Different mythical creatures have accompanied human beings throughout their history that seem to refuse to leave the collective imagination, and strangely enough, many of them are almost as old as humans themselves. Although many believe that the origin of dragons is limited to the Middle Ages, the truth is that they have appeared in different forms throughout the planet since long ago; this is the origin of dragons.
Many creatures appear in historical accounts and we must be careful because there is a fine line between considering them real beings belonging to a natural taxonomy or enclosing them in the world of cryptids. What is certain is that the existence of many of these mythological beings is not proven in the least, although the stories and legends persist.
In modern times we have countless examples, such as the Loch Ness monster or the popularized conception of the legend of the mermaids, but in antiquity, other much more epic creatures emerged. Dragons are one of them, they have positioned themselves as icons of strength and power since time immemorial. Now, although the word itself in English, appeared for the first time in the 13th century, well into the Middle Ages, references to beings of this type have appeared even before the common era.
From China to the Aztecs
“In the world of fantastic animals, the dragon is unique. No other imaginary creature has appeared in such a rich variety of forms,” notes zoologist Desmond Morris in the foreword to Dragons. An Illustrated History (1995) by Karl Shuker.
The dragon stands out as universal, as a constant that appears over and over again from ancient China to Egypt and Mesopotamian traditional peoples. Of course, as Desmond Morris points out, in each region, it has appeared with specific morphology, although references to the dragon are inescapable.
But perhaps the hegemonic idea of dragons comes mainly from two conceptions. The first is the ancient Chinese thought that conceives the figure of the four-legged serpent, controller of water, and the forces of good luck, as the representation of power in the flesh. In addition, it also takes elements from the European conception, mainly from the West, which sees these great reptiles as four-legged, winged, and malevolent beings that expel fire from their large snout.
The oldest draconic representation found appears in amulets carved in jade that belonged to the Hongshan culture that lived in Ancient China between 6,700 and 4,900 years ago. Serpentiform in shape, they resemble a great extent the primordial Mediterranean ones. But it was not until Ancient Greece that the first words referring to impetuous dragons could be found. Etymologically the word ‘dragon’ comes from the ancient Greek ‘δράκων’ (drakón), which literally translates as ‘viper.’ It is known that, in turn, drakón comes from the verb ‘δέρκομαι’ (dérkomai) meaning ‘to stare.’ Therefore, dragons would have to be reptilian creatures, mainly snakes that stare.
But the Chinese and Greeks were not the only ones to write about powerful reptiles, the Egyptians did too. The clearest Egyptian reference comes intrinsically with the concept of day and night, for they worshipped the god Apophis (or Apep), who had declared war on Ra (god of the Sun). Every night Apophis, whose form was a gigantic serpent, pursued Ra to death and was how they conceived the cycle of light and darkness.
The Mayas and Aztecs are not far behind, their main deities Kukulkan and Quetzalcoatl are in the form of a feathered serpent; both are related to the creation of the universe itself from the vision of their cultures. The feathered serpent is the very effigy of the majestic dragon whose figure is so distinct and so universal at the same time.
The ancient traditions that include the veneration of dragons of different kinds are intriguing, and although it has been theorized that it could be thanks to the discovery of dinosaur fossils by our ancestors, there is no evidence to support it.
Strangely enough, all the records of beliefs about finding dragon corpses are related to mammal skeletons. For example, the so-called European Dragon Caves, which received their name due to the discovery of supposed dragon skeletons, but which were later proven to be cave bears.
Story originally published in Spanish in Ecoosfera
