The widespread image of the dragon as a monstrous reptile with powerful wings, sharp claws and the ability to breathe fire from its jaws owes its origins to medieval Western iconography. However, the animal appears in art and symbolism much earlier, reflecting multiple and deeply rooted popular beliefs. A clue to its mythical and distant origins can be found in the etymology of its name: dragon comes from the archaic Greek drákōn, meaning the being “with sharp eyes”1. The ancients believed that the animal had highly developed eyesight. The term also has a metaphorical meaning, however: the dragon is able to penetrate the human mind and understand instincts and reasoning, and is the guardian of nature’s secrets.
The dragon in mythology
For the Greeks, the drákōn was also the serpent, an animal with a fixed gaze because has no eyelids. This attribute explain a certain parallelism in the symbolic meaning of the two beasts during the Middle Ages. In ancient times, dragons did not have well-defined physiological attributes. Rather, they represented something monstrous and indistinct, symbolising the fear of chaos in nature. Generally, however, Greek myths depict dragons as large, crawling reptiles, rarely winged or multi-headed. They are often custodians of sacred places, as primordial guardians of treasures and wisdom2. Examples include the hundred-headed Ladon, who guarded the golden apples in the Garden of the Hesperides3; the Lernaean Hydra, a water dragon with poisonous breath4; and Python, a huge snake who protected the Oracle of Delphi5.
In ancient Western mythology, dragons embodied primordial chaos, which was in opposition to the cosmogonic order of creation. They were often the enemies of gods and heroes, charged with vanquishing them. In Eastern mythology, however, the dragon possesses positive attributes. In China, for example, it is a highly symbolic animal, connected to royalty and power. It is also the embodiment of yang, the masculine principle of fertility. For this reason, Chinese invoke the dragon during periods of drought. As the creator of the cosmos, it possesses the characteristics of all living beings: the body of a snake, the jaws of an alligator, the legs of a rooster, the horns of a deer and the barbels of a catfish.
The dragon in early documentary sources
The ancients questioned the existence of dragons. In the Historia animalium, Aristotle attempted a rational approach. He confined this mythical creature to the realm of fiction or to the representation of a large snake. In his Naturalis historia, Pliny the Elder reconstructed some of the dragon’s naturalistic aspects through stories from various parts of the known world6. According to the Roman historian, it was a snake that fed on elephants and originated from Ethiopia and India.
“Elephants are produced by Africa beyond the deserts of Sidra and by the country of the Moors; also by the land of Ethiopia and the Cave-dwellers, as has been said; but the biggest ones by India, as well as serpents that keep up a continual feud and warfare with them, the serpents also being of so large a size that they easily encircle the elephants in their coils and fetter them with a twisted knot. In this duel both combatants die together, and the vanquished elephant in falling crushes with its weight the snake coiled round it”7.
Pliny, Naturalis historia, VIII, 11.
At the dawn of the Middle Ages, therefore, there was a rich tradition that drew on Latin texts, oral tales from the East, and, last but not least, Christian sources from the early centuries. In the Apocalypse of Saint John, the dragon is the serpens antiquus, the tempter who led Adam and Eve to commit the original sin. It therefore has the attributes of the biblical adversary, the devil:
“And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him”.
Book of Revelation 12, 7-9
The Physiologus and Christian sources
This diverse combination of knowledge about dragons, blending religion and naturalism, found its way into medieval bestiaries, illustrated texts containing symbolic and Christian interpretations of real and fantastical animals. As early as the Greek Physiologus, a work from the 2nd-3rd century AD by an Alexandrian author8, considered the progenitor of this literary category, moral attributes began to be associated with beasts. The vices and virtues of humans were projected onto animal figures. Thus, they became a reflection of the different facets of the soul, representing good and evil. In the Greek Physiologus, the dragon is the enemy of all animals and has Christological connotations:
“Physiologus said: the stag is an enemy of the dragon; when the dragon flees into cracks in the earth, the stag drinks from a stream and spits the water into the crack, driving out the dragon. The stag then stamps on the dragon, killing it. In the same way our Lord also killed the great dragon that was in heaven with the waters of heavenly words of wisdom”.
The Physiologus9.
This interpretation has shaped the Western conception of dragons to this day. It formed the basis of literary works by many subsequent exegetes. These included, Augustine of Hippo10, John of Damascus, who described devils as enormous flying dragons11, and Isidore of Seville. In his 7th-century Etymologiae sive Origines12, Isidore draws on the accounts of Pliny the Elder and the Physiologus to establish the dragon’s features in the collective imagination and Christian iconography:
“The dragon is larger than all serpents, as well as animals on earth […], it is said to be often drawn from its den into the air, which is stirred up because of him. He is crested, with a small face, and narrow tubes through which he draws his breath and moves his tongue. His power is not in his teeth, but in his tails, and he kills with a lash, rather than with his gaping jaws. […] Even with the magnitude of its body, an elephant is not safe from him”.
Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae sive Origines, XII, translation by P. Throop, Isidore of Seville’s Etymologies: Complete English Translation, 2005.
The Liber monstrorum de diversis generibus and the symbolism of the dragon in medieval bestiaries
In medieval writings, the dragon is an evil figure with defined attributes that are believed to be real. The 8th-century collection of fantastical creatures from the Anglo-Saxon world, the Liber monstrorum de diversis generibus13, reiterates that it lives in India. It states that the monster has two or more crested heads, possesses deadly breath and destroys everything. Prior to the 13th century, dragons appeared as large snakes in most manuscripts, paintings, and sculptures, only sometimes winged. It often has seven heads, as described in the Book of Revelation, six of which are on its back14.
During the Middle Ages, dragons were also sculpted onto the portals of places of worship for apotropaic purposes. Thus, it was believed that evil would remain confined to the outside. The dragon marking the threshold between the profane world and the sacred space, as in ancient myths.
The spread of eschatological symbolism and evil attributes associated with the animal is due to the literary popularity of bestiaries. From the 12th century onwards, many illustrated texts incorporated it into their descriptions for moral purposes. Examples include De bestiis et aliis rebus by Pseudo-Hugh of Saint Victor (12th century)15 and the Bestiaire by Pierre de Beauvais (13th century)16. The dragon’s depiction also became more complex. It acquired multiple heads, each with its own neck17, membranous wings and the ability to breathe fire. This characteristic may have been adopted from the East due to growing political and commercial interactions.
The fight against the dragon
In both mythology and the arts, dragons are often depicted as being involved in eschatological battles. According to biblical texts, Michael the Archangel defeats the dragon-serpent as commander of the heavenly armies. This Christian reinterpretation of ancient myths depicts the struggle between the hero and the beast. Michael is charged with restoring universal order, embodying providence and justice. Jacopo da Varazze was inspired by him to describe the struggle between Saint George and the dragon in the 13th-century Golden Legend18.
The Golden Legend by Jacopo da Varazze embodies the chivalric ideals of the Middle Ages, an era defined by the Crusades in the Holy Land. George, a soldier and martyr during the reign of Diocletian (284-305), became a symbol of Christ triumphing over the enemy. The dragon symbolises the devil, an insatiable devourer of souls who destroys and covets everything, but also the enemies of the Christian faith. The iconography here is both eschatological and political. It represents the prophecy of the end of time, the parousia, when Christ will return to vanquish evil, and the supremacy of the Church over other religions. Ultimately, the fight against the dragon is a metaphor for the life of every Christian and the clash between faith and temptation19.
Samuele Corrente Naso
Notes
- L. Rocci, Vocabolario Greco-Italiano, edizione 1995. ↩︎
- E. Pottier, Draco, in Dictionnaire des antiquités grecques et romaines, II, 1, Paris 1892. ↩︎
- Hesiod, Theogony, 333. ↩︎
- Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca, I-II secolo d.C. ↩︎
- Ovid, Metamorphoses, I, 438-462. ↩︎
- Pliny, Naturalis historia, VIII,11-13. ↩︎
- Pliny, Natural history, with an English translation in ten volumes, volume III, by H. Rackham, M. A., Fellow of Christ’s college, Cambridge, 1967. ↩︎
- A. Scott, The date of the Physiologus, Vigiliae Christianae, 52, 1998. ↩︎
- Translation by D. Badke, Sancti Epiphanii ad Physiologum, University of Victoria, link. ↩︎
- St Augustine Gospels, 6th century. ↩︎
- John of Damascus, Opusculi de draconibus et strygibus fragmentum, in J. P. Migne, Patrologia Graeca, 94, 1864. ↩︎
- Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae sive Origines, XII – De animalibus, 5. ↩︎
- Liber Monstruorum de diversis generibus, De serpentibus, 6. ↩︎
- See, for example, the illustrations of the Revelation, 9th century, Trier, Stadtbibl., 31, cc. 9r, 38r, 39r. ↩︎
- Pseudo-Hugh of Saint Victor, De bestiis et aliis rebus, Firenze, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Conv. soppr. F.7.339, ff. 73va-94va. ↩︎
- C. Rebuffi, Il “Bestiaire” di Pierre de Beauvais. Edizione critica, Pavia, 1971-72. ↩︎
- Bodleian Library, Auct. D. 4.17, c. 8v. ↩︎
- Jacopo da Varagine, Legenda aurea, c. 1290. ↩︎
- M. P. Ciccarese, Animali simbolici. Alle origini del bestiario cristiano, Vol. 2, Bologna Edizioni Dehoniane, Bologna, 2007. ↩︎
