The first western dragons were Greek, Drakon comes from the word Darc, meaning to see, or to see clearly. Female dragons were called a Draikaina, but because a majority of famous dragons were male, the name disappeared. Greek legends originated the stories of princesses being saved from dragons by young heroes.
JASON AND THE GOLDEN FLEECE is the earliest Greek dragon legend.
Jason, the grandson of Aeolos, god of wind ,was the rightful king of Thessaly in Greece. He was usurped by his guardian uncle Pelias, who sent Jason to retrieve the Golden Fleece which had been left on the island of Colchis by his cousin Phrixos. Jason set sail on the Argo with sailors, the Argonauts.
Finally, reaching Colchis, the king there,Ae‘ts,refused to give up the fleece unless the Argonauts performed certain tasks for him. This done, Jason was allowed fetch the Golden Fleece,which was guarded by a dragon that never slept.
The Golden Fleece hung on a sacred oak,in a grove of the temple of Ares with the dragon coiled around the tree base. King Aeets' daughter, Medea was a beautiful sorceress princess who had fallen in love with Jason. Medea made Jason promise to marry her if she showed him how to retrieve the golden fleece safely from the dragon. Medea concocted a magic sleeping potion from poppy seeds which Jason sprinkled in the dragon's eyes dripped from a juniper branch. Jason had also been made fire proof by Medea. The Dragon fell into slumber and Jason succeeded in taking the fleece.
The Argonauts left Colchis,Jason taking Medea with him to return to Thessaly to become king and queen. King Aeets gave chase, but was stopped. Jason returned to present the Golden Fleece to Pelias who refused to give over the throne. He was slain by Jason,who then ruled Thessaly,as well as Corinth,which Medea's father had ruled before leaving for Colchis.
Jason and Medea ruled together for some years,but Jason formed a relationship with Kreusa,and married her. Incensed by this, Medea poisoned Kreusa, set fire to the palace of her father, Kreon and slew all the children she herself had borne to Jason.
Medea fled to Athens and married Aegeus, living with him until Theseus drove her out. Jason himself, troubled at the grief his ex-wife had caused, retired to the isthmus of Corinth, where the Argo lay. On approaching the ship,part of the stern gave way and fell on him, killing him.
CECROPS, represented as half human, half dragon was mythical founder of Athens and first king of Attica. He is credited with inventing writing and establishing marriage and burial customs.
CADIMUS slew a dragon and sowed its teeth into a field, where they grew into an army who helped him found the great city of Thebes.
LADON, a dragon with one hundred heads was the son of Mother Earth. As guardian of Hera's golden apples, which grew in the Garden of Hesperides, he had curled himself around the tree so nobody could get at it.
Herakles (Hercules) had a task to steal three golden apples and decided to acquire the help of Atlas. Atlas, who had offended the gods was made to carry the world on his shoulders for all times as punishment. Hercules offered to take on the burden for an hour if Atlas would use the time to retrieve the golden apples. Atlas agreed, but Hercules had to rid Atlas of the dragon problem and killed the beast with one arrow. Atlas retrieved the apples, but feeling good not having the world on his shoulders, went to Hercules and told him he was leaving, and would return in a few months. Hercules agreed, but begged Atlas to take the world for a moment so that he could get some padding for his head. Atlas took the world... Hercules took the apples and left. Hera, saddened by the loss of her dragon, made a place for it in he sky as the constellation Draco
"For twixt the sunlight and the shadow green shone out fair apples of red and gleaming gold. Moreover round the tree, in many a fold, lay coiled a dragon, glittering little less than that which his eternal watchfulness Was set to guard;" (William Morrace: 'The Life and Death of Jason').
TYPHON, was the largest monster ever born, his bottom portion and hands were a mass of coiled snakes. His arms would stretch hundreds of leagues in either direction. "His vast wings darkened the sun, fire flashed from his eyes, and flaming rocks hurtled from his mouth." (Robert Graves, The Greek Myths)
Typhon frightened the gods of Olympus sending them fleeing to Egypt. When Zeus was taunted for his cowardice he returned to fight Typhon. Zeus was defeated on Mount Casius and the sinews that gave him movement in his hands and feet were severed. Hermes and Pan reassembled the immortal Zeus.
