a dragon from the river Kashafrūd in Khurasan 13
The numinous power inherent in the serpent,
The dragon’s aquatic nature is clearly perceptible
discussed further below, is also reflected in the
in the Armenian vishap (Georgian veshapi, also a
Qurʾānic story of Mūsā’s rod turning into a ser-
fabulous serpent; Syriac wshp; a loanword from
pent, which is an example of the living power of
the Avestan vishāpa-, “whose saliva is poison”)
the rod 24
was used as an epithet to azhi, “serpent,”14 which
The ancient association of the dragon with
was said to dwell in the waters of a lake 15
water is revealed in the names of streams, lakes,
In the ancient Semitic world the predominant
pools or springs that are also often compared
belief was that both wood and water are potent
with each other in poetic simile The serpent
generating forces,16 a notion which continued to
as guardian and custodian of a water source is
exist in the medieval Islamic period 17 Holy trees
referred to by the ancient Greek term drakōn in
are known either by direct assertion or by implica-
the second-century ad compilations of Pseudo-
tion to be associated with spring shrines 18 Often
Apollodorus 25 According to the Byzantine his-
the sacred spring or well spirit or numen was an
torian Procopius of Caesarea, a river in Bithynia
accompaniment of a sacred tree19 or sacred place 20
was called Drakōn because its shape resembled
Sources of life such as wood and water are also
that of the fabulous monster 26 The sacred foun-
considered to be channels of a greater power; the
tain of Ephca at Palmyra, which is a sulphurous
power that is contained in them is thought to be
spring, is associated with a demon in serpent
“contagious ”21
form 27 As William Robertson Smith has pointed
In the Islamic period trees and twigs as part
out, there are indications that in certain instances
of trees were widely used for religio-magical pur-
the original sanctuary was at a well beneath the
poses, and by extension, any magic rods or wands
town as was the case of the original sanctuaries
used in such practices were related to the idea of
of Jerusalem, such as the fountain of En-Rogel (1
woody plants 22 The association of vegetation and
Kings I, 9, 38) where Adonijah held his sacrificial
the dragon is reflected in the description by the
feast, located near the “serpent’s stone” which
universal historian Abū Jaʿfar Muḥammad ibn
may possibly be identified with the “dragon well”
Jarīr ibn yazīd al-Ṭabarī ( c 224–5/839–310/923)
(Nehemiah II, 13) 28 Sacrifices offered at the well
of the rod of Mūsā (Moses) as a:
of Abraham at Mamre were said to be eaten by
two-pronged fork with a crook under the meet-
the serpent denizen of the water 29 In Syria sacred
ing point of the twigs and when it was turned
springs were thought to be guarded by spirits in
into a serpent, the two twigs formed the mouth
the form of giant pythons 30 The chronicler of
of the serpent with its forked tongue, while the
the early Byzantine period, Ioannes Malalas (d c.
