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Dragons play a role in Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
.

n was the serpent-like dragon that twined round the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides
Hesperides

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides are nymphs who tend a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world, located near the Atlas mountains in Ancient Libya, or on a distant blessed island at the edge of the encircling Oceanus....
 and guarded the golden apples. Ladon was also said to have numerous heads. He was overcome and slain by Heracles
Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
 (in some versions Hercules was almost killed by Ladon). After a few years, the Argonauts passed by the same spot, on their chthonic
Chthonic

Chthonic designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Ancient Greek religion.Greek khthon is one of several words for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the Landscape or the land as territory ....
 return journey from Colchis
Colchis

In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgia , state monarchy and region in the Western Georgia , which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgians and its subgroups....
 at the opposite end of the world, and heard the lament of "shining" Aigle
Aigle

Aigle is the capital of the district of Aigle in the Cantons of Switzerland of Vaud in Switzerland. The town has a population of 8,100 people....
, one of the Hesperides
Hesperides

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides are nymphs who tend a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world, located near the Atlas mountains in Ancient Libya, or on a distant blessed island at the edge of the encircling Oceanus....
, and viewed the still-twitching Ladon (Argonautica, book iv).

Ladon was given several parentages, each of which placed him at an archaic level in Greek myth: the offspring of "Ceto
Ceto

In Greek mythology, Cetus , also called Ceto or Cetea, was a hideous sea monster, a daughter of Gaia and Pontus . The asteroid 65489 Ceto was named after her, and its satellite Ceto I Phorcys after her husband....
, joined in love with Phorcys
Phorcys

In Greek mythology, Phorcys, or Phorkys , was one of the names of the "Old Man [or One] of the Sea", the primeval Greek sea gods, who, according to Hesiod, was the son of Pontus and Gaia ....
" (Hesiod
Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek language oral poet, his date is uncertain but leading scholars agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the Eighth-century BCE....
, Theogony 333) or of Typhon
Typhon

In Greek mythology, Typhon , also Typheus/Typhoeus , Typhaon or Typhos is the final son of Gaia , fathered by Tartarus, and is the god of wind....
, who was himself serpent-like from the waist down, and Echidna
Echidna

Echidnas , also known as spiny anteaters, are four Extant taxon mammal species belonging to the Tachyglossidae Family of the monotremes....
 (Bibliotheke 2.113; Hyginus
Hyginus

Hyginus can refer to:*Gaius Julius Hyginus , Roman poet, author of Fabulae, reputed author of Poeticon astronomicon*Hyginus Gromaticus, Roman surveyor...
, Preface to Fabulae) or of Gaia
Gaia (mythology)

Gaia Gaia is a Greek primordial gods and chthonic deity in the Ancient Greek Pantheon and considered a Mother Goddess or Great Goddess....
 herself, or in her Olympian manifestation, Hera
Hera

In the Twelve Olympians of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage....
: "The Dragon which guarded the golden apples was the brother of the Nemean lion
Nemean Lion

The Nemean lion was a vicious monster in Greek mythology that lived in Nemea. He was eventually killed by Heracles. The lion was usually considered the offspring of Typhon and Echidna , but it was also said to have fallen from the moon, offspring of Zeus and Selene....
" asserted Ptolemy Hephaestion (recorded in his New History V, lost but epitomized in Photius, Myriobiblion 190).

Lernaean Hydra was a multi-headed dragon-like monster.






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Dragons play a role in Greek mythology
Greek mythology

Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the Ancient Greece concerning their List of Greek mythological figures#Immortals and Greek hero cult, Cosmology#Metaphysical cosmology, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices....
.

Ladon

Ladon was the serpent-like dragon that twined round the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides
Hesperides

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides are nymphs who tend a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world, located near the Atlas mountains in Ancient Libya, or on a distant blessed island at the edge of the encircling Oceanus....
 and guarded the golden apples. Ladon was also said to have numerous heads. He was overcome and slain by Heracles
Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
 (in some versions Hercules was almost killed by Ladon). After a few years, the Argonauts passed by the same spot, on their chthonic
Chthonic

Chthonic designates, or pertains to, deities or spirits of the underworld, especially in relation to Ancient Greek religion.Greek khthon is one of several words for "earth"; it typically refers to the interior of the soil, rather than the living surface of the Landscape or the land as territory ....
 return journey from Colchis
Colchis

In ancient geography, Colchis or Kolkhis was an ancient Georgia , state monarchy and region in the Western Georgia , which played an important role in the ethnic and cultural formation of the Georgians and its subgroups....
 at the opposite end of the world, and heard the lament of "shining" Aigle
Aigle

Aigle is the capital of the district of Aigle in the Cantons of Switzerland of Vaud in Switzerland. The town has a population of 8,100 people....
, one of the Hesperides
Hesperides

In Greek mythology, the Hesperides are nymphs who tend a blissful garden in a far western corner of the world, located near the Atlas mountains in Ancient Libya, or on a distant blessed island at the edge of the encircling Oceanus....
, and viewed the still-twitching Ladon (Argonautica, book iv).

