JUST MYTHS Tales about dragons are told all over the world Some stories describe dragons as murderous and cruel Others show them as protectors of humankind Some dragons breathe fire Others grant wishes and give gifts Cultures around the world include dragon myths and legends as part of their recorded history bringing together fact and fiction Some of the earliest stories about dragons came from Babylon and Egypt Ancient Egyptians for example believed that the sun god Re defeated a dragon-like beast called Apopis each night This book will introduce you to more dragons of myth and lore They range in size ability color and temperament So many stories from so many peoples exist that you have to wonder Are dragons real DRAGONS OF BABYLON In Babylonian stories Tiamat was a dragon goddess of salt water She gave birth to all the Babylonian gods Another creature of Babylonian myth was mušhuššu It had a scaly dragon’s body the legs of a lion a long neck and tail and an eagle’s talons It was a symbol of the god Marduk and was featured on the Ishtar Gate which was built during the time of King Nebuchadnezzar II around 575 BCE
FACT A IT'S The Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon was decorated with images of dragons This reconstruction is in Berlin Germany An illustration of the city and gate is below Babylon was a famous ancient city It was the capital of southern Mesopotamia an area of southwestern Asia between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers
DRAGONS IN EUROPE The dragons of European legends were enormous animals with reptilian or reptile-like bodies Some had two legs and others had four Some had wings and some could breathe fire They killed with their sharp talons and teeth Most dragons had only one head but the dragon Typhon had one hundred In Greek myths Typhon was the youngest son of Gaea the Earth goddess and Tartarus the god of the underworld In some stories Zeus the ruler of the gods threw Typhon into the underworld In other tales the many-headed dragon was imprisoned under Mount Etna on the island of Sicily Mount Etna isn’t a myth it’s an actual volcano Ancient Greeks sometimes blamed Typhon for making it erupt It was a way to explain a confusing natural event IT’S IN THE ILIAD The Iliad is a famous Greek epic According to tradition the poet Homer wrote it around the eighth century BCE The story is about a war between the people of Troy and the Greeks Greek gods play a part too While no dragons are in the story the Greek king Agamemnon wears a blue dragon on his sword belt This tells us that ancient Greeks were aware of dragons in the 700s BCE even if just in stories
2 HELLAS IEYS 1973 IT'S A FACT This artwork shows the Greek god Zeus fighting with the dragon god Typhon Mount Etna right still erupts today The word dragon comes from the Greek word drakon which means serpent A serpent is another name for a large snake
