Dragon: Encyclopedia - Dragon

Dragon

A dragon is a mythological creature, typically depicted as a large and powerful serpent or other reptile, with magical or spiritual qualities.

Dragon - Overview

The various figures now called dragons most likely have no single origin, but spontaneously came to be in several different cultures around the world, based loosely on the appearance of a snake and possibly fossilized dinosaur and Tertiary mammal megafauna remains.

Chinese dragons (among others) are generally seen as benevolent, whereas European dragons are usually malevolent. However, malevolent dragons are not restricted to Europe and also occur in Persian mythology (see Azi Dahaka) and other cultures.

Malevolent dragons are prominent figures in Christian belief. In Revelation 12:3, an enormous red dragon with seven heads is described, whose tail sweeps one third of the stars from heaven down to earth (held to be symbolic of the fall of the angels). In Revelation 12:9, Satan is identified as this "great red dragon", who was cast down to earth along with his angels.

The biblical dragon carries over thirty possible references, with the fire-breathing leviathan described in Job 41. Strong's Hebrew 03882: [1], 08568, 08577, and Greek 1404.

In iconography, some Christian Saints are depicted in the act of killing a dragon: for instance, Saint George in Egyptian Coptic iconography [2], at the coat of arms of Moscow, or, in Italy, Saint Mercurialis, who was the first bishop of the city of Forlì. In the Book of Job Chapter 41, the sea monster Leviathan, which has some dragonlike characteristics, is described as God talks about the "king of beasts" that lived upon the Earth at a former time. God fed Leviathan to Israel while they wandered in the wilderness for forty years (Psalm 74:14).

In medieval symbolism, dragons were often symbolic of apostasy and treachery, but also of anger and envy, and eventfully symbolised great calamity. Several heads were symbolic of decadence and oppression, and also of heresy. But they also served as symbols for independence, leadership and strength. Colours often determined what symbolism a dragon carried.

Dragons are often held to have major spiritual significance in various religions and cultures around the world. In many oriental cultures dragons were, and in some cultures still are, revered as representative of the primal forces of nature and the universe.

Some believe that the dragon may have had a real-life counterpart from which the legends around the world arose — typically dinosaurs are mentioned as a possibility — but there is no evidence to support this claim. Another less common claim is that they are based upon some sort of flying machines possessed by some ancient, unknown culture. Both of these hypotheses are pseudoscience.

Dragons are very popular in video games today, especially role-playing games, and are typically used as very powerful bosses and villains.

The word "dragon" should not be confused with dragoon (infantry that moves around by horse, yet still fight as foot soldiers). However, numerous fantasy settings (such as the Final Fantasy games) make varying degrees of association between dragons and the dragoon character class (such as in the helmet of a dragoon-class character), and in the game Panzer Dragoon in which the player flies about on a dragon.

Dragon - Dragons of myth and folkore

• Asian dragon
  • Chinese dragon
  • Indian dragon
  • Japanese dragon
  • Korean dragon
  • Persian dragon
  • Tibetan dragon
• European dragon
  • Celtic dragon
  • Egyptian dragon
  • Finnish dragon
  • French dragon
  • Greek dragon
  • Lindworm dragon
  • Norse dragon
  • Polish dragon
  • Serbian dragon
  • Slavic dragon
  • Romanian dragons (Zmeu and Balaur)
  • Tatar dragon
• Meso-American Dragon
• South American dragon
• Dragon Relatives
  • Wyvern

Dragon - Notable Dragons in modern literature and culture

• Puff the Magic Dragon, a poem, then song; dragons in children's culture.
• Smaug, from The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien
• Pernese dragons, from the books by Anne McCaffrey
• Dragons in Dungeons & Dragons and other fantasy role-playing games (e.g. Rêve de Dragon).
• Dragon Tales the animated children's series on PBS
• Dragon Ball Japanese anime loosely based on the Chinese Journey to the West novel.
• Dragon Booster, a futuristic sci-fi action/adventure series done with Computer-generated imagery (CGI).

See also

• List of dragons
• Draconity
• An Instinct for Dragons

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dragon", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki