sources, which was well-known in ancient Greek
account of the formidable fire created by the
sources,42 is recorded in the medieval period by
venom which sits between his jaws and moves
the twelfth-century Byzantine scholar Ioannes
freely in flames within his body, the dragon endea-
Tzetzes, a commentator on Lycophron 43 By con-
vours to obtain relief in freezing temperatures
trast, destructive natural phenomena attributed
The text describes that as a result of the inten-
to dragon monsters, also well-established themes
sity of the fiery heat of his venom, the dragon-
in ancient Greek sources,44 were mentioned by
king seeks as abode the peaks of high hills and
the tenth-century Arab encyclopaedist al-Masʿūdī
mountains, above the regions of mild air, in a
who associates meteorological phenomena with
region where the cold is so intense that there can
the mythical creatures He reports that the Cas-
be neither clouds nor rain, and where neither
pian and the Mediterranean (near Tripoli and
plants nor animals can survive 47 Citing Ibn
Latakia) were “prolific in sea monsters” (kathīr
ʿAbbās, al-Masʿūdī, moreover, reports the medi-
al-tanānīn), adding that according to tradition
eval Islamic idea that “when the tail of a dragon
the sea monster (al-tannīn) was a “black wind
strikes a large edifice, (like) a tree or mountain,
nurtured in the depth of the sea, which ascends
it destroys it Furthermore, at times when the
to the zephyrs ” He adds the account that the
dragon breathes it sets fire to large trees,”48 appar-
al-tannīn were:
ently describing natural manifestations such as
earthquakes This association between dragons
…black serpents existing in the plains and moun-
and fire is similarly mentioned in the Kitāb-i
tains, in which places there are floods and rain-
Samak ʿAyyār 49 The fiery breath of the notori-
storms, carrying them down into the sea, where
they feed upon the sea-creatures so that their
ously pelagic biblical Leviathan is also described
bodies attain great size, and their age is extended,
in Job (41:11–3):
and in the end some of them achieve the age of
Out of his mouth go burning torches, and sparks
500 years, and become the lords of the sea These
of fire leap forth Out of his nostrils goes smoke,
stories are by no means denied by the Persians,
as out of a burning pot or cauldron His breath
who assert that the monsters have seven heads,
kindles coals and a flame goes out of his mouth
and are called Ajdahā [ Azhidahāka] 45
Moses of Chorene’s writings also preserve pre-
The celebrated thirteenth-century cosmographer
Christian Armenian religious poetry which
and geographer Zakariyyāʾ ibn Muḥammad ibn
describes the birth of Vahagn, god of strength
Maḥmūd al-Qazwīnī ( c 600/1203–4–682/1283),
and victory Sudden storms or winds on Lake
who originated from an Arab family that had been
Van are a sign that dragons (vishap) live in the
Iranised after settling at Qazwīn, similarly relates
lake, growing there until they are large enough
that the Iranians believed “the sea-dragon to be
to destroy the world, at which point Vahagn
either a hurricane or a black serpent dwelling on
(probably conflated in this story with the Hurrian
the sea bottom ”46
weather god Teshub, the Urartean Teisheba)50
The Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, whose Rasāʾil (Epistles)
drags the dragons up from the depths to take them
appeared in the tenth century, states that, on
into the sky to burn up in the sun 51 The twelfth-
42 A giant dragon (drakōn) guarded the local spring,
46 Kitāb ʿajāʾib al-makhlūqāt, ed Wüstenfeld, 1849, repr
sacred to the god Ares, at the future site of the Boeotian
1967, p 129 See also Badiee, 1978, pp 120–1
city Thebes (Apollonius, Argonautica 3 1178–87; cf also
47 Tr and ed Dieterici, 1858, pp 115
Euripides, Phoenician Women 930–5 and Bacchae 1274,
48 Kitāb marūj al-dhahab, tr and ed Barbier de Meynard
1314–5)
and de Courteille, 1917, vol 1, p 267 For a translation of the
43 Ioannis Tzetzae Historiae, ed Leone, P A M , Naples,
passage into German, see Monchi-Zadeh, 1975, p 159, n 33
1968, p 404, 399, as cited in Bouras, p 67 and n 41
49 Gaillard, 1987, p 63
44 The contumacious Greek primeval monster Typhon
50 Geo Widengren (1966, p 444) suggests an amalgama-
was defeated by Zeus but as punishment lived on under the
tion of Iranian beliefs held by Armenians with the older Ana-
earth (under volcanoes or in Tartaros); he personified vol-
tolian substratum of the Hurrian song of the monster Ulli-
canism, being thus associated with volcanic eruptions The
kummi, whom the weather god Teshub (Urartean Teisheba)
classical Greek lyric poet Pindar, for instance, ascribes the
smites Cf Ishkol-Kerovpian, “Vahagn,” WdM IV, 1, pp 149–
volcanic action of Etna in Sicily to the drakōn Typhon who
52; Schwartz, 1975, p 416; Russell, 1987, p 29, and idem,
was imprisoned under the mountain ( Pythian Odes 1 15–28;
2004, pp 357–61, 373; Mahé, 1994 However, according
see also Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound, 351–72) Typhon
to Mary Boyce (1975, repr 1996, p 64, n 279), the tale of
also appeared as demon of storms and whirlwinds (Hesiod,
Vahagn killing a monster may be a late development