Continuing battle in mountainous Thrace, Typhon hurtled whole mountains at Zeus while thunderbolts electrified the sky. Typhon was wounded, bleeding streams of blood which resulted in the name of Mount Haemus. Typhon fled in a rage towards Sicily where Zeus won the battle by thrusting Mount Aetna on top of Typhon. Aetna still belches fire and flame today and the Mediterranean Sea shore is still pockmarked in evidence of their tremendous battle.
(The word typhoon comes from Typhon, the name of the fire breathing monster that served the Titans of Greek myth. .....And the word hurricane comes from Huracan the name of the winged serpent of the Caribbean. In stories worldwide, dragons control the weather and represent the mysteries of nature.)
LERNAEAN HYDRA, a huge serpent with nine heads, the centre one of which is immortal. Daughter of Echidna and Typhon, her accomplice was Cancer the Crab, her half-brother, the Nemean Lion, was killed by Heracles (Hercules).
The destruction of the hydra was the second labour of the 12 labours of Hercules, a half-god. The Hydra lived in a swamp in Lerna, a pool formed by the Amymone spring. As soon as Hercules managed to slash one of her heads off with his sword two more heads grew back. He finally succeeded in defeating the Hydra when he commanded his charioteer nephew Iolaus to sear the neck of each mortal head as it was chopped off, cauterising the wound with a hot iron. He buried the immortal head under a rock. Hercules dipped his arrows in the Hydra's venom, making them fatally poisonous. It is said to haunt the marshes of Lerna near Argos.
The earliest representations of the Hydra date from 14 century B.C. and can be found on a Syrian Seal.
PERSEUS wore winged sandals lent to him by the god Hermes and was flying home to Greece after slaying Medusa. As he flew, over Ethiopia, he spied a beautiful black woman chained to a rock on the shore of the Red Sea.
Perseus descended and was told a piteous tale. She was Andromeda, daughter of the rulers of the country, Cepheus and his wife Cassiopeia. On the advice of an oracle, Cepheus had set his daughter by the shore to serve as a sacrifice to a sea dragon that was ravaging his kingdom.
Perseus went to the King and offered to slay the dragon in return for the hand of Andromeda, the king agreed. When Perseus returned to Andromeda, the beast had appeared, screaming, it cut through the foaming sea toward the maiden. With a stamp of his winged feet, Perseus soared into the air, hovered above the dragon's back and attacked it with his sword. The sea dragon lunged at him, but Perseus darted and stabbed like a wasp, always out reach. The sword began to penetrate the thick hide and blood stained the water. The dragon heaved an awful sigh and sank beneath the waves. Perseus took Andromeda for his own that day.
POSEIDON conjured a huge dragon sea serpent that attacked the city of Troy. King Laomedon had reneged on an agreement with gods Poseidon and Apollo, who had built an impenetrable wall around his city of Troy. An oracle told Laomedon that sacrificing his daughter to the dragon would appease the gods. Laomedon chained his daughter to a rock and left her for the dragon. Hercules offered to slay the dragon in exchange for some horses that Laomedon had received from Zeus. Laomedon agreed, but once again tried to go back on his word. After Hercules killed the serpent, a curse was brought down on Troy that eventually lead to the Trojan War.
OKEANOS, the Greek sea serpent of the outermost ocean. Hermetists worshipped Ouroboros, king of magic; Two serpents eating each other's tails combines yin-yang mandala, bisexual nature of Hermes, and all cyclic alternations: birth/death, summer/winter, light/dark...
ATHENA is the warrior Goddess of Wisdom; her emblem, the ubiquitous serpent, or Naga, is displayed on her shield as the symbol of wisdom.
ISIS and NAPTHYS, goddesses of birth and death, are identified with the dual serpent of life and afterlife.They assist the soul through the part of the underworld identified with serpent deities.
BASILISK, King of the reptiles, is a venomous lizard just under three feet long with a large crown like tuft on its head and thick bird like legs. The Greek word basileus means king. A glance from its powerful eyes can kill a man. Only three things can kill a Basilisk: a cock's crowing can induce a fatal seizure, a weasel bite or a glance in a mirror seeing another Basilisk.
