THE DRAGON IN WESTERN MYTHOLOGY
The dragon is not a conception of the Chinese mind alone. It also occupies a prominent place in the legends and literature of most of the countries of Europe. Cicero in his “de Divinatione” (Book II, line 30), Euripides in his “Philostratus” (Book I, line 2), and Homer in the “Iliad” (Book II, line 309) all mention a dragon.
The Bible, in twenty-two references in the Old Testament and thirteen instances in the New, refers to the dragon either allegorically or as a real animal; however, in many of these passages, especially in the Old Testament, the word “dragon” is an unfortunate rendition, for in several places the writers of the Scriptures very evidently had the conception of an animal that was in all probability the modern jackal.
The myths and legends of Europe have preserved for us numerous dragon stories with which we are more or less familiar. Among others are the tale of Perseus, who rescued Andromeda from a dragon; the story of St. George and the [[39]]Dragon; the account of Sigfried, who killed a dragon at Worms; and the story of Beowulf, who in the early days of history’s dawn dispatched a dragon after slaying Grendel.
King Arthur, who was spoken of as the “dread Pendragon,” is described by Tennyson, in his “Idylls of the King,” as sitting upon a veritable dragon throne which would vie in splendor with that of China’s Manchu emperors. The vivid imagination of the poet laureate gives us this picture:
“To his crown the golden dragon clung
And down his robe the dragon writhed in gold
And from the carven work behind him crept
Two dragons gilded, sloping down to make
Arms to his chair, while all the rest of them