Dragons existed... seriously?
Surely it's overwhelmingly evident they most absolutely did not - same as fairies, et al?
Well, this thread has become a pretty good discussion about the various possible origins of a number of mythical beasts which we might describe with the word dragon, so I think it has proven its worth.
Since my last posts on this thread, I suppose my outlook on dragons has changed a little. I don't feel there is a clear form which we can attribute to creatures called 'dragons', and that should be no surprise to us, as mythical beasts need be restricted by no natural history. As far as I can tell, the fire-breathing, winged quadruped of traditional western depiction is of medieval origin, and I'm not even sure its fire-breathing aspect is especially common. Mostly, it's the draconic tendency to be highly venomous which is emphasised.
The 'drakonoi' of ancient Greece seem to have been essentially large serpents, with a few monstrous characteristics thrown in. Perhaps the word 'dragon' belongs only to them, but anyway it is now applied to a range of mythical monsters, and the relationships between those creatures is sometimes unclear. I've noticed that books about dragons will often contain on their back-cover blurb or within their introductory chapters, a phrase along the lines of, 'Dragon myths are universal.' This immediately seems to add a hefty relevance to the subject matter. Books about vampires or fairies often contain the same claim. But in most cases, upon examination, many of the beings deposited into these categories are much different from expected. Of course, if defined broadly enough, anything becomes universal.
So without ever having made a conscious decision to, I realised I've tended to categorise dragon-like creatures in terms of their legends, and their place in them, rather than asking whether a dragon with two legs should properly be called a 'wyvern' (as far as I can tell, a distinction only really relevant according to the rules of British heraldry).
So, for example, the serpentine drakon of Ismenia guarded the spring of Ares, was slain by Cadmus, and the warriors which sprang from its sown teeth became the founding population of Thebes. This seems to me to place it with the griffin of the Leicestershire village of Griffydam, which guarded the local spring, was dispatched by a wandering knight, and gave the village its name. Two legends, millennia apart, have a connection in their narratives. The similarities between the myth of Perseus' rescuing of Andromeda and St George's story have often been noted.
So dragons, griffins, sea monsters, can all occupy a similar place in a narrative, and can be related to one another, perhaps, even if they are physically very different. On the other hand, physically similar mythical beasts around the world may have no cultural relationship connecting them. Lordmongrove has pointed out that four footed, winged dragons appear in Mesopotamian art dating back many millennia. I'd be interested in any links he can provide, since it's an interest of mine. At any rate, their similarities to our modern view of dragons doesn't necessarily imply an unbroken cultural connection between them.
I'm disbanding the 'never seen
Game of Thrones club' I began earlier in this thread. My fiancée is a fan and has introduced me to it. I'm hooked!