Dragons, serpents and slayers in the classical and early Christian worlds : a sourcebook / Daniel Ogden.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Ogden, Daniel.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Dragons--Folklore.

Dragons.

Dragons--Religious aspects.

Dragons in the Bible.

Mythology, Classical.

Genre:

Folklore.

Physical Description:

xxiii, 319 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2013.

Summary:

Tales of Dragons, Serpents, and their Slayers make up a rich and varied tradition within ancient mythology and folklore. With this sourcebook, Daniel Ogden presents a comprehensive and easily accessible collection of dragon myths from Greek, Roman, and early Christian sources. Some of the dragons featured are well known: the Hydra, slain by Heracles; the Dragon of Colchis, the guardian of the golden fleece overcome by Jason and Medea; and the great sea-serpent from which Perseus rescues Andromeda. But the lesser-known dragons are often equally enthralling, such as the Dragon of Thespiae, which Menestratus slays by feeding himself to it in armor covered in fish-hooks, or the lamias of Libya, whose tails, shaped like beautiful, women, entice young men to their peril. The texts are arranged in such a way as to allow readers to witness the continuity of and evolution in dragon stories between the Classical and Christian worlds, and to understand the genesis of saintly dragon-slaying stories of the sort now characteristically associated with St. George, whose earliest dragon-fight concludes the volume. All texts, many of which have not previously been available in English, are offered in new translations and accompanied by lucid commentaries that place them into their mythical, folkloric, literary, and cultural contexts. This volume promises to be the most authoritative sourcebook on this perennially fascinating and influential body of ancient myth. Book jacket.

Contents:

The classical dragon: The genealogy of the great dragons

Typhon, slain by Zeus

Python, slain by Apollo

Heracles' dragons (I): baby Heracles and the dragon-pair sent by Hera

Heracles' dragons (II): the hydra

Heracles' dragons (III): Ladon, the dragon of the Hesperides

Heracles' dragons (IV): Cerberus, the hound of Hades

The chimaera, slain by Bellerophon

Medusa, slain by Perseus

Lamia, slain by Eurybatus and others

The dragon of Ares, slain by Cadmus

The dragon of Nemea, slain by the Seven against Thebes

The dragon of Colchis, slain or put to sleep by Jason and Medea

The dragon-pair sent against Laocoon and his sons

The dragon of the river Bagrada, slain by Regulus and his army

Some unique dragon-slaying and dragon-averting narratives in later Greek sources

The sea-monster of Troy, slain by Heracles

The sea-serpent of Ethiopia, slain by Perseus

Scylla, slain by Heracles and encountered by Odysseus

The Christian dragon: The serpents of the Bible and its Apocrypha

The dragons of the early hagiographical tradition

St Philip, the echidna and the ophianoi

St Silvester and the dragon of Rome

Saintly tales originating between the fourth and sixth centuries AD

Saintly tales of the central medieval period

St Patrick and St George

Appendix A: World-foundational dragon-slaying tales from the ancient Near East and India

Appendix B: Germanic dragon fights of the eighth to thirteenth centuries AD

Appendix C: A selection of dragon- and serpent-slaying tales of folkloric Interest.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199925117

0199925119

9780199925094

0199925097

OCLC:

806291872