Talk:Dragon/Archive 4

creationists
the article seems to imply that creationists believe in dragons as a distinct species of dinosaur. rather they believe that dinosaurs are dragons, both essentially being large reptiles, and that ancient depictions of dragons are based on dinosaurs. 67.176.160.47 (talk) 21:38, 20 August 2010 (UTC)
 * That's not entirely true. I'm sure some do believe that (some will believe that the earth is ending on a certain day), but not as a whole. In fact, I'd say a small few believe there is any relationship between dragons and dinosaurs. What you're speaking of are monsters discussed in the Bible. Some creationists (again, very few) have postulated that those monsters were non-extinct dinosaurs. Either way, that's not related to the dragon. The dragon that the devil takes form of doesn't mean that Christians believe in dragons. That's preposterous! Not that you mention it of course; it's just mentioned in the article (at the time of this post). Anyway, the dragon that the devil takes form in is just supposed to be scary. On the other hand, some believe it to be symbolic, such as the seven heads are seven kings and so forth. I have to laugh at the outlandish beliefs people have about Christianity. I don't know how they come up with that stuff. Misinformation abounds. MagnoliaSouth (talk) 05:08, 12 November 2011 (UTC)

The article does imply that, and often dragons are used as a proof that humans and dinosaurs coexisted (against every other empirical evidence). Whoever wrote this article doesn't aknowledge the (absurd, if I may) notions of creationism. Unfortunately it is not preposterous to say that christians believe in dragons, as some in fact do, only to support their (absurd, if I may again) claims. Be warned, we are not talking about christianity in generals and the dragons in the bible, we are talking specifically about creation, and so the autor of this article, sadly, is right. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 188.60.40.239 (talk) 21:29, 17 August 2014 (UTC)

First of all, why are you calling creationism absurd? I have to admit that I find the idea of humans being descended from billion year old chemicals a bit harder to believe, if you know what I mean. You are right when you say few Christians believe in dragons, and fewer believe there is a connection to dinosaurs, but I fail to see what your undoubtable evidence is. Dragons are often, in Christian eyes, disbelieved, and considered separate from dinosaurs. Few have even been exposed to the idea of the two being in fact one creature. Fewer more believe it. Darek Isaacs' book 'Dragons or Dinosaurs' is one of the few pieces of Christian literature I know of that actually supports this theory. Clearly you are not Christian from your accusations, and so I will not encourage you to read it, knowing you wouldn't even think it interesting, but dragons and dinosaurs are rarely discussed together. P.S. If you want to attack creationism, please don't do it here. This is not a blog. Iheartthestrals (talk) 01:59, 23 July 2015 (UTC)

Tanin
I think that what wich is wrroten in this article that the biblic meaning of the word "Tanin" (תנין) is a dragon is not write; usually men explain this term in the story about Moses as "a snake"18:22, 27 September 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by עברית (talk • contribs)

Dragons in Pre-Columbian Americas
Considering that -as this very article explains- a dragon is basically a mythical reptile similar to a snake or a lizard, shouldn't the article include info about the serpentine-like gods on the ancient Aztecs (Queztalcoatl), Mayans (Kululkan) and Mapuche (Trentren & Caicai), among others?. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 186.10.125.170 (talk) 01:06, 4 May 2015 (UTC)

अझ़दहा
In the Hindi version of this article in the sidebar, the word used is अझ़दहा. However, there is no such word as अझ़दहा in Hindi. This word exists in Urdu, but that doesn't mean it also exists in Hindi. In Hindi, the modified form अज़दहा is used instead. Here is a dictionary entry with अज़दहा, and as you can see there is no अझ़दहा present. Therefore, references to अझ़दहा in the article should be removed and replaced with अज़दहा. --Foreverknowledge (talk) 08:12, 13 September 2015 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 1 December 2015
I believe the information about dragons in the Modern Depictions section is out of date and does not completely exemplify the modern depiction of dragons. I have created a substantive addition to what I believe the section should include.

Sandra Martina Schwab writes, "With a few exceptions, including McCaffrey's Pern novels and the 2002 film Reign of Fire, dragons seem to fit more into the medievalized setting of fantasy literature than into the more technological world of science fiction. Indeed, they have been called the emblem of fantasy. The hero's fight against the dragon emphasizes and celebrates his masculinity, whereas revisionist fantasies of dragons and dragon-slaying often undermine traditional gender roles. In children's literature the friendly dragon becomes a powerful ally in battling the child's fears."

In the early 20th century sculpture of the Norwegian artist Gustav Vigeland, inspired by Medieval art, dragons are a frequent theme—as symbols of sin but also as a natural force, fighting against man.

Dragons and dragon motifs are featured in many works of modern literature, particularly within the fantasy genre. Prominent works depicting dragons include J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion and The Hobbit, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels, Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, George R. R. Martin's series A Song of Ice and Fire, and Christopher Paolini's tetralogy Inheritance Cycle. Even by the 18th century, critical thinkers like Diderot were asserting that too much literature had been published on dragons: "There are already in books all too many fabulous stories of dragons".

The popular role playing game system Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) makes heavy use of dragons, and has served as inspiration for many other games' dragons. Though dragons usually serve as adversaries, they can be either good or evil, with their alignment being determined by their species. For example, a red dragon is evil and breathes fire while a silver dragon is good and breathes cold.

Dragons have also been prevalent in other forms of media such as movies, TV shows, and video games. These forms of media have a large reach on the society making the modern depiction of the dragon more widespread. A few notable movies that contain dragons include Eragon, depicting the dragon Saphira; How To Train Your Dragon and How to Train Your Dragon 2, depicting the dragon Toothless and a variety of other dragons; and The Hobbit (film series), featuring the dragon Smaug. In these movies and others that contain dragons, dragons are major participants in the plot and character development. In the realm of TV shows, dragons have made many appearances in shows such as Game of Thrones and DreamWorks Dragons (based of the movie How To Train Your Dragon). Depictions of these dragons can either be realistic computer generated animated or 3D cartoon styled models. In video games, iconic dragons such as Spyro and Cynder are featured in a collection of games within the Spyro (series); and the dragons Alduin and Paarthurnax are depicted within the popular game The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In these kind of video games, dragons are either the character one plays as or characters one interacts with in game, and they can either fight alongside or against the player.

Occasionally dragons have been seen to take on more humanistic characteristics, blending the traditional feral form of a dragon into an anthropomorphic version. This anthropomorphism of the dragon is found particularly in comic books, anime, manga, and the furry fandom where users create personal avatars that depict human oriented characteristics in a more