I think about dragons every now and then, and the fact there is some kind of legend or myth about them across most continents. So, like the other articles Giants, Fairy Tales and Myths, Monsters & Legends, I try to piece together what it is about it that makes me thinks there is something to it. It was particularly the fire breathing aspect that I kept mulling over, because we have lizards today which almost fit the bill, small ones with flaps of skin looking like wings, large heavy set lumbering ones without any form of wings. But while discussing the phoenix the other day, and descriptions of it bursting into flames, I thought of a fire breathing dragon. Then I thought of a few other mythological creatures that seemed similar once I lined them up in my head. And when put together as below, you can see why I thought of all of them all in turn.

Phoenix – a magnificent creature that was a symbol of renewal and rebirth.

Sphinx – mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle.

Griffin – mythical creature known as a half-eagle, half-lion.

Chimera – a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature, composed of different animal parts.

Dragons feature in all sorts of stories though, Archangel Michael slaying a dragon, St George known for the same. Each of the ancient stories and fantastical tales featuring a winged creature, that had the ability to kill you on the spot or some great power to overcome and defeat.

Another came to mind based on its description, although the visual portrayal I had for this myself was from a movie, so didn’t fit until I gave more thought to the aspect of serpents in all these stories. Medusa being the most ‘famous’ of these I believe.

Gorgons – snakes for hair, wings, claws, tusks, and scales.

If we did happen to find any remnants of things like that today, we might think they looked like dinosaurs or pterodactyls perhaps, or just a plain old snake or bird – or a snake eating a bird, if you have both in the same fossil. Maybe. I know it sounds like reaching a bit, but I like to consider all options. So of course, they really could just be fantastical and outrageous stories we like to retell and pass down through the ages. For no reason other than to entertain it would seem, and to make us think of a time that never was. Or, there is the far-fetched possibility that we really did have a more fantastical time that came before, and something they haven’t been able to get rid of, so rewrite them instead, giving them different names and meaning, scattering the truth to the far-flung corners of the earth for it to be diluted and lost. Until such time of course, that it comes back, as truth often does…

(c) K Wicks