Dragon of Lore Series: Ancient Greek Dragons!

Dragon myths run deep and long in ancient Greek culture. There were all sorts of different types of dragons and from that sprang dozens of brilliant stories of Greek gods or heroes battling these terrible beasts, and of course saving their fellow countrymen and Greek civilization in the process. In fact, there are so many fantastic dragon stories that there is no way I could get to them all in this blog article. Instead, I researched the ones that greatly appealed to me and from that will offer you a taste of ancient Greek dragon lore, while strongly encouraging you to dig deeper on your own.

Greek mythology cannot be discussed in a broader sense without first mentioning Zeus, the chief god and centerpiece of a once thriving religion. Zeus seemed to have the talent, or power, if you will, to control dragons. He used them in various ways, but mainly to protect something he valued or to give grief to his enemies. To attain this power he had to battle the father of all dragons, Typhon. Typhon attacked Zeus in anger after Zeus defeated the Titans. But Zeus defeated and entrapped Typhon beneath Mt. Etna in Sicily, one of the most active volcanoes in the world. 

After that, Zeus used the Nemean Dragon to guard his sacred groves. This beast was killed by an angry mob of soldiers after the beast devoured the baby crown-prince. The sacred grove of Zeus, along with his temple was most likely destroyed in the fifth century by Roman emperor Theodosius II, who had great disdain for its’ pagan leanings.

In Greek mythology there are four main types of dragons. All their ancient dragon lore came from one of these four species. Dracones were serpents with viciously sharp teeth, fatally poisonous bite, sometimes had multiple heads and usually guarded a great treasure, magickal grove or spring. Some of the more prominent Dracones were the before mentioned Typhon, Python, who guarded the Oracle of Delphi before Apollo took over, the Trojan Dracone who tried unsuccessfully to warn the people of Troy about the Trojan Horse.

The next dragon species are the Cetea. These are great sea serpents. The Kraken loosed by Hades in the Perseus story was a Cetea. The creature’s real name was Cetus, not the Kraken as described in modern contemporary movies. Kraken is actually the name of a Norse sea monster that resembled a giant octopus. But, who would let facts stand in the way of a great Hollywood movie?!

The third Greek dragon species are the fire-breathing Chimaera. Often depicted as part lion, part goat and part serpent, this is the type of dragon which was later adopted into medieval dragon tales, such as St. George and the dragon, which we explored in a very popular piece that appeared earlier in the Dragons of Lore series.

The fourth and final species of dragon were the Dracaena, which means She-Dragon. These creatures where thought to be beautiful human-like nymphs from the waist up, but scaly serpent in their lower half. Think evil mermaids! These beasts where the spawns of the most evil dragons of lore and were so powerful in their own right that they could usually be slain by gods such as Zeus and Apollo or demigods such as Heracles and giants such as Argus Panoptes.

Speaking of Heracles, he was perhaps the greatest dragon slayer of all-time. He is credited with slaying the multi-headed Hydra as one of his twelve labors of King Eurystheus. He tricked Atlas into stealing golden apples from the dragon Ladon, by offering to hold the world on his shoulders, which was Atlas curse. After Atlas stole the apples, Heracles asked him to hold the world momentarily while he found some sheep fur to protect his shoulders. He took the apples and ran! 

Heracles also slew a Cetea dragon to save the Trojan princess Hesione, in a story eerily similar to the Perseus story. Heracles then mated with a Scythian Drakaina, named Enchinda, who had stolen his cattle. She was a type of mermaid/dragoness. The result of this union was three sons, one of which began a long line of Scythian kings. His name was Skythe and his empire prospered for several hundred years, before finally being destroyed by the Goths. Pretty decent legacy for Heracles the Dragon Slayer.

Click To Purchase Paul DeThroe's Dark Fiction @ Amazon