Chinese
Dragons | Greek Dragons | Roman Dragons
Dragons in Slavic Mythology | Dragons in Germanic and Norse Mythology
Dragons in Catalan Mythology |
Celtic Dragon | Profile of Han
Meilin |
| Nobody really knows
where the dragon comes from. The dragon looks like a combination
of many animals. For the Chinese people, Dragons were described
visually as a composite of parts from nine animals: The horns
of a deer; the head of a camel; the eyes of a devil; the neck
of a snake; the abdomen of a large cockle; the scales of a carp;
the claws of an eagle; the paws of a tiger; and the ears of an
ox. The Chinese word for Dragon is spelled out in roman characters
as either lung or long. In China, the Dragon was credited with
having great powers that allowed them to make rain and to control
floods by striking the river with its tail, causing it to open
and thus divert the floodwaters. Dragons are credited for transportation
of humans to the celestial realms after death. Also, in China,
Dragons are symbols of the natural world, adaptability, and transformation.
When two dragons are placed together but turned away, they symbolize
eternity via the famous Yin-Yang. |
| Chinese
Dragons
Chinese
emperors think they are the real dragons and the sons of heaven.
Thus the beds they sleep on are called the dragon beds, the throne
called the dragon seat, and the emperor's ceremonial dresses
called the dragon robes.
In
the minds of the early Chinese people, the dragon was a god that
embodied the will and ideals of the Chinese people. It is said
that the dragon is a large-scaled reptile, which can become dark
or bright, large or small, long or short, and can fly into the
sky in the spring and live under the water in the fall. They
believe the kings of the water dragons live in dragon palaces
under the oceans. The Chinese sign for the dragon appears during
the Yin and Shang dynasties (from the 16th to the 11th century
BC, the period of the earliest Chinese hieroglyphs), between
inscriptions on bones and turtle shields. These inscriptions
depicted a horned reptile, teeth, scales and sometimes paws as
well.
In ancient China
nobody had any doubts about the existence of dragons. People showed great respect
for any dragon depicted in pictures, carvings and writings, and as a result the
dragon became the symbol of Chinese nation. All people in china, including
the emperor, prostrated themselves before the image of a dragon
with reverence and awe. As a result, this unreal animal became
the spiritual sustenance for a nation: first, as the totem of
a tribe and then as the symbol of the nation. Eventually it became
the sign on the national flag of the last feudal dynasty, the
Qing Dynasty. The chinese people regard themselves as descendants
of the dragon. |
| |
Saint George Versus the Dragon,
Gustave Moreau, c. 1880. This small one has the look of a griffin or a wyvern.
Greek Dragons
For the Greeks of the Classical times, dragons
were terrifying serpent-like earth-born remnants of an earlier
age, dark creatures that had to be heroically eliminated. Dragons
were guardians of underground sources of power, and often guarded
the more literal sources, springs, where the watery underworld
burst to the surface. The water-dragon most widely depicted was
literally called the "Hydra." The
serpent-like dragon guardian of the spring or cleft, where healing
and oracular properties must not be approached without caution,
was a protector of the original inhabitants of Greece (Pelasgians)
and their prehistoric lore. Always, in the literary myths that
have survived, |
the hero from
the new Olympian age is seen to destroy the dragon, never to
consult it; the dragon has been reinterpreted as having terrified
and threatened the local populace (as the sea-dragon in the myth
of Perseus and Andromeda). At the ancient oracle of Gaia at Delphi
came from deep in the cleft, the Goddess's serpent-like dragon
and his seeress; but Apollo "saved" the
inhabitants of Delphi from its "ravages", then assumed
the oracular powers for himself. Maintaining its ancient role,
a dragon guarded the Golden Fleece in the ancient story of Jason
that we know from the late Alexandrian epic. Dragons were often
classed among the noisome brood of Typhon and Echidna |
| Roman
Dragons
Western
dragons have descended from Roman dragons. Roman dragons evolved
from serpentine Greek ones, combined with the dragons of Persia,
in the mix that characterized the hybrid Greek/Eastern Hellenistic culture. John's Book
of Revelation, Greek literature, not Roman,
describes Satan as "a great
dragon, flaming red, with seven heads and ten horns." Much
of John's literary inspiration is late Hebrew and Greek, but
John's dragon, like his satan, are both more likely to have come
originally through Persia. Perhaps our distinctions between dragons
of western origin and Chinese
dragons are arbitrary. A later
Roman dragon was certainly of Iranian origin: in the Roman Empire,
where each military cohort had a particular identifying signum,
(military standard), after the Parthian
War of Trajan in the
east, the cohorts returned with the draco that they borrowed
from their Parthian enemies: a large dragon fixed to the end
of a lance, with large gaping jaws of silver and with the rest
of the body formed of colored silk. With the jaws facing into
the wind, the silken body inflated and rippled. |
Dragons in Slavic Mythology
Dragons of Slavic mythology hold mixed temperaments towards
humans. For example, dragons in Bulgarian mythology are either
male or female, each gender having a different view of mankind.
The female dragon and male dragon, often seen as brother and
sister, represent different forces of agriculture. The female
dragon represents harsh weather and is the destroyer of crops,
the hater of mankind, and is locked in a never ending battle
with her brother. The male dragon protects the humans' crops
from destruction and is generally loving to humanity. Fire and
water play major roles in Bulgarian dragon lore; the female has
water characteristics, whilst the male is usually a fiery creature.