crook took the shape of the crest 23
570/580), mentions that the partly subterranean
river Orontes in Asia Minor was called Drakon,31
ll 1175–176 In the Pahlawī Riwāyat of Garshāsp, the hero
22 Cf Schimmel, 1994, pp 29–30
fights in the sea with the dragon Gandarw for nine days
23 Al-Ṭabarī, Mukhtaṣ ar taʾrīkh al-rusul wa ’l-mulūk wa
and nights; after his victory he slaughters fifteen horses and
’l-khulafāʾ, I, Cairo, n d , p 401; al-Thaʿlabī, ʿArāʾis al-majālis
eats them See Monchi-Zadeh, 1975, p 138
fī qiṣaṣ al-anbiyāʾ, Cairo, n d , p 90, cited after Fodor, 1978,
13 The early thirteenth-century historian Ibn Isfandīyār
p 4
(I, p 89), probably a native from Āmul, has similarly
24 Schimmel, 1994, p 30 It is also of note that Ezekiel
recorded a tale from Māzandarān in which Sām had van-
(17 3-10) likens the king to a vine and (19:11) calls the vine
quished a dragon at an otherwise unknown location called
“fit to be carved into a royal scepter ”
Kāva Kalāda in the same province near the sea; see Khāleqī-
25 Apollodorus, Bibliotheca III 4 1 The central episode of
Moṭlaq, “Aždahā II,” EIr
the myth of Kadmos is his victory over the spring-guarding
14 Nirangastān 48, cited after Ananikian, “Armenia
drakōn, Ares’ son, whose teeth he sowed in the earth and out
(Zoroastrian),” ERE, vol 5, part 2, 1914, p 800; Skjærvø,
of which grew armed warriors (the Spartoi) On the Kadmos
“Aždahā I,” EIr; Boyce, 1975, repr 1996, p 91, n 42
myth, see Fontenrose, 1959, repr 1980, pp 306–20; Astour,
15 Russell, 2004, p 373
1965, pp 156–61
16 Robertson Smith, 1889, repr 1927, pp 132–3, 135–6,
26 Procopius VII, Buildings V 2 3-10
166–7; Jeffers, 1996, p 145
27 Robertson Smith, 1889, repr 1927, pp 168–9
17 Cf Whitehouse, “Holiness (Semitic),” ERE 6, 1913,
28 Idem, p 172, n 3
p 754
29 Idem, p 177
18 Cf Wood, 1916, p 19
30 Whitehouse, “Holiness (Semitic),” ERE 6, 1913,
19 Robertson Smith, 1889, repr 1927, p 136; Jeffers,
pp 751–3; Chelhod, 1955, p 105 and n 6 For other exam-
1996, p 163 and n 107
ples in Syria and Palestine, cf Robertson Smith, 1889, repr
20 Eadem, pp 169–70; Whitehouse, “Holiness (Semitic),”
1927, pp 168, 176–7
ERE 6, 1913, p 754
31 Chronographia, tr and ed Dindorf, 1831, p 38,1
21 Jeffers, 1996, p 145
Cf Robertson Smith, 1889, repr 1927, pp 171–2;
dragons and the powers of the earth
53
and was, according to Strabo, also known as
flower and eats it and then drinks three times
Typhon and Ophites 32 The continued association
from the water in which the serpent bathed will
of the Orontes with the mythical dragon is shown
similarly become immortal 38 In pre-Islamic Cen-
in a Turkish legend from Hatay which states that
tral Asia, in particular in the regions of present-
the river was created when the dragon took flight
day Afghanistan, the connection of dragons with
from the mysterious immortal Islamic Prophet
water was expressed by the pan-Indic serpent dei-
Khiḍr by digging underground channels 33 In
ties (nāga s ), the serpent genii, who dwel in terres-
Persian the close affiliation between the ser-
trial water sources, and to whom were attributed
pent and the stream of water is reflected in the
tempests and floods 39 In Kashmir, the word nāg
word liwāʾ which comes to mean “the winding
occurs in a variety of names of springs, rivers,
of the river” as well as “the twisting or coiling
or reservoirs, for instance, Lake Nīla Nāg in the
of a serpent ”34 A serpent spring also makes an
region of Nāgām (ancient Nāgrāma) 40
appearance in the Kitāb-i Samak ʿAyyār (“Book
This close association of the dragon with the
of Samak the Adventurer”), col ected by Farāmarz
element of water also led to its depiction on water-
ibn Khudādādh al-Arrajānī and written down
spouts This is evidenced in the Islamic period
by Ṣadaqa ibn Abu ’l-Qāsim Shīrāzī,35 which is
in the example of Karatay Han situated between
thought to be rooted in the Parthian period 36
Kayseri and Malatya Two of the conduits used
