Dragon

[Lat. draco: Gr. drakon, from derkomai, edrakon, to see; Sansk. root drac.] ( Myth. & Art.) In nearly every country, and at all times, there have been legends concerning the existence of a huge monster, which went about devouring and devastating all before it. This monster, or dragon, as it is generally called, is supposed to be the symbolical representative of arrogant power and cruelty, whose sole object is to oppose order and progre . Although it is probable, as Brand says, that Fig . 864.-FABULOUS FIGURE OF A DRAGON. "the dragon is one of those shapes which fear has created to itself," neverthele , from the generality of the legends concerning this winged saurian, it is po ible that the existence of some species of the pterodactyl, in very remote times, may have originated the superstition. However this may have been, it is certain that this mythical animal, in all ages, has been looked upon as a minister of evil, the destruction of which was considered one of the greatest objects of human energy. The task was usually allotted to gods and heroes. Apollo killed the Python, and Perseus slew the dragon, and saved Andromeda. Hercules, as the ideal of physical power, is also represented as a dragon-slayer. From poetry the legend of the D. pa ed into art, and the Greeks and Romans bore it as an emblem on their shields and helmets. In the "Nibelungen Lied," in later times, Siegfried is represented as killing a D .; and in the epic of Beowolf, the two contests of the hero, first with the monster Grendel, and afterwards with the D. , form the principal incidents of the poem. Among the Scand in avians, Thor was described as a dragon-slayer. Among the Teutonic tribes the practice of bearing the D. as an emblem on their shields and banners was common. Among the Celts the D. was considered the emblem of sovereignty, and as such was borne on the helmet of the monarch. In the middle ages, in religious paintings, the D. was looked upon as the representative of sin. Saints and martyrs are frequently depicted trampling a D. underfoot. It is also used with this signification in the figure of St. George and the dragon. - Sometimes it has been used as a symbol of heresy. A body of men in Hungary, who enrolled themselves in order to crush John Hu and his followers, called themselves Knights of the Order of the D. (Script.) A word often used to signify a sea-monster, huge serpent, .; thus, in Deut . xxxii. 33, Jer . li. 34, and Rev. xii, ., it evidently implies a huge serpent; in Isa . xxvii. 1, li. 9, Ezek . xxix. 3, it may mean the crocodile, or any huge sea-monster; while in Job . xxx. 29, Sam. iii., Mic . i. 8, it seems to refer to some wild animal of the desert, most probably the Jackal. -A fiery, shooting, meteoric exhalation from moist grounds, in the form of an imaginary serpent. - A fierce, violent person, male or female; as, she is a dragon of virtue. IMG:content-0676.jpg:[graphic][subsumed][subsumed] sented with its own head, but with a dragon's wings and tail, it is said to be dragonné. (Astron.) The constellation DRACO, q. v. (Mil.) A short species of carbine, originally carried by dragoons. ( Zool . ) A term applied to a genus of small Saurian reptiles (genus Draco of Linnæus), belonging to the fam. of Fig. 865.-FLYING DRAGON. (Draco Ambriatus .) the Iguanid a , and characterized by two lateral aliform productions of the skin used as a parachute, and supported upon the first six pairs of ribs, which, instead of bending round the thorax, are elongated and directed upwards for that purpose. They are generally called Flying dragons, or Flying lizards. -a. Pertaining to a dragon or dragons; resembling a dragon:-hence, something forbidding or frightful; as, "her dragon yoke."- Milton .