Dragon is the most famous mythological creature throughout the world. Penetrated into various culture, there resulted in various versions and legend about it in every country - both developing and developed countries. All people, whether sceptic one or the old fashioned one - must have heard about this creature. In fact, it is doubted that there is a single living soul in the world who hasn’t heard about the almighty dragon. Many films, stories, and even games were dedicated to the dragon. Appearing in every fantasy and fairy tales, dragon has been identified with the heroic tale and bravery. But the basic question is, what actually is dragon? How can there be a different characteristic of it? Good or evil? Angel or Demon?
There are actually two major kinds of dragon. The first one is the west Dragon, or those appeared in the western fairytales and myths. And the second one is the east Dragon, or the Great Snake appeared in the eastern myth. All of them are called Dragon, but interestingly, they are quite different one another.
The western dragon, or dragon appeared in European folktales and myths usually symbolizes evil thing. They are cruel, man-eater, and the target to slay by the main hero. Such dragons are Fafnir, which was slain by Siegfried in Icelandic myth, and Hydra, slain by Heracles in Greek myths. Both dragons stated previously were the evil ones; the cause of people’s suffering. Because of that, it needs to be eliminated by the power of goodness, represented by the heroes.
Later, under the influence of the church, dragon even symbolized sin and paganism, which needed to be crushed under the feet of the saints or martyrs. Such example was revealed in the infamous legend of St. George, the protector of Great Britain. Dragon itself transformed into the insignia of evil, ignoring the legend of Wyvern or the flying dragon which often believed as the guardian or the good dragon.
On the physical appearance, western dragon resembles a lizard with bat wing on its back. Because of the resemblance, we can’t find the image of western dragon which crawled. They always have four legs. Western Dragon was also believed as having the ability to fly and breathe fire. These two abilities were often related with their power and heroes’ difficulty in defeating them. Such classical portrayal of Western Dragon appeared in the illustration of Tiamat and Bahamut, two of the most famous dragons in the western legend.
There are thousand reasons why the western dragons were illustrated and given form of reptile. One of it is the invention of dinosaur’s bone. This basic is quite logical since most of the dinosaurs had four legs or two big legs in the back and two small legs in the front (referring to Bahamut, which share almost similar body structure with Tyrannosaurus Rex). When people saw the bones, they started to imagine a gigantic creature, like dragon. And as there is no limit for imagination, they started to add more to the result of their imagination, such as fire breathing and flying ability.
The eastern dragon, on the other hand, generally symbolized power, wisdom, and royal family. They were not regarded as the manifestation of evil, and even considered as having God-like trait. People even built a special temple to honour the dragon, such as the one in China, the temple of Sea Dragon King. Instead of being crushed under the feet of the main heroes, eastern dragon acted as the advisor or giving patronage and guidance instead. As if it is not enough, their influence also comes to the royal family. Considered as having the god-like trait, power, and wisdom, only member of royal family were allowed to wear outfit with dragon pattern. Furthermore, Indian dragon was even illustrated having crown on its head.
In terms of physical appearance, eastern dragon shares the similarity with the snake. Their body is those of the great and huge snake, with large scale. Their head resemble camel’s, with the long moustache. Similar with western legend, it was said that the dragon provide invincibility to mankind. Specifically, the dragon’s moustache would grant power to its bearer according to eastern myth. It was also stated that the eastern dragon had the ability to breathe fire, like the western dragon did. Beside that, they also have the ability to control the weather and represented the fecundating principle in nature. Though physically the eastern dragon didn’t have wings, Chinese dragon was able to fly. But we have to put emphasis that not all eastern dragons were able to fly. Some even only crawled on earth or live deep in the sea. Take a look of the Naga Taksaka from Indonesia which was told to be living inside Mount Merapi and Leviathan, the legendary dragon that lives deep in the ocean.
Similar to western dragon, there are reasons and bases of forming the eastern dragon as the great snake. As we know, most Asian people are farmers, and rivers have played important role for centuries for them. These rivers are long and curved, similar with eastern dragon physiology. By regarding rivers as the giver of life and patron, people were creating dragon based on the image of the rivers. That was also the reason of forming dragon’s ability to control the weather simply because weather also played important role in farming.
So, there are actually concepts that underlie the conception of dragon throughout the world. Both western and eastern were trying to construct it to represent something huge and beyond their understanding, mainly the forces of nature (refer to dinosaur’s bone and weather changes). All dragons were powerful, though they were in the opposite sides, and were said to be very powerful, whether they are good or bad. And thus, because of their power, which is demanded by mankind, the legend of inheriting invincibility by bathing in dragon blood arose.
The remaining matter which is still in need of further elaboration is the existence of Dragoon or the Dragon Knight. I’ll look for further information regarding this matter. Or is there any of the reader who would like to help me?
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