In Bulgarian legend, dragons are three headed, winged beings
with snake's bodies. |
Dragons in Germanic and Norse Mythology
The
most famous dragons in Norse
mythology and Germanic
mythology,
are Jormungand,
a form of cobra so
big that the earth-disc can be encircled by it; the dragon encountered
by Beowulf;
and Fafnir, who was
killed by Siegfried. Fafnir turned into a dragon because of his
greed. many European stories of dragons have them guarding a
treasure hoard. Both Fafnir's and Beowulf's dragons guarded earthen
mounds full of ancient treasure. The treasure was cursed and
brought ill to those who later possessed it.
Dragons in the
emblem books popular from late medieval times through the 17th
century often represent the dragon as an emblem of greed. The
prevalence of dragons in European heraldry demonstrates that
there is more to the dragon than greed.
Though the Latin
is draco, draconis, it has been supposed by some scholars, including John Tanke
of the University
of Michigan, that the word dragon comes from the Old
Norse draugr, which literally means a spirit who guards the burial mound of a king.
How this image of a vengeful guardian spirit is related to a fire-breathing
serpent is unclear. Many others assume the word dragon comes
from the ancient Greek word derekesthai, meaning 'sharp eyed',
referring to the dragon's legendarily keen eyesight. In any case,
the image of a dragon as a serpent-like creature was already
standard at least by the 8th century when Beowulf was written
down. Although today we associate dragons almost universally
with fire, in medieval legend the creatures were often associated
with water, guarding springs or living near or under water.
Other
European legends about dragons include "Saint
George and the Dragon", in which a brave knight defeats a dragon
holding a princess captive. This legend may be a Christianized
version of the myth of Perseus, or of the mounted Phrygian god
Sabazios vanquishing the chthonic serpent, but its origins are
obscure. Saint
George is the Patron Saint of England. Meanwhile,
across the border, a red dragon is represented on the Welsh flag.
Due to this clash of symbolism, there are very few George and
the Dragon pubs in Wales.
It is possible that the dragon legends
of northwestern Europe are at least partly inspired by earlier
stories from the Roman
Empire, or from the Sarmatians and related
cultures north of the Black
Sea. There has also been speculation
that dragon mythology might have originated from stories of large
land lizards which inhabited Eurasia, or the sight of giant fossil
bones eroding from the earth may have inspired dragon myths. |
Dragons in Catalan Mythology
Dragons are well-known in Catalan
myths and legends,
in no small part because St. George is the patron saint of Catalonia.
Like most dragons, the Catalan dragon is basically an enormous
serpent with two legs - or, rarely, four - and sometimes a pair
of wings. As in many other parts of the world, the dragon's face
may resemble that of some other animal, such as a lion or bull.
As is common elsewhere, Catalan dragons are fire-breathers, and
the dragon-fire is all-consuming. Catalan dragons are also capable
of emitting a fetid odor, which can rot away anything it touches.
The Catalans also distinguish a vibria or female dragon, basically
a dragon with two prominent female breasts, two claws
and an eagle's beak. |
Celtic Dragon
In
Britain, the dragon is now more commonly associated with Wales
due to the national flag having a red dragon (Y Ddraig Goch)
as its emblem and their national rugby union and rugby league
teams are known as the dragons. |
 |
This
may originate in Arthurian
Legend where Merlin, employed by
Vortigern, had a vision of the red dragon (representing the
Britons) and the white dragon (representing the invading Saxons)
fighting beneath Dinas Emrys. The red
dragon was linked with the Britons
who are today represented by the Welsh and Cornish, and it is
believed that the white dragon refers to the Saxons - now the
English - who invaded Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries. This
particular legend also features in the Mabinogion in the story
of Llud and Llevelys.
It has also been speculated
that the red dragon of Wales may have originated in the Sarmatian-influenced
Draco standards carried by Late Roman cavalry, who would have been the primary
defence against the Saxons. In Cymric language the word "ddraich" means
also a chieftain, apparently due to the Roman draco standards. |
| The Profile of Han Meilin
Han Meilin was born in Jinan, capital of east
China's Shandong Province in 1936. He was admitted to the Central
Academy of Arts and Design in 1955, where he studied in the Department
of Arts and Crafts and Department of Textile successively. After
his graduation in 1960, he was retained as a faculty member.
In 1965, he was sent to work in Huainan Porcelain Plant. Han
was again transferred to Anhui Artists Association in 1978 to
engage in professional art work.
In 1980, Han
Meilin's art was exhibited in the United States in 21 cities,
including Boston and New York. In 1989, Han gave three successive
art exhibitions at the Crown Art |
 |
Center, Taipei, and produced
his solo art tour in 17 countries.
The paintings of Han Meilin
focus on animals and the human body. Han Meilin is a diligent
and prolific painter. He has published such painting albums as
Meilin's Paintings, Art Works of Han Meilin, Mountain Flowers
in Full Bloom, Still on the Earth, 100-chicken Paintings, Painting
Collection of Han Meilin and Selection of Arts and Crafts Works
of Han Meilin. He was once the art designer of paper-cutting
cartoons such as Fox Capturing Hunter, Fox Sending Grapes and
Hide-and-seek.
In recent
years, Han Meilin has put most of his time and effort on colossal
urban sculptures. The most prominent one of them is the Five-Dragon
Clock Tower he designed for the Olympic Games held in Atlanta in
1996. The 10-meter-high granite and cast copper sculpture is on
permanent display in Atlanta's Century Park.
Han has also finished
the Group Tiger for Dalian in Liaoning Province, No.1 Bull for Zibo in Shandong
Province, Sacred Bull for Shekou and a bronze bull measuring 30
meters long, 20 meters high and inlaid with luminous pearl and the King
of Western Chu made of stainless steel which is 50 meters both
in height and width for Shenzhen in Guangdong Province.
Exerpts From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
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