A dragon is a mythical creature found in the folklore of many cultures throughout the world. It is roughly serpentine in form and often combines features drawn from different animals, typically including wings, claws and a scaled body, though the specific combination and the creature's character vary widely by tradition. European dragons are generally depicted as dangerous, hoarding treasure and menacing knights, while East Asian dragons are usually beneficent, associated with water, weather and imperial authority. Because the same word covers such different regional figures, this entity records the shared cross-cultural concept, while the culture-specific forms, such as the Western, Chinese and Slavic dragons, are recorded as their own separate entities in this atlas.
Facts
Iconography
SymbolSourced to the subject's own accountA dragon is conventionally rendered as a serpentine body combining features from other animals, most often wings and claws, marking it as a hybrid rather than a plain serpent. 1 Connections
Associated With
Source Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend)Jacobus de Voragine
Held Differently
The Western dragon is one of the major regional variants of the broader cross-cultural dragon concept this entity describes, per this entity's own DistinctFrom note.
Long, the Chinese dragon, is one of the major regional variants of the broader cross-cultural dragon concept this entity describes.
Sources
1. Dragon (Wikipedia)
IntroductionQuote, Introduction
It is roughly serpentine in form, and often possesses features drawn from different animals, such as wings and claws.
Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend)
Jacobus de Voragine, Princeton University Press, 1993Associated With: Saint George and the DragonView the Source Reader Challenges (0)
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