Ancient Earth dragons and serpents

There are many dragons in Europe.

Ancient Greece

In Greek mythology two dragons drove Demeter's chariot. Flying serpents also drove the chariot of the witch Medea.
Another dragon guarded the Golden Fleece that Jason had to get, then plant the dragons teeth so that an army would appear. A dragon also guarded the tree with the golden apples which Hercules had to get for one of his tasks.
Some of the dragons were sacred to the gods. Such as the Serpent that Cadmus killed that was guarding a grove. He also sowed the dragon teeth to get an army of men. He then had such misfortune that he cried "If a serpent's life is so dear to the gods, I would I were myself a serpent." Thus said he and his wife became serpents. These last three dragons were all guarding something and may have been the early precursors to a dragon hoard of gold.
They also had an early maiden dragon, this is with Perseus. The queen had compared her beauty to a god, so the gods sent a sea monster to wreak havoc. It was found out if they sacrifice their daughter to the sea monster the gods would be appeased. This is when Perseus comes along asks for the daughters hand in marriage and slays the serpent.

Norse myths

The Norse had myths about serpents and dragons too. One of the serpents was the Midgard serpent, child of Loki god of mischief. The Midgard serpent was supposed to live in the ocean and was so long that it encircled the earth. Another creature that is certainly a dragon was Fafnir. Originally the son of Rodmar who he killed for the gold on the otter skin. Because of his greed he changed into a dragon. He was eventually slayed by Sigurd. It is interesting to note that the Norse attributed powers to the dragon blood. It gave Sigurd the ability to understand the birds speech, he found this out when he was cooking the dragons heart and accidentally burnt himself. He sucked his fingers which had a bit of the dragons blood. In other versions the dragons blood, was also a terrible poison so that Sigurd had to make a hole with a drain for the blood. This is strange as he then goes on to taste the dragon blood, but this is just one version of the myth.

The dragons from Europe where almost always terrible monsters.
While eastern dragons can be kind and gentle. They are often associated with good luck.

China

Chinese dragons are associated with water and many begin their life in water. The dragons start their life as a water serpent. They then develop a carp headed appearance in which they are now known as Kiao. The stage in development is the anguine dragon or Kiao-lung or Lung in which they develop non function ears. This is a land dragon stage. When the dragon develops horns then it is called a horned anguine dragon or Kioh-lung. The last stage is when they develop their wings when they are called Ying-lung. Some dragons are only for the Emperor.
Chinese dragon information for the lifecycle is from "Dragons A natural history" by Dr Karl Shucker.

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This page was last updated 19/07/02