I note for starters that dragons are apparent from the get-go. pictures of dragons are frequently found on cylinder seals from the traditional close to East, Mesopotamia and surrounding regions - the cradle of civilization.
Now mythology-themed texts are glorious at relating varied dragon tales and their associated dragon-slaying humans like Saint George, Sigurd (Siegfried), and Beowulf*; what functions dragons served like guarding treasure and also the abodes or palaces of the gods, still as go-betweens the gods and humanity (sort of like carrier pigeons) and also their having some management over the weather and the waters; and what they symbolize like evil, sin, power, military would possibly, and pagan ways in which within the West and also the Emperor and Empress, wisdom, immortality and alternative positive things like fate within the East.
However, mythology texts not often justify why dragons are universally past and beloved within the gift in nearly all societies within the initial place. It's one factor to simply say dragons are mythological beings; it's quite one thing else to elucidate how that's in light-weight of such detail that surrounds dragon-lore and their universality.
Let's consider what a typical dragon appears like. The classic dragon of Western tradition was a four-legged winged serpent with scaly skin and sharp claws (or varying number). Chinese dragons were usually horned and bearded, with a combine of long whiskers protruding from the higher lip. Dragons were terribly massive, averaging regarding eighty feet (25 metres) in length. that they had the power to fly through the air still as move on the bottom. several dragons breathed fireplace though others killed with their venomous breath. there is nothing obscure regarding what dragons appeared like and what they did that is odd seeing as how they never existed. Or did they - never exist that is?
As to that explanation:
The traditional mainstream clarification for the rationale for mythological dragons doesn't typically consider human nature to create out of whole cloth life forms that do not exist, however rather on an assumption that fossil remains of dinosaurs, etc. gave rise to speculations that, during this case, the life type we tend to decision the dragon, well those fossils kick-started those dragon mythologies everywhere the globe. As expressed in an exceedingly recent book on mythological creatures:
"The ubiquity of dragon legends round the world remains striking; few legendary creatures have a wider distribution. Some students have linked the stories with discoveries of dinosaur bones and it's going to be that in early times tales of dragons served to elucidate the existence of long-dead creatures of giant size. nevertheless no single reason will ever hope to hide all the numerous strands of draconian lore. a lot of seemingly, gigantic winged serpents fill some archetypal want within the human imagination, crossing cultures in their power to excite awe and worry." (Tony Allen; The Mythic Bestiary: An Illustrated Guide to the World's Most Fantastical Creatures; Duncan Baird Publishers, London; 2008: Page 169)
Oh what a load of crap! really, numerous crap. Firstly, no massive dinosaur bones return equipped with wings, etc. have you ever ever seen a fossil or duplicate T-Rex that had wings and will fly? perhaps they mean pterosaurs and/or pterodactyls, though they don't seem to be dinosaurs however a category of flying reptiles. However, fossils of flying reptiles are not quite common and are in truth quite fragile.
Secondly, fossils are not aiming to tell you something regarding colouration, scaly vs. swish skin, beards and whiskers, fire-breathing skills and venomous or otherwise unhealthy breath, etc. Those forms of details are not preserved within the fossil record, though terribly, very, terribly rarely dinosaur skin impressions are found however there are almost enough examples handy that you simply will count them off on the fingers of 1 hand..
Thirdly, the non-avian dinosaurs and flying reptiles died out sixty five voluminous years before humans and dragon mythology therefore there are often no up to date firsthand information of these previous long-dead dinosaur life forms to draw on. and also the avian dinosaurs, that did survive - we tend to currently decision them birds - hardly approach the types of sizes and alternative characteristics that would remotely be associated with dragons.
Lastly, 99.9% of enormous fossils do not simply lie on the bottom absolutely exposed in all their glory for the complete world to visualize. Most bits are typically buried and mainly in an exceedingly somewhat jumbled state owing to the assorted geological, hydrological and meteorological forces working on the bones at the time of the animal's death and also the voluminous years thereafter. It takes specialists to piece things back along {again|once a lot of} as 2 of more animal fossils can be intermixed.
Further, why would the uneducated nice unwashed living back before those golden years when mythological dragons dominated the skies move to all the difficulty of the backbreaking style of work it takes to completely expose an outsized fossil within the initial place, and therefore invent the mythological dragon? I mean it would not place any food on the table!
