Dragons (Greek Edition)

Drakon (Greek Dragons)

   We will simply discuss the Greek myths revolving around dragon-like creatures in the ancient Greek world of mythology. I don’t have any awesome and fancy philosophy to go with this, so we’ll just focus on the myths, talking specifically about mythical creatures to today's modern style of creatures. I'm just going to discuss the Greek mythology and lore behind dragons on this one, and then I will give you the other dragon myths in other civilizations later.

   All of the creatures that I may mention in these myths are not necessarily dragons as we would think of them today. Most of them will share the same lineage, so I will save time on speaking about the lineage after the first few. Just know that they are most likely the offspring of Gaia or Typhon and Echidna (uh-kid-na).

   The word that the Greeks used for our modern-day depiction of a dragon is (drákōn), and scholars have stated that this word means “serpent” or "huge serpent”. Drákōn is also associated with the term dérkomai, with the meaning of “one with a deadly stare” or “the one who stares”.

   Let's talk about a few of the Drákōn to get a deeper look into how the ancient Greek people viewed them.

   Python was a giant serpent-like creature that was depicted as a giant snake with bronze-like hard scales that mimicked obsidian when wet, bright burning eyes, and toxic breath. There are two stories that I know of describing the origins of Python. We will call Python: Python The Primordial Being just to contain any confusion between this one and the next. So Python, the Primordial being, was the direct offspring of Gaia, placing him among the pre-olympian order. Gaia’s greatest sanctuary was placed in Delphi, which was considered the center of the world to the ancient Greek people. Gaia created Python to be the overseer, guardian, and conduit for Delphi. This version of Python came before the Olympians or Greek gods. Now, let's discuss the other version of Python’s origin. In this version, Python was not exactly created by Gaia on purpose. Python was formed from the rotten remains of the earth after Zeus sent the great flood to destroy humankind. This version differs from the Primordial Python version because, rather than a guardian of the earth, Python is symbolized more as a monster formed by death, making way for the belief of evil intent from Python and symbolizing the remnants left behind after divine interference. But with either story that you decide to go with. In the new coming of age, the god Apollo began to search for a place to make his holy center, and he chose Delphi, but Delphi was already claimed and guarded by Python. Apollo enters the sacred temple of Gaia and challenges Python, fighting a fierce battle, but finally, in the end, he overcame Python by killing him with his arrows. Python was sacred, and by killing him, Apollo committed a divine murder and released a spiritual pollution that must be cleansed. So Zeus ordered Apollo to cleanse himself, which is a story that I will touch base on later on another day. There is more to discuss, so let's move on to Typhon, the son of Gaia and Tartarus. 

   Typhon arises after the gods defeat the Titans in the Titanomachy due to Gaia’s anger over the defeat and imprisonment of her offspring, the Titans. Typhon was Gaia’s rage, created to destroy the Olympian gods, her attempt to reclaim the old world order. The ancients describe Typhon as having:

- A thousand dragon heads on his shoulders

- Eyes blazing with fire

- A body so tall his head touched the stars

- Serpents for legs, coiling endlessly

- Wings vast enough to blot out the sky

   Typhon was even said to be a terror to the gods, making several like Athena, Hermes, Hera, Aries, Poseidon, and Aphrodite flee on his arrival. Only Zeus stayed to fight the back-and-forth battle between him and Typhon. The battle was epic with Zeus flinging his lightning bolts and storms at Typhon while Typhon hurled mountains and serpents at Zeus, but in the end, Zeus was victorious, burying Typhon alive under Mount Etna, which is still one of the most active volcanoes to this day. Moving on to Ladon.

   Ladon is the offspring of the primordial sea figures Phorcys and Ceto; Some sources say he is the child of Typhon and Echidna, and others say the direct offspring of Gaia. Either way, Ladon is the guardian of the Garden of Hesperides, where the golden apples of the gods lie. Ladon is described as a massive serpent-like dragon with multiple heads and glowing eyes, able to speak with many different voices, eternally watching over the garden in a sleepless state having hard armor-like scales. One of Heracles’s labors was to get the golden apples for Eurystheus. There are two versions. In one version, Ladon does not get killed by Heracles; he gives the golden apples up free of fighting to Atlas, and Atlas gives them to Heracles. In the other, more popular one, Heracles confronts Ladon in battle, slaying him to retrieve the golden apples. Moving on to the Colchian dragon, guardian of the golden fleece that Jason and the Argonauts were in search of.

   The Colchian dragon was also described to be enormous in size, like the others, immortal and sleepless, also described as having dapple back, fiery eyes, and a fiery chest with either three tongues or a three-forked tongue. The story goes that Jason and his soon-to-be wife, Madea, defeated the dragon but did not kill him by using the magic Madea held to cast him into a sleepy state long enough for Jason to grab the fleece. Other versions have either Heracles or Jason defeating and killing the Colchian dragon. 

   The Ismenian Dragon, or the dragon of Ares, with some versions making him the son of Ares, lived in a cave by the spring of Ismene in Boeotia, tasked with guarding it because it was sacred to Ares. The Ismenian dragon was described like most huge, sleepless, forked tongue with deadly poison and toxic steaming breath. The most distinguishing thing is that there was a crest on its head. Cadmus, a Phoenician prince, soon encountered the Ismeanian dragon after sending his men to fetch water from a nearby spring, not knowing it belonged to Ares. The dragon slaughtered his men, and Cadmus took revenge by slaying the dragon, but this resulted in Cadmus having to serve under Ares for 1 year, interpreted as 8 human years, as penance to the god for slaying his sacred son.

   There are more myths about dragons throughout Greek myths, but I will speak of those in time to come. I set focus on these specific dragon-like creatures because of the similarities that they share in being guardians of sacred places. They do not seem to be linked to any chaotic characteristics, but are more often described as protectors with a restless and immortal embodiment about them. Let me know what you think dragons could symbolize or actually be in modern terms, if you do not believe that dragons were just dragons. There are some interesting theories that dragons were just misinterpreted technology. We will carry on with the ancient Sumerian dragon stories on the Divine Index for dragons.