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An early appearance of the Old English word dracan (oblique singular of draca) in Beowulf [1]. The word dragon entered the English language in the early 13th century from Old French dragon, which, in turn, comes from Latin draco (genitive draconis), meaning "huge serpent, dragon", from Ancient Greek δράκων, drákōn (genitive δράκοντος, drákontos) "serpent".
The European dragon is a legendary creature in folklore and mythology among the overlapping cultures of Europe.. The Roman poet Virgil in his poem Culex lines 163–201, [1] describing a shepherd battling a big constricting snake, calls it "serpens" and also "draco", showing that in his time the two words probably could mean the same thing.
A mad dragon which used to live in Mount Kanlaon in Negros Island. According to Hiligaynon mythology, it was defeated by the epic heroes, Laon and Kan. [29] Vietnamese dragons: Rồng or Long: A dragon that is represented with a spiral tail and a long fiery sword-fin. Dragons were personified as a caring mother with her children or a pair of ...
Dragons play a significant role in Greek mythology. [1] Though the Greek drakōn often differs from the modern Western conception of a dragon, it is both the etymological origin of the modern term and the source of many surviving Indo-European myths and legends about dragons.
Chinese dragons have many animal-like forms, such as turtles and fish, but are most commonly depicted as snake-like with four legs. Academicians have identified four reliable theories on the origin of the Chinese dragon: snakes, Chinese alligators, thunder worship and nature worship. [2]
During the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in the 16th century, Spanish conquistadors fought on horse with arquebuses, prefiguring the origin of European dragoons. [6] The origin of the name remains disputed and obscure. It possibly derives from an early weapon, a short wheellock, called a dragon because its muzzle was decorated with a ...
Urnes-style runestone U 887, Skillsta, Sweden, showing a runic dragon and a bipedal winged dragon.. Worms, wurms or wyrms (Old English: wyrm, Old Norse: ormʀ, Old High German: wurm), meaning serpent, are archaic terms for dragons (Old English: dracan, Old Norse: dreki, Old High German: trahho) in the wider Germanic mythology and folklore, in which they are often portrayed as large venomous ...
The ouroboros or uroboros (/ ˌ j ʊər ə ˈ b ɒr ə s /; [2] / ˌ ʊər ə ˈ b ɒr ə s / [3]) is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon [4] eating its own tail. The ouroboros entered Western tradition via ancient Egyptian iconography and the Greek magical tradition. It was adopted as a symbol in Gnosticism and Hermeticism and most ...