DRAGON, in fabulous history, one of the most famous mythological crea tions of antiquity and the middle ages. The position which this being occupies in fabulous history presents one of the most singular phenomena of the human mind, as its existence was firmly accred ited among the ancients of almost every nation, both in the eastern and western regions of the earth. It occurs in the sacred allegories of the Jews, and in the legends of the Chinese and Japanese ; and the pages of the classic poets of Greece and Rome teem with representa tions of the dragon. Thus the dark re treats of their gods and their sacred groves were defended by dragons; the chariot of Ceres was drawn by them ; and a dragon kept the garden of the Hesper ides. In Scandinavian mysteries, the dragon was the minister of vengeance under their vindictive gods ; and the an cient Britons, enslaved in the trammels of Druidic superstition, entertained a similar notion of its nature. The alle gory of the Dragon has even found a place among many nations who have em braced Christianity. The dragon plays as important it part in Art as he does in Fiction. We find it upon the shield of the most famous of the early Grecian heroes, as well as on the helmets of kings and generals. It does not appear among the Romans until after their struggle with the Dacians, by which people it was regarded as the sign of warfare; and it remained with the former people a subor dinate symbol, as the glorious eagle was not to be displaced from helmets and standards. The dragon was of
more importance in German antiquity ; as with the early Greeks, it was the sym bol of the hero. In the Nibelungen Lied, Siegfried killed a dragon at Worms. It is found on English shields after the time of William the Conqueror. In modern heraldry it appears on the shield and helmet ; and as a supporter it is called a lindworm when it has no wings, and serpent when it has no feet ; when it hangs by the head and wings it means a conquered dragon.—Dragon. in Christian Art, is the emblem of sin. The dragons which appear in early paintings and sculptures are invariably represen tations of a winged crocodile. It is the form under which Satan, the personifica tion of sin, is usually depicted, and is met with in pictures of St. Michael and St. Margaret, when it typifies the con quest over sin ; it also appears under the feet of the Saviour, and under those of the Virgin, as conveying the same idea. Sin is represented in the form of a ser pent, sometimes with an apple in its mouth. The dragon also typifies idolatry. In pictures of St. George and St. Sylves ter, it serves to exhibit the triumph over paganism. In pictures of St. Martha, it figures the inundation of the Rhone, spreading pestilence and death. St. John the Evangelist is sometimes represented holding a chalice from which issues a winged dragon. As a symbol of Satan, we find the dragon nearly always in the form of the fossil Ictliyosattrus.