Images of dragons are found all over the world. Nowadays it is pleasant to think that this is a mythical animal. Although his images are found in different places on our planet.
Previously, they were even distinguished by types, for example:
Four species of dragons from the book by John Johnston * Historiae naturalis de Insectis, de Serpentibus et Draconibus * (Frankfurt, 1653).
Dragons in Europe
Why are there images! Even a baby dragon was found in England, though not alive, but in alcohol. Of course, this is a fake (or maybe not?):
A whelping dragon found in Oxfordshire in the south of England.
In any case, in the same England there is a legend about white and red dragons constantly fighting among themselves. Is it not from here that the legs grow at the concepts of "red" and "white"? So they were portrayed:
Promotional video:
Vortigern in Dinas Emrys, illustration of The Stories of the Kings of Britain by Galfrid of Monmouth. (Vortigern - the Celtic king of Britain in the first half of the 5th century).
There is a dragon on the coat of arms of Henry VII (1457-1509) - King of England and Sovereign of Ireland (1485-1509), the first monarch from the Tudor dynasty:
A painting on the wall of a medieval house located in Devon, England.
It is already hard to see that a red dragon is drawn on the left, and a white dog on the right. Modern image:
Coat of arms of Henry VII.
And also the same dragon, but in a different form:
Red Dragon or I-Draig Goh - a Welsh symbol present on the national flag of Wales.
In the book "Slavic Kingdom" by Mavro Orbini, the following is written about England:
Not one, but ALL historians agreed that Brutus, who lived in the 12th century BC, recaptured this island from the Slavs. And the Slavs before that, having equipped a powerful fleet (it is a pity it is not reported in which year BC it happened), conquered it from the former inhabitants. Unfortunately, it is not reported who they were.
The dragon is not a mythical creature?
Mavro Orbini describes dragons as living creatures that do not live out there, on the outskirts of the planet, but in Europe itself, on the Balkan Peninsula:
And not only Mavro Orbini describes the dragon as a living creature, but also Athanasius Kircher:
Illustration from the book "Illustrated Encyclopedia of China" by Afanasy Kircher, 1667.
I will not say that I understood everything from the description for this illustration, but, in any case, I realized that we are talking about real animals, and not about mythical ones.
Perhaps all the animals that are now considered mythical were not so long ago? Nikolaas Witsen, for example, in his book "Northern and Eastern Tartary" even gives an image of the skull of the unicorn skeleton found:
Skull of a unicorn, illustration for the book by Nikolaas Witsen "Northern and Eastern Tartary".
Images of dragons among the ancient Slavs
The image of a dragon was also present on the flag of Tartary:
Flag of Tartary.
Almost the same dragon is depicted in the book by Mavro Orbini:
Illustration from the book by Mavro Orbini "Kingdom of the Slavs", 1601.
Images of dragons in the finds of the heritage of the ancient Slavs:
Sarmatian phalar.
The golden necklace of the Sarmatian queen, depicting a dragon and mysterious creatures with human bodies and monkey heads.
Decoration from a tomb found in Afghanistan. It is called Bactrian gold. But it is very similar to the Scythian decoration:
"Kings with Dragons". Found in 2nd tomb.
And this is a very famous thing - the Scythian pectoral. On it, however, not dragons are depicted, but griffins, but from the same series:
Fragment of the golden pectoral of the Scythians from the mound.
Of course, wild nomads could not do that. They ordered all their jewelry from the Greeks. Your weapons, obviously, too? Here the poor Greeks had to work. Day and night, they probably sat, made jewelry for the wild, unable to do anything, Scythians. Well, provide such a crowd? And then another transportation. The territory of the Scythians-Sarmatians-Tartars occupied not a small one. And they were very fond of gold jewelry, judging by the number of finds found.
Slavic "dragon" banners
The Slavs used images of dragons not only for decoration, but also to intimidate enemies, using special "dragon" banners for this. This is how the ancient Greek historian (2nd century AD) Flavius Arrian describes them:
Army of the Carolingian era on the campaign. Ahead is a dragon man with a dragon banner. Miniature from the Golden Psalter (Psalterum Aureum). Saint Gall, approx. 900 BC
However, Trajan's column depicts the Dacians and Sarmatians with "dragon" banners, not the Romans. And there is an opinion that the Romans borrowed this technique from them:
Docks with a battle banner in the form of a dragon, Trajan's Column, Rome.
Trajan's Column, detail. In the background, a burning Dacian city. In the front, there are daki carrying their "dragon" banner.
Arch of Galerius in Thessaloniki, fragment.
Bas-relief of a Sarmatian dragonarian and reconstruction, Northern England. City Museum.
Dragoons are dragons
From dragons the name of the cavalry was formed - dragoons. "Dragoon" literally means "dragon" in French. But before that, the infantry mounted on horses was called dragons:
This was the coat of arms of this Flying Corps:
Russian state seal from the diary of the German ambassador to Russia I. G. Korb. 1698-1699 years.
Although it has two heads, in my opinion, it is very similar to the Tartar dragon, except that the tail is different:
La déesse Matzou ou Nioma, detail, gallery by Peter Van der Aa.
Author: i_mar_a