Ladon was given several parentages, each of which placed him at an archaic level in Greek myth: the offspring of "Ceto
Ceto

In Greek mythology, Cetus , also called Ceto or Cetea, was a hideous sea monster, a daughter of Gaia and Pontus . The asteroid 65489 Ceto was named after her, and its satellite Ceto I Phorcys after her husband....
, joined in love with Phorcys
Phorcys

In Greek mythology, Phorcys, or Phorkys , was one of the names of the "Old Man [or One] of the Sea", the primeval Greek sea gods, who, according to Hesiod, was the son of Pontus and Gaia ....
" (Hesiod
Hesiod

Hesiod was a Greek language oral poet, his date is uncertain but leading scholars agree that Hesiod lived in the latter half of the Eighth-century BCE....
, Theogony 333) or of Typhon
Typhon

In Greek mythology, Typhon , also Typheus/Typhoeus , Typhaon or Typhos is the final son of Gaia , fathered by Tartarus, and is the god of wind....
, who was himself serpent-like from the waist down, and Echidna
Echidna

Echidnas , also known as spiny anteaters, are four Extant taxon mammal species belonging to the Tachyglossidae Family of the monotremes....
 (Bibliotheke 2.113; Hyginus
Hyginus

Hyginus can refer to:*Gaius Julius Hyginus , Roman poet, author of Fabulae, reputed author of Poeticon astronomicon*Hyginus Gromaticus, Roman surveyor...
, Preface to Fabulae) or of Gaia
Gaia (mythology)

Gaia Gaia is a Greek primordial gods and chthonic deity in the Ancient Greek Pantheon and considered a Mother Goddess or Great Goddess....
 herself, or in her Olympian manifestation, Hera
Hera

In the Twelve Olympians of classical Greek Mythology, Hera or Here was the wife and older sister of Zeus. Her chief function was as goddess of women and marriage....
: "The Dragon which guarded the golden apples was the brother of the Nemean lion
Nemean Lion

The Nemean lion was a vicious monster in Greek mythology that lived in Nemea. He was eventually killed by Heracles. The lion was usually considered the offspring of Typhon and Echidna , but it was also said to have fallen from the moon, offspring of Zeus and Selene....
" asserted Ptolemy Hephaestion (recorded in his New History V, lost but epitomized in Photius, Myriobiblion 190).

Lernaean Hydra

The Lernaean Hydra was a multi-headed dragon-like monster. It was slain by Heracles
Heracles

In Greek mythology, Heracles or Herakles meaning "glory of Hera", or "Glorious through Hera" Alcides or Alcaeus " was a hero, the son of Zeus and Alcmene, foster son of Amphitryon and great-grandson of Perseus....
 as one of his Twelve Labours
Twelve Labours

The Twelve Labours of Hercules are a series of archaic episodes connected by a later continuous narrative, concerning a penance carried out by the greatest of the Greek heroes, Heracles, romanised as Hercules....
.

Pytho or Python

In Greek mythology Python was the earth-dragon of Delphi, always represented in the vase-paintings and by sculptors as a serpent
Serpent (symbolism)

Serpent is a word of Latin origin that is commonly used in a specifically mythology or religion context, signifying a snake that is to be regarded not as a mundane natural phenomenon nor as an object of scientific zoology, but as the bearer of some symbolic value....
. Python was the chthonic enemy of Apollo, who slew it and remade its former home his own oracle, the most famous in Greece.

There are various versions of Python's birth and death at the hands of Apollo. In the earliest, the Homeric Hymn to Apollo, little detail is given about Apollo's combat with the serpent or her parentage. The version related by Hyginus [1] holds that when Zeus lay with the goddess Leto, and she was to deliver Artemis and Apollo, Hera sent Python to pursue her throughout the lands, so that she could not be delivered wherever the sun shone. Thus when the infant was grown he pursued the python, making his way straight for Mount Parnassus where the serpent dwelled, and chased it to the oracle of Gaia at Delphi, and dared to penetrate the sacred precinct and kill it with his arrows beside the rock cleft where the priestess sat on her tripod. The priestess of the oracle
Oracle

An oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophecy opinion; an infallible authority, usually Spirituality in nature....
 at Delphi
Delphi

Delphi is an archaeology site and a modern town in Greece on the south-western spur of Mount Parnassus in the valley of Phocis. Delphi was the site of the Pythia, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, when it was a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Python , a deity who lived there and protecte...
 became known as the Pythia
Pythia

The Pythia was the priestess presiding over the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus. The Pythia was widely credited with giving prophecy inspired by Apollo, giving her a prominence unusual for a woman in male-dominated ancient Greece....
, after the place-name Pytho, which was named after the rotting (p??e??) of the serpent's corpse after she was slain.

Typhon

Typhon was a dragon-like monster that was defeated by Zeus

See also

  • European dragon
    European dragon

    European dragons are legendary creatures in folklore and mythology among the overlapping culture of Europe. The word for dragon in Germanic mythology and its descendants is wiktionary:worm , meaning snake or serpent....


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