordic myths and those that came before is the fact that mortal men could face the dragon as well, as in the tale of Sigurd and the Dragon Fafnir. He was not alone in the heroic profession of dragon-slaying for there was also the Old English epic Beowulf, which records the slaying of dragons by Sigurd�s father, Sigmund and by Beowulf himself. In both incidents, the dragon was a guardian of great treasure and a treasure sought by men. The fearful image of a dragon during the Middle Ages was possibly a driving point of morality for the simple churchgoers then any argument based on theology. Dragons were often used to illustrate doctrinal issues, such as the seven-headed dragon of the Apocalypse. This dragon was believed to represent not just evil, but more specifically, the persecution of the True Church by its foes. Each part of the dragon held a meaning such as the body stood for all the sinners, the tail was the Last Tribulation, and each of the seven heads stood for Herod, Nero; Constantine Arianus, the Persian king Cosdroe, Saladin, one of the kings of Babylon, lastly the �the great tyrant� whose coming is foretold in the Apocalypse. Many of decorations chosen for churches encouraged belief in this breast from murals, stained-glass windows, and the placement of terrible monsters such as Gargoyles, griffins and other beast on the eaves and porticoes. The remains of European dragons as with those of India and China were thought to be useful in a number of varying ways. In the medieval era it was believed that the dragons possess a precious gem called Dracontias in their heads, which was beleived to possess magical properties. Almost all other componenst of the dragon�s body was invaluable and they were said to cure many of the ills of the flesh. It was believed that by burying a dragon�s head under a house that it would bring good fortune, and that dragon fat �dryed in the sunne� was proof against creeping ulcers, for repelling all matter of pest, and if mixed with honey and oil would cure dimness of the eyes . The tongue, eyes, gall, and intestines when boiled in wine and oil, cooled by nocturnal air, and rubbed on night and morning, dispersed troublesome �night-visions and apparitions.� Supposedly the skin of dragons was useful in cooling the passions of lovers, and may have been added to some love potions and charms. However, the one element of the dragon that was most prized was dragon�s blood. Dragon�s blood was a staple of medieval magic and was said to cure Kidney stones and blindness. Due to the need to have dragon products, it developed into a successful trade, and many traders falsely created products that were supposedly made from dragons such as the presenting the flying dragon skeleton to Cardinal Barberini by King Louis XIII of France. However, one would have thought that the belief in dragons would have faded during the Renaissance, for during the Renaissance many questioned old beliefs, and thought to explore beyond the boundaries they knew, Alchemy for example, was largely displaced by genuine fledging science and astrology was superseded by astronomy. Strangely enough, the dragon survived the age of questions, and was for the most part thought of as a real living creature. It was during this time that Edward Topsell�s book, �the history of four-footed beastes� was published. The book was essentially a translation of Conrad Gesner�s Book �Historia animalium� and included a detailed section on dragons and serpents. Other publications such as �The Principall Navigations, Voiages,and Discoveries of the English Nation� by Richard Hakluyt, printed in 1589 who spoke of the war between dragons and elephants as he had traveled through Africa. Essentially, the age of questions did little to display belief in dragons, but instead for the most encouraged it. Even in the later years to come as we enter into the modern age, the belief in dragons still exist. One can not help but wonder, what basic needs do dragons fill in our nature? May haps, what our ancestors knew as dragons were dying embers of an extinct creature, or a miscalculation of other creatures still known to us today. Yet, ultimately, the dragon does exist; it exists in our hearts, minds, and imagination.

		Feb 17, 2005 "What is a Dragon?" is complete, and before today is over with "Dragon's Life should be complete as well as the links pages. The site is coming togather nicely, and I hope that all dragon lovers enjoy the site. Thank you for visiting. Feb 16, 2005 Have begun adding the other pages, and all of them have links to their pages with material to be added to them shortly, so please check back again. Feb 15, 2005 The site is still infancy, but I hope to have a lot of material on the site, so please check back often. Thank you.

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