Journal of Geomancy vol. 3 no. 2, January 1979
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Dragon legends persist throughout the world, handed down in legends which have existed since times remote. In the Bible; in England (St George/St Michael); in China, the dragon is a well-known creature and it is hard to imagine that this ‘fiery’ monster did not exist and is not merely allegorical. The same I believe is true for the counterpart of the dragon – sea serpents (eg ‘Nessie’). According to Diodorus Siculus, dragons both of land and sea were well recorded. Repeated mention is made of these creatures existing in many parts of the Near East. The important point about these accounts is that Diodorus accepts them as being perfectly in order and never queries the veracity of these dragons, so therefore we must deduce that those creatures were accepted as being perfectly natural in those days.
Diodorus was a Greek historian/biographer, born in Sicily (hence the ‘Siculus’ part of his name). He wrote many histories, the most important extant ones of which are Books I–IV which I am using as source material. He did borrow much from other earlier writers and admits that some of his accounts may be a little fanciful or exaggerated (but even then you had to hold your reading audience!), even so historians have shown that much of what Diodorus wrote was true, so we can safely use his text with trust.
There are many fanciful descriptions of snakes and serpents residing in Africa, particularly in Ethiopia, which sound more like dragons today regarding their size, strength and stature. His ‘snakes’ have ‘fiery breath, lance-like tongues and fierce eyes’.
In Libya, Diodorus describes a dragon once extant which guarded either golden apples or sheep (for the Ancient Greek word for apples and sheep is actually the same and so has become confused in translation) of the Hesperides. Personally, I would take sheep as being correct, in the light of Jason’s quest for the golden fleece, a veritable Arthurian/Holy Grail type venture. These gardens or fields were meant to be guarded in allusion by a shepherd named Dracon! He apparently excelled in strength of body and courage and as a vigilante slew any who might dare to carry off his treasure. Heracles, however, as one of his labours, succeeded in stealing them and returned home safely to Greece.
As regarding the golden fleece, this was guarded by fire-breathing bulls (tauroi) in a precinct. A sleepless dragon in constant vigil wrapped himself in coils around the fleece itself as its guardian. Diodorus regarded these references as allegorical. The identity of the names came about by transferring the name of the strong men called the Taurians to the cattle (tauroi) because of their strength and cruelty shown in the murder of strangers. This meant that a potential thief would be killed before he even reached the fearful dragon and Diodorus says that this ferocity developed into the myth of fire-breathing bulls. One wonders however if Diodorus was wrong and it was the cattle which gave the men their name. Diodorus relates that the name of the guardian who watched over the sacred precinct was Dracon, similarly to the Hesperides. The name was transferred by the poets to the monstrous and fear-inspiring beast, the dragon. This can be seen as definite affirmation of the existence of dragons as being perfectly natural.
According to him, something fearful and awe-inspiring, rationalized in etymological terms as a dragon, did definitely exist in those days. Diodorus makes clear distinctions between snakes, serpents, dragons and sea-monsters. They are all separate and distinct entities.
‘River Horses’ are resident in Egyptian rivers. In Ethiopia ‘serpents’ are described as marvellous for their size and multitude, attacking elephants at water-holes, drowning them by winding their coils around the flesh of the animal and physically squeezing it to death. These serpents never lived in the level part of the country, to which they were unaccustomed, but lived at the foot of mountains in ravines and deep caves suitable for their length. This meant that they could easily attack and take {47} shelter again afterwards. Thus several points are seen to differentiate land-based and sea-based ‘serpents’. The land-based ones are much larger and seem to be very much like dragons in their devouring of elephants.
This sounds very reminiscent of a reference in the Bords’ The Secret Country of a live dragon being imported from Ethiopia to County Durham in 1568, which thus seems entirely possible. Also the Lambton Worm (a dragon) wrapped its tail around the hill nine times, as did the dragon who guarded the golden fleece.
One key to the Lambton Worm coiled around the hill is in Diodorus’s works where he says that in Ethiopia, wherever a large serpent, sometimes as much as 100 cubits long, coiled itself up on a large, flat plain, it actually resembled in its elevations a hill itself!
Ptolemy II, a great animal hunter and collector, offered a great reward to several hunters in order to procure one of these dragons for his collection.* The hunters spied one thirty cubits long, but were frightened by its “fiery eye, its darting tongue in every direction, the sound of its scales brushing through the trees, its savage mouth, its extraordinary-sized teeth and the astonishing height of the heap of its coil.” The story of its eventual capture in a net by the hunters is fascinating to read. The hunters finally overcame the cunning of the ‘serpent’ and it was sent to Alexandria with awe and wonder where it was eventually domesticated and tamed by deprivation of food. This was conclusive proof to Diodorus as it was in the public eye in his time and he actually saw it.
He further describes the devouring of oxen and the way ‘serpents’ blinded elephants with “the nature of their eyes” which sent out “brilliant flashes like lightning”.
The Red Sea was also well known for ‘sea monsters’ of all kinds owing to its depth. These offered no harm to men, and in contrast were “blinded by the brilliance of the sun when surfacing”. Could this be why the Loch Ness Monster keeps well under water?
These are then the ancient extant proofs of an Ancient Greek author that dragons once existed. The reason why they disappeared must remain yet another unsolved mystery alongside the legends of giants, fairies, devils and their like.
*‘EDITOR’S NOTE: Carvings extant from the time of the Egyptian King Thutmose III show many well-known plants and birds brought back from a military expedition, but there are also a number of birds and plants among them which have no living representatives today.