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Susanoo & the Dragon
Wooden screen depicting the Shinto god Susanoo defeating the dragon with eight heads, 19th century. Susanoo was the god of storms and Yomi, the underworld.
Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas, Texas.
Questions & Answers
Where do dragon images first appear?
- Dragon images first appear in the art of the Near East (Mesopotamia) and East Asia over 4000 years ago.
What do dragons symbolize?
- The dragon is a symbol of untamed nature/chaos and also a protective agent defending civilization and the works of God (or the gods) from those very forces.
Do dragons appear in the Bible?
- Yes, dragons are featured in the biblical books of Daniel and Revelation and, according to some scholars, in Job where Leviathan is identified as a dragon.
Who is the best-known dragon from mythology?
- Fafnir from Germanic folklore and the Völsung Cycle is the best-known dragon from mythology along with the creature whose creation he influenced, Smaug, from The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien.
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License & Copyright
Based on Wikipedia content that has been reviewed, edited, and republished.
Original image by Joe Mabel. Uploaded by Mark Cartwright, published on 11 May 2017. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon a work even for commercial reasons, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.
