The fierce dragon will surely receive additional attention with the broadcast of HBO's "Game of Thrones" prequel, "House of the Dragon." Dragons, whether they are two-legged or four-legged, fire-breathing or shape-shifting, scaled or feathered, enthral people all over the world with their fabled strength.
It shouldn't come as a surprise. Dragons were revered in many different religions long before "Harry Potter," "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," and other contemporary adaptations helped them become more well-known in the twenty-first century.
It has been discovered that dragons appear in almost every civilization, symbolically. The myth of dragons has been the subject of scientific investigation, yet its persistence is a testament to the narrative power and mystique of the creatures. Dragons are often used to represent chaos in the natural world.
Dragon lore is prevalent in all religions and cultures. In fact, there is a legendary motif that some academics refer to as Chaoskampf—a German term that translates as a war against chaos—across the vast majority of religions. This word, used by mythologists, describes a common theme that features a hero slaying a "monster" of the primordial chaos, frequently with serpentine or dragonlike traits and a gigantic size that dwarfs people.
One historical illustration can be found in the "Enma Eli," a creation text written in Babylonian between the years 2,000 and 1,000 B.C. In the story, Tiamat, the matriarch of the gods and a female primordial deity of salt water, gives birth to 11 different types of monsters, including the dragon.
Although Tiamat herself is never referred to as a "dragon," several of her offspring, or "monsters," comprise a variety of various dragon species and make explicit mention of her dragon offspring. Later, iconography changed so that she started to resemble a snake, connecting her to the dragon, another well-known clawed mythological predator. One of the four animals in Chinese mythology that represent directions and seasons is the dragon, lord of the scaly creatures.
Dragons in Chinese & Other Cultures
The dragon, known as Long in China, is appropriately a long-standing symbol of the country's rich cultural, spiritual, and social traditions. It is one of the four holy guardian animals that make up the Four Benevolent Animals and support imperial dynasties. They are also members of the Chinese zodiac. In ancient Chinese mythology, numerous varieties of these aquatic, intelligent, semi-divine entities are arranged in a hierarchy and make appearances in various indigenous traditions' genesis myths.
The reality of the dragon was not questioned when Jesuit missionaries reintroduced Christianity to China in the 16th century. Instead, they were identified with the Devil, a more modern theory. Dragons are now seen as emblems of power and enlightenment in the Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian traditions.
Additionally, dragons are depicted in Abrahamic texts, Germanic sagas, Anatolian religions, Sumerian mythology, Shinto beliefs, and Sumerian myths. The creature's frequent and significant appearance throughout many world religions and cultures begs the intriguing question: why did dragons even appear?
Symbolic Power
There has been a long-held idea that dragons have natural causes. The mythical creatures didn't actually exist, but they were likely inspired by fossils, surviving species, and geological features found in the natural world.
In a book on the subject, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and scientist Carl Sagan made the case that humans' need to combine reason with superstition, or the logical and the irrational, as a defence against actual predators, led to the genesis of dragons. His theories are an amplification of those that have been put forth since the 19th century or before when freshly discovered fossils were connected to dragon images all over the world.
The physical characteristics of dragons may be explained by the full or partial remains of various extinct species. Two academics, DorothyBelle Poli and Lisa Stoneman, even asserted in 2020 that the existence of dragons throughout the world may be related to the fossilised remains of Lepidodendron, a plant that resembles scales.
Given their physical similarities to various dragons, human experiences with flying lizards, oarfish, crocodiles, Saharan horned vipers, huge snakes, and specific kinds of reptiles and birds have all been suggested as potential explanations for dragon lore.
Additionally, natural geologic processes have been used by scholars to explain dragon lore, particularly when they are connected to catastrophes. For example, fire-breathing dragons may account for enigmatic fires that onlookers tried to explain away as the flame of a dragon.
If accidentally ignited, natural gas vents, methane produced by decomposing materials, and other sources of subsurface gas deposits can all result in a fire. Such occurrences were seen as signs of a dragon's presence until the mechanics of combustion were fully understood, giving the reason for the improbable.
Eternal Dragons
Dragons' continuing presence in our world may be due to the fact that they stand for the strength of nature. Tales of people subduing dragons can be interpreted as tales about humankind's capacity to rule over unpredictable entities.
The flawed assumption that humans are superior to all other animals in nature is furthered by one's ability to subdue a dragon. Dragons raise concerns about what it would imply if humans were compelled to reposition themselves as lower members of the food chain, challenging the idea of human biological superiority.
The terror and power of the dragon, in my opinion, create mystery and convey the idea that not all phenomena are simple to describe or understand. Maybe their enigma is what makes so many cultures revere them, and fully understanding their origins would rob us of their charm. As they say, sometimes the beauty is in not knowing!
Written By: Devika Mishra
Edited By: Nidhi Jha
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