Dragon History
The History of dragon myths and legends.

There have been many dragon myths and legends throughout the past. �Most early dragons were from the sea, and dragons tended to be associated with water throughout history. �On many early sea maps, unexplored areas were marked 'dragons lie here.' �Early dragon stories tended to center around creation, or preserving creation from chaos, but the focus later shifted to the quest for treasure and the rescuing of a princess. �Today's dragon stories range from trips to outer space, to philosophical quests for truth, to whatever you can imagine.

Zu and Enlil
The earliest dragon story I know about is a Sumerian myth from about 5000 BC, with a dragon named Zu. �The ancient Sumerian civilization was in an area that we now know as Iraq.��Many early dragon myths, including this one, involved gods.��This myth tells how Zu stole the Tablets of Law from the god Enlil. �Enlil sent the sun-god Ninurta to retrieve the tablets. �Ninurta did so, and killed Zu in the process.

Tiamat
Another early dragon story is a Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish. �In this story, the sea-serpents Apsu and Tiamat (their names mean fresh-water and salt-sea) were the parents of the first gods. �Not much is said about Apsu, but Tiamat is said to have the head and front legs of a lion, wings and hind legs of an eagle, and a tongue, scales, and tail of a snake. �In some ways, Tiamat was more like a backward griffin than a dragon.��Because of a misunderstanding, Enki, one of the serpents' great grandsons, killed Apsu. �Tiamat was understandably angered, and tried to go after Enki. �Marduk, one of the youngest gods, agreed to fight Tiamat. �He succeeded in trapping her in a net, and he shot arrows down her throat. �He became the chief of the gods for this feat, and created the earth out of Tiamat's remains.

Many dragon stories afterward fall along similar lines to the one of Tiamat. �A Hittite story tells of how the storm god, with the help of the goddess Inaras and her human lover Hupasigas, slayed a dragon named Illugankas. �A Canaanite story, from the Poem of Baal, tells of how the young god Baal defeated a seven-headed sea dragon named Yam-Nahar. �In Egypt, a sea dragon named Apophis tried to overcome Ra, the egyptian sun god. �He was slain by another god named Seth.

Jason and the Golden Fleece
The Greeks had a name for such a nasty creature, Drakon. �It comes from the word Darc, meaning to see, or to see clearly. �A female dragon was called a Draikaina, but that name never caught on because most famous dragons seemed to be male. �The idea of a princess being saved from a dragon by a young hero originally came from Greek legends. �The Greek dragons were really the first western dragons. �The earliest greek dragon story is the story of the golden fleece. �In this story, a man named Jason, with the help of a beautiful sorceress/princess named Medea, set out on a quest for the golden fleece, which was held by king Ae�ts of Colchis and was guarded by a nasty-tempered dragon. �Medea had made Jason promise to marry her if she showed him how to retrieve the golden fleece from the dragon safely. �She made a sleeping potion for the dragon, so that Jason wouldn't become a light snack.

Hercules
The gods were still involved in some of the Greek dragon stories. �Hercules slew many dragons, and he was half-god. �One of these dragons was named Hydra. �Hydra had nine heads. �One head was immortal, and when you cut off another, two more would grow in its place. �Hercules and his charioteer Iolaus killed Hydra by burning off eight of its heads, then burying the ninth under a stone. �He then dipped his arrows in Hydra's venom, making them fatally poisonous. �Hydra is now used as a word meaning a dragon with more than one head.

In another story, the gods Poseidon and Apollo made an offer to king Laomedon of Troy to build impenetrable walls around his city for a price. �Laomedon agreed, but when he didn't keep his side of the bargain, Poseidon conjured up a huge sea serpent that attacked the city. �An oracle told Laomedon that he could sacrifice his daughter to the dragon to please the gods. �Laomedon was exceedingly greedy, so his daughter was chained to a rock and left out as a snack for the dragon. �Hercules happened to be passing through, so he offered to kill the dragon in exchange for some horses Laomedon had received from Zeus. �Laomedon agreed, but again tried to go back on his word. �So after Hercules killed the serpent, a curse was brought down on troy that eventually lead to the Trojan War.

In a third story involving Hercules and a dragon, Hercules had a task to steal three golden apples from a tree that had been given to the god Hera. �The apples were guarded by Ladon, a huge dtagon with a hundred heads. �Ladon had curled himself around the tree so nobody could get at it. �Hercules decided to gain the help of Atlas. �Atlas had somehow offended the gods, and as a punishment, he was made to carry the world on his shoulders at all times (This shows how smart the Greeks were for knowing the world was round). �Hercules offered to take on the burden for an hour if Atlas would use the time to retrieve the golden apples. �Atlas enthusiasticly agreed, and Hercules decided to rid Atlas of the dragon problem by killing the hundred-headed beast with one arrow. �Atlas retrieved he golden apples, and seeing how good it felt not to have the world on his shoulders, went to Hercules and told him he was leaving, but would be back in a few months. �Hercules agreed, but he begged Atlas to take he world for a few minutes so that he could get some padding for his head. �Atlas took the world, and Hercules took the apples and left. �Hera was so saddened by the loss of her dragon, that she made a place for it in he sky as the constellation Draco

St. George
St. George was born in Cappadocia, Turkey in the 200s, and died in 303. The story of St. George's encounter with a dragon was thought up not long after he died, and by the 500s, had been translated to six languages. It is said that his tomb was discovered in the First Crusade. The dragon legend probably originated from the story of Perseus and Andromeda. The story quickly became very famous, and over 160 churches in England were dedicated to St. George. One of the earliest known versions of the legend goes something like this:

There once was a great city that didn't have any source of water. To get water, people had to go outside the city walls to a nearby oasis. This oasis, however, was guarded by a fierce dragon that wouldn't let anyone have water unless he was given a youth or maden to devour. The dragon's means of defense was his breath, which was incredibly noxious. Many people from the city tried to kill the dragon, but nobody could get by his breath. One by one, the city's youth was devoured by the dragon, until only the King's daughter was left. The people of the city begged the king to give her up, and he finally gave in and sent his only daugter away to be eaten by the beast. Just as she was about to be eaten, St. George showed up on a white horse. He charged against the dragon, and killed it with a lance in the heart. The King was so pleased, that he gave St. George half of his kingdom and his daugter's hand in marriage.

Later versions had differences, and were more elaborate. One version had the dragon living in a cave instead of an oasis, and he demanded sheep or young virgins from the townspeople. Also, instead of killing the dragon right away, St. George just injures it enough to be led into town, where he chops off the dragon's head.