Dragon - the monster of pure imagination

By Amal Hewavissenti

A myriad of myths associated with strange creatures, monsters or dragons with magical and sometimes terrible powers has enthralled our stress laden minds. These myths focus on the horrible nature of the monsters and creatures specially on humans or gods who have battled with them and won or outwitted them with their excellent tricks.

For thousands of years, the fire-breathing dragons have lived in people's imagination. Most interestingly, dragons were illustrated to be an unearthly combination of features of many different animals such as the scaly body and elongated tail of a typical reptile, claws of lions, wings similar to those of a bat and hideous jaws of a crocodile.

In legendary account - when dragons were not kidnapping princesses or terrorising villages - these solitary monsters were believed to be living in caves where they guarded great treasures. Dragons around the world cultures are portrayed in myths and legends and ancient depictions of dragon like creatures have been identified among the carvings in Ishtar gate in Babylon, the prehistoric writings in Egypt and specially in Chinese paintings.

Mythology

In conventional Greek mythology, the famous "Chimera" was a hellish dragon dwelling in a cave with a goat's body, a lion's head, and a serpent's tail. It is believed that Chinese version of dragons had long, twisting reptile's body and short clawed feet but they are generally typified by turned up snouts, whiskers, antlers and hairy ears. Strangely enough, these creatures were represented to be kind-hearted monsters who symbolised rain clouds and brought good fortune.

According to Middle East culture, dragons "caused eclipses" by devouring the moon and in Persian mythology and art, dragons possessed serpent and bird features which represented both good and evil. It is believed that in ancient India, men and boys hunted dragons in the foothills of Himalayas to gather glittering gems that lay concealed in the creature's skull.

The great epics in Persian literature abound with episodes of heroes fighting gold guarding dragons while a famous European legend shows that Saint George, the patron Saint of England supposedly killed a dragon to save the daughter of a Libyan King.

Numerous examples of narratives of knights (including King Arthur), Saints and other heroes who destroyed these evil monsters in their lairs, exist in the world literature.

Some scholars suggest that the conceptual frame of the dragon originated and developed out of primitive human fears of dangerous animals such as massive snakes and birds of prey. The idea of dragons may have also been inspired by early discoveries of fossils of animals that have gone into extinction.

For instance, numerous fossil skulls of prehistoric animals found in China have horns and jaws that resemble those of dragons depicted in ancient Chinese art.

Cave

In Europe, fossils of huge cave bears surrounded by heaps of smaller bones may have led to weave the tales of great dragons' hiding in the caves and preying on humans.

The famous dragon statue of Austria (1590) was based on the skull of an ice age rhinoceros discovered in Germany. When fossil hunters in America first found fossils of large, winged dinosaurs, they labelled them "flying dragons."

However, the monstrous image of dragons is absolutely a mixture of horrid attributes of prehistoric animals and is purely fictitious. The masterminds of mythology and legendary tales have represented the surreal monstrous picture of the dragon in such a way as to attract billions of fans, both young and old, to their tales. The readers of the stories get carried away by the powerful suspense that this imaginary animal creates in the course of events.

Though it sounds terrifying and weird in nature, the monster captures the interest of the reader mysterious way. The figure of this - monster of pure imagination is closely associated with the cultural events and the national identity of Chinese who exploit the image of dragon for varied decorative purposes. Even if the dragon is supposed to be a perfect product of fantasy, people naturally develop their own desire to believe that "they existed on earth" largely because of the dexterity with which the masterminds of mythical tales have painted this surreal animal.

In the Christian faith, the dragon represented evil - the Satan or the Devil. The ancient Egyptians had a similar myth where their dragon (Apophis) disseminated chaos and darkness throughout the earth each night and was vanquished by the Sun-god "Ra" each morning.

Dances

The dragon that Saint George (the Patron saint of England) is supposed to have killed, was a white monster with bat-like wings and it terrorised the people of Lybia in the Middle East.

In the far east, dragon is thought to be a force for good and the Chinese dragon, "Long" lives in rivers, lakes and oceans and roams the skies.

For over 2,000 years the Chinese have performed exclusive dances for "Long" appealing to him to bring about rain to enrich the earth.

In ancient Chinese stories, a dragon guarded the mansion of gods and another dragon became the emblem of the emperors.

One of the most famous dragons is the "Nidhogg" (the dread biter) found mostly in Norse legends. The Nidhogg threatens to destroy the universe. However, the popular figure of dragons (a product of imagination) contributed immensely to popularise tales, dramas, legends and movies and is the most outstanding image of monsters created by man.