The association of the dragon with water is sim-
for drainage from the gutters of the roof (gar-
ilarly evident in the Transcaucasian tradition
goyles) of the mid-thirteenth-century caravan-
The appellation of the Armenian river Awji near
serai have the appearance of winged dragonite
Awjaberd in Gegharkʿunikʿ province contains just
protomes that hold in their wide-open mouths
like the toponym the word awj (serpent) 37 One
what appears to be the stylised upper body of a
of the most ancient Armenian cults, that of tree
human being whose hands clutch the monsters’
worship, is often connected with water sources
forelegs (fig 37) 41
and serpents In his collection of Armenian folk-
The dichotomy of the dragons is evident in their
lore entitled Krots-Prots (ch 9), the eighteenth-
activities either as guardians of natural sources
century clergyman Garegin Servantsian records
or as ravagers in the form of destructive natural
the ancient belief that aged serpents come to a
phenomena In the popular mind dragons lent
certain source to shed their skins, eat a flower
themselves naturally to functioning as symbols
which only they know, bathe in the spring and
for the mysterious and destructive forces of the
are then rejuvenated Anyone who finds the same
earth The notion of dragons as guardians of water
Fontenrose, 1959, repr 1980, pp 277–8
1889, pp 422–3; Gaillard, 1987, pp 10–1
32 Reportedly this is because the wounded drakōn
36 Gaillard, 1987, pp 64, 155
Typhon had crawled into the underground channels of the
37 Alishan, G , Hin hawatkʿ kam hetʿ anosakan krōnkʿ
source of this river to seek shelter from the thunderbolts of
Hayokʿ (“The Ancient Faith or Pagan Religion of the Arme-
Zeus (Strabo, Geography XVI, 750) The name of the Greek
nians”), Venice, 1910 ed , pp 165–6, as cited in Russell, 2004,
she-dragon Pythōn ( phuth- from Vedic bhudh-) who is slain
p 461
by Apollo with his arrow (Fontenrose, 1959, repr 1980,
38 Ishkol-Kerovpian, “Baum- und Pflanzenkult,” WdM IV,
pp 13–45) also demonstrates the inherent designation of a
1, pp 105–6
serpent creature of the watery deep (Watkins, 1995, p 461)
39 The nāga s are genii of lakes and springs, and are wor-
The Pythōn myth, as Joseph Fontenrose (1959, repr 1980,
shipped for their beneficent as well as destructive aspects as
pp 77–93, 193) shows, largely corresponds with that of
powers of the waters They are considered also as guardians
Typhon In the Greek tradition the outer ring of the world’s
of treasure and givers of vital forces stored up in springs and
water, the ocean (Ogenos-Okeanos), is also the lair of
wells The accounts of the seventh-century Chinese pilgrim
Ophioneus (Ophiūchus), the serpent-man who tried to over-
Xuanzang (Hsüan-tsang) show that the nāga cult was still
come Zeus (Janda, 2010, pp 71–89; Russell, 2004, p 718) In
flourishing in parts of Western Central Asia and northern
Phaedo Plato’s literary figure, Socrates, compares the rivers
India in the seventh century Cf Si-yu-ki, vol 1, tr Beal,
to the serpent: “There are some, then, that after having encir-
1884, repr 2000, pp 121–3 For an in-depth study of the
cled the earth with one or more coils, like snakes, descend
nāga s in Indian iconography, see Vogel, 1926
so deeply that they come out at the lowest point of Tartarus,”
40 Idem, pp 227–31, with further examples
as cited in Mastrocinque, 2005, p 29 Cf Robertson Smith,
41 See Erdmann, 1962, pl IX Roux (1972, pp 373–5, figs
1889, repr 1927, p 176 and n 4
1 and 2), however, recognises these spouts to be sculpted in
33 Franke, 2000, pp 100, 547–9
the form of a fantastic leonine animal Gargoyles in the form
34 Cited after Steingass, 1892, repr 1981, p 1130
of dragon heads are also found at the fourteenth-century
35 See the preface of the Oxford Kitāb-i Samak ʿAyyār
Araboğlu Mosque in Karaman, south of Konya See idem,
(Bodleian Library Ms Ouseley 379–81); Sachau and Ethé,
p 373, n 2
54