Dragon Book - Classic Greek Mythology
Dragon Book - Classic Greek Mythology
The Greek mythology is rife with creatures and monsters of every conceivable type. Actually, the real challenge is finding in the myriad stories the ones containing what we recognize today as dragons.
The story of the monster fought by Cadmus son of Agenor contains what we can fairly certainly identify as a dragon.
Cadmus failed a quest to find his kidnapped sister and has decided not to return home to his father in shame. Instead, Cadmus chose to settle with his men on the plain of Panope.
One day Cadmus saw that his men failed to return from an ancient grove that he had sent them to. Cadmus went after his men and entered the grove that never felt the touch of an axe.
Inside the grove was a cave, hidden by overgrown vegetation, its roof forming a low arch above a sparkling fountain of water.
Cadmus saw his men, all killed by the monster of the grove. It was a giant serpent-like dragon, its crested head taller than the nearby treetops, its golden scales glittering, fire shining in its eyes and a triple forked tongue snaking out between its triple rows of teeth. Its long body was swollen with poison.
The dragon had paralyzed the men with its hiss and then proceeded to kill them with its terrible jaws, crushing them with its immense coils and poisoning them with its poison breath.
Cadmus then threw the biggest stone he could lift at the dragon but the heavy stone bounced off the dragon's golden scales. Cadmus threw his javelin and it pierced the scales, imbedding itself inside the monster's entails.
Finally, Cadmus used his iron tipped spear to pin the creature to a tree and the dragon writhed and died.
Cadmus planted the dragon's teeth and a host of armed warriors grew out of the ground and immediately started fighting among themselves. Only five survived their fighting and joined Cadmus.
One of the important traits of a dragon book is a cyclic plot. Cadmus`s children died and he called to the gods, offering himself as sacrifice to the god of war. Cadmus turned into a dragon as punishment for killing the dragon of the grove.
Cadmus`s wife Harmonia also turned into a dragon out of her love to him and they spent the rest of their lives in the darkest forests in the land.