Many fairytales and legends also have dragons acting as guardians of large treasures or mystical items, making them popular opponents in fantasy games where heroes have to defeat one or more dragons in order to obtain the items it has been guarding, some stories take the role of guardian even further and have dragons acting as guardians of nature itself. These dragons were said to live in water or in wells and they often grew so large that brave heroes were called upon to slay them and save livestock or people from their often immense appetites.Īs with many characters in folklore, dragons may have been symbolic, a way of expressing how brave a hero was by having them defeat a seemingly unconquerable foe (in a similar fashion as Giants were often used to symbolize the defeat of bigger enemies, such as military powers or invaders).ĭragons have also been given a malevolent role in the scriptures of many religions, especially Christianity, due to their serpentine nature, they are often associated with the Devil and indeed one of the many forms given to the Devil is that of a dragon: he is also said to take the form of a large serpent (as he had done in the Garden of Eden). Sometimes, a dragon was not a winged reptile but rather a gigantic snake, known as a "Wyrm".
480–470 BC showing Athena observing as the Colchian dragon disgorges the hero Jason. Other examples of dragons as antagonists in fairytales can be found in stories such as Sleeping Beauty, in which the evil fairy transforms herself into a gigantic dragon (a scene made famous by Disney in their adaptation of the fairytale, in which Maleficent's final form is a large black dragon).Īttic red-figure kylix painting from c. One of the most famous examples of this type of story was Saint George and The Dragon, in which the brave knight went forth to slay a fearsome dragon to save a beautiful princess from its terrible grasp, this story became so popular that it has inspired innumerable adaptations in film and literature. Illustration of a winged, fire-breathing dragon by Friedrich Justin Bertuch from 1806.ĭragons were originally depicted as giant fire-breathing snakes, often with wings and they would stand as the ultimate opponent to a brave knight or ancient hero. The Greek and Latin term referred to any great serpent, not necessarily mythological, and this usage was also current in English up to the 18th century. The word dragon entered the English language in the early 13th century from Old French dragon, which in turn comes from Latin draconem (nominative draco) meaning "huge serpent, dragon", from the Greek word δράκων, drakon (genitive drakontos, δράκοντος) "serpent, giant seafish".
4 Animals that may have inspired Dragons.
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