So when all else fails, place our invention of mythological and universal dragons all the way down to some variation of nebulous Freudian psychology mumbo-jumbo. provide me a break! No, the solution is that dragons were extremely real and humans really observed them. there's one reason on balance.
Now simply think about, what number extinct animals did we tend to mythologically invent before the invention of their fossils? Dinosaurs weren't all the craze before their fossil bones were uncovered and realised for what they were. Why did not we tend to mentally produce them before the fact? Why did not we've got mythological trilobites in our legends 7000 years ago? we tend to simply did not have dinosaurs, trilobites, mythological or otherwise, before their fossils were discovered.
Why did not we've got in our varied mythologies anyone of thousands of strange, currently extinct, organisms? perhaps the solution is as a result of we tend to don't seem to be susceptible to invent fictional beasties. If strange beasts are half and parcel of our mythology, perhaps it's as a result of those strange beasts extremely existed at some purpose in time that coincided with human existence.
On the opposite hand, you may surprise why there aren't any profound mythologies regarding currently extinct mammoths or sabre-toothed cats, even supposing they coexisted for a brief time with 'modern' man. Why not? They were pretty huge and fearsome; perhaps roughly within the huge leagues of dragons, however sufficiently big. maybe which may be as a result of these beasties had no reference to the 'gods' - they weren't alien beasties.
Now the larger mystery here is why the cultural distinction between East and West within the well-liked perception of dragons, though that is not as clear cut as some texts build it out to be. for instance, China too had unhealthy dragons - evil black dragons that were credited with inciting storms and floods - and a dragon slayer (Lu Dongbin). Japan had an evil dragon too known as Yamata-no-Orochi, slain* by the usually troublesome Japanese trickster god Susanowo. there is a somewhat parallel tale in ancient Babylon and Assyria between the god Marduk and also the 'dragon' Tiamat. That a god would possibly slay a dragon, well, i suppose if you'll have wild dos and feral cats, you'll have rogue dragons! perhaps solely 'gods' are allowed, or have the power, to slay dragons.
Exceptions to the rule aside, I recommend that the relative variations within the portrayals of dragons mirror back on the character of their masters - the gods.
The jap gods seem to me to be lots less dysfunctional and every one around nicer deities than the Western gods. The Greeks and Norse individuals might have worshiped Zeus et al. and Odin et al. however you actually would not need them to function role models for your youngsters.
There is but another, and maybe even a lot of logical clarification for the variations between Western and jap dragons. Dragons are unhealthy within the (Christian) west as a result of the Christian churches decrees it therefore. Dragons represent the previous ways in which, the previous gods, perhaps even the devil incarnate. within the non-Christian (Hindu, Buddhist, etc.) east, dragons haven't any such baggage or stigma hooked up.
The extraterrestrials 'gods' and their dragon pets share one thing in common. The dragons, very like their masters, the 'gods' are as near immortal as makes no odds. i feel it's safe to mention 'immortal' during this context is not forever and ever, amen, however rather a damn durable, which, as way as primitive humans were involved translated as, for all sensible functions, 'immortal'.
The bottom line in all this is often that the gods are extremely extraterrestrials; their pets, the dragons are aliens; a part of the god's bestiary. When the gods left the building (Planet Earth), they took their dragons with them still because the remainder of their so-called 'mythological' menagerie.
*As an aside, the particular slaying of dragons is problematically against such events. If as described (see above) you'd no a lot of go up against a dragon armed solely with a sword as you'd a T-Rex. You'd need a minimum of a military tank beneath or at your command or a military of swordsmen at the smallest amount (and expect scores of casualties too). Then too, the gods won't allow the slaying of their pets. after all the Christian church would encourage tall tales of dragon slaying since the dragon was pagan and should even be symbolic of Satan.
Telling tales of slaying dragons is akin, IMHO, to a fisherman's tall tales - the six in. fish that got away, when a couple of drinks at the pub, seems to be a six foot monster fish! however if dragons were extremely slain, where are all the mounted and stuffed dragon head trophies that ought to be on show in all manner of how and places? Lack of such stuffed trophies does not prove dragons did not exist (there aren't any taxidermic head trophies of sabre-toothed cats either on display), rather that mortals did not dare go up against them!
