2006-12-19 14:14:19 · 22 answers · asked by hi bbz 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
myth
2006-12-19 14:15:34 · answer #1 · answered by ? 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Dragons do not, have not, will not exist, they are FICTIONAL. St George may ,or may not have been a 3rd century Roman, decapitated around the time of Diocletian's purges. The rest is pure MYTH. St George was demoted by Papal authority to a minor Saint. The Dragon slaying episode has various religious/cultural explanations, but as it never happened, why bother?
2006-12-20 08:06:19 · answer #2 · answered by ED SNOW 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I can't say for certain that dragon's never existed, since they do exist in so many histories for so many cultures. What we think of as dragons today is Hollywood's idea of dragon for the most part. maybe we had a few giant lizards, or left over dinosaurs back then... Who knows? By the way St Patrick got his saint hood for "driving out all the snakes of Ireland". You know that actually means that he eradicated a large portion of the Irish pagan culture don't you? Not REAL snakes, but people's ways & beliefs of the time. So what (or who) was St. George's Dragon? Interesting historical anomollies like this exist in lots of places.
2016-05-22 22:50:11 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The dragon was symbolic of evil to those living in the ancient Middle East. It represented the dark world to the ancient Egyptians. To the Christians it meant sin and paganism. The Chinese view the dragon as benevolent and a symbol of good luck and health. Ancient Goddess cultures primarily revered the serpent as female and it was linked to wisdom and prophetic counsel. I would venture to guess that most of the "dragon-slaying myths" ( and there are many) have more to do with the suppression of the female energy than with the prowess of slayer
2006-12-19 15:26:45 · answer #4 · answered by Mountain Goddess 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The story is pretty big in Spain as well as England.
I suspect most myths are based on some happening that has been transformed over time. Who knows what the actual origin might be?
2006-12-20 00:09:08 · answer #5 · answered by Mr Ed 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A dragon is what people in the middle ages called dinosaurs before they where driven to extinction by people like St. George
2006-12-19 14:16:25 · answer #6 · answered by Lightbulb 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Nobody knows if it was a myth or real. It's like Unicorns. There has to be some truth to it that has been passed down over the centuries. The stories have never died out.
2006-12-19 21:19:59 · answer #7 · answered by Tabbyfur aka patchy puss 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A myth, of course. Nothing of the sort that one would nowadays describe as a dragon has ever lived on earth.
2006-12-19 14:17:17 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
more than likely it was a Nile Crocodile.
it is the nature of men to embelish a story to make the hero sound greater than he really is. if George described a 25 foot lizard with skin that was very hard to pierce and a 3 foot mouth full of 4 inch teeth. that ate horses and anything else that crossed it.
it is easy to see a re-telling going to a 30 or 40 foot reptile with a great head and daggerlike teeth that ate horses in a single bite.
given our facination with flying it is easy to see the development of the wings. and due to the fact that he is said to have killed it in an Arab land the fire breath could easily be a metaphor for the harsh desert lands.
2006-12-19 14:39:33 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
I thought that dragons were a myth but seems to be prevalent in chinese history as well. Something must have been going on in the middle ages. We can only guess.
2006-12-19 14:41:47 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Religion deals in metaphor. Also takes the traditions of the previous religions. Dragons could also be a more generic term for any wild critter threatening people.
2006-12-19 14:16:45 · answer #11 · answered by John K 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