Theogony 846, 869–80)
51 Patmutʿiwn Hayocʿ, tr Langlois, 1872, p 41 and n 1
45 Kitāb marūj al-dhahab, tr and ed Barbier de Meynard
See also Russell, 2004, pp 357, 361, 617–8 and n 23, 631 and
and de Courteille, 1917, vol vol 1, pp 266–7
n 38, 1132, 1287, n 39; van Lint, 2009, pp 257–8
dragons and the powers of the earth
55
century Armenian historian Matthew of Edessa
as a collection of oral legends and other material
(Mattʿēos Uṛhayetsi) relates the eruption of vol-
A good portion of the material was progressively
canoes to the fiendish nature of dragons, refer-
gathered in written form, probably assembled in
ring to this phenomenon metaphorically as the
Alexandria, and entered the Iranian tradition no
dragons of Mount Ararat fighting those of Mount
later than the Sasanian period In this romance
Aragac 52
Iskandar (Alexander) is flying through the air on
An echo of the ancient association of drag-
the back of the eagles when, at the highest point
ons with water seems distantly to reverberate in
of the sky, he sees an enormous serpent whose
the ancient Iranian festival of Sada, the celebra-
coils enclose a disc representing the world sur-
tion of which, according to the historian of the
rounded by the ocean 58
Ghaznawid dynasty, Abu ’l-Faḍl Bayhaqī, resumed
In medieval Iranian poetry, the transforma-
during Ghaznawid times For the celebration of
tive power of the dragon is sometimes evoked
Sada, a festival held fifty days before Nawrūz (the
as a portent to signal changes in the course of
celebration of the return of spring), large fires are
human events or impending alterations in the
lit in commemoration of the Pīshdādian king
cosmic cycle This type of metaphor is employed
Hūshang (Haoshyaṅha), the first lawful king who
in the verse romance, Wīs u Rāmīn, composed by
reigned over the seven climes of the world, over
Fakhr al-Dīn Gurgānī for the governor of Iṣfahān
the demons and the sorcerers, and according to
on behalf of the Saljuqids The story relates how
al-Bīrūnī, and later Firdawsī, was the inventor of
Rāmīn has become unfaithful to Wīs who remon-
fire As stated by the latter, Hūshang also origi-
strates with him in a long elaborate letter remind-
nated the idea of using irrigation canals Firdawsī,
ing him of her love Rāmīn sets off to Marw in
moreover, records the king’s feat of valour in van-
the hope of a reconciliation with his beloved, but
quishing a monstrous dragon that infested the
when he arrives on horseback, a snowstorm is
country and which the king himself attacked with
in progress The meteorological phenomenon is
stones, “when one of them falling with prodigious
figuratively associated with the dragon to evoke
force upon another, struck fire and set herbage
human emotions:
and surrounding trees in a blaze, and consumed
the dragon in the flames ”53 The writer adds that
the skies became like some vast dragon breathing
the legendary pre-Islamic monarch “gave orders
tongues of flame; the snow was like a poison, since
that prayers should be said facing a fire, saying:
within it men’s hearts would freeze and stiffen
in a minute, black clouds were massing, block-
It is the spark given by God (Īzād); worship it if
ing out the light, choking back breath, depriving
you are wise ”54
eyes of sight; the snow blew with such force that
Sada was held in winter “to strengthen the
elephants could not have stood its vehemence 59
sun and to help bring back warmth and light to
the world ”55 As was customary, sulṭān Masʿūd
The natural phenomenon thus described corre-
of Ghazna (the son and successor of Maḥmūd)
lates with the human event by functioning as a
chose to celebrate it beside a stream, where a fire
form of inauspicious portent A dragon in the
was lit56 to aid symbolically the stream of water
form of a black cloud appears also in the epic
“in his subterranean task of protecting plants and
poem Bahman-nāma (“Book of Bahman”), in
springs from frost ”57
which Ādar Barzīn, the son of the dragon-slayer
The affiliation between dragon, water and earth
Farāmarz, recognises that the cloud is a trans-
also becomes apparent in the Alexander Romance
formed dragon which came out of a mountain
by the Pseudo-Cal isthenes, thought to have origi-
every spring to violate the daughter of the local
nated at some time prior to the third century ad
ruler, Bīwarāsp/Dahāk He kills the dragon with
52 Abeghyan, M , Erkeri Zhoghovadsu (“Collected
57 Boyce, 1983, p 801
Works”), Erevan, 1966–75, vol 7, p 65, and Avandapatum,
58 Pseudo-Callisthenes II, ch 41, tr and ed Stoneman,
no 11, as cited in Russell, 1987, p 206
1991, p 123 Cf the imagery described in Reitzenstein, 1904,
53 Cited after Steingass, 1892, repr 1981, p 663
p 31; Millet, 1923, p 94; Grabar, 1951, pp 47–8; see also
54 Massé, “Hūshang,” EI 2 III, 637b
the discussion on the astral ascension of the Sasanian king
55 Boyce, 1983, p 800
in L’Orange, 1953, pp 64–79, which argues for a primeval
56 Bayhaqī, Taʾrīkh-i Masʿūdī, ed Ghanī and Fayyūḍ,
oriental origin of the motif of Iskandar’s heavenly ascent
Tehran, 1324/1945, p 278, as cited in Lambton, “Marasīm:
(p 69)
3 In Iran,” EI² VI, 518a
59 Tr and ed Davis, 2008, p 448
56