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Sea serpent, a water dragon found in mythology and legends throughout the world. The unnamed five-headed dragon subdued by the Buddhist goddess Benzaiten at Enoshima in Japan in A.D. 552; The unnamed dragon defeated by Saint George. Cockatrice, a two-legged dragon or serpent-like creature with a rooster's head.
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.
Dragons are well known in myths and legends of Spain, in no small part because St. George (Catalan Sant Jordi) is the patron saint of Catalonia. Like most mythical reptiles, the Catalan dragon (Catalan drac) is an enormous serpent-like creature with four legs and a pair of wings, or rarely, a two-legged creature with a pair of wings, called a ...
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.
Japanese dragon myths amalgamate native legends with imported stories about dragons from China, Korea and the Indian subcontinent. The style and appearance of the dragon was heavily influenced by the Chinese dragon, especially the three-clawed long (龍) dragons which were introduced in Japan from China in ancient times.
Wawel Dragon. The Wawel Dragon (Polish: Smok Wawelski), also known as the Dragon of Wawel Hill, is a famous dragon in Polish legend. According to the earliest account (13th century), a dragon (Greek: holophagos, "one who swallows whole") plagued the capital city of Kraków established by legendary King Krak (or Krakus, Gracchus, etc.).
In Greek myth, dragon's teeth (Greek: ὀδόντες (τοῦ) δράκοντος, odontes (tou) drakontos) feature prominently in the legends of the Phoenician prince Cadmus and in Jason 's quest for the Golden Fleece. In each case, the dragons are present and breathe fire. Their teeth, once planted, would grow into fully armed warriors.
For instance, multi-headed dragons in Greek mythology include the 9-headed Lernaean Hydra and the 100-headed Ladon, both slain by Heracles. Two other Japanese examples derive from Buddhist importations of Indian dragon myths. Benzaiten, the Japanese form of Saraswati, supposedly killed a five-headed dragon at Enoshima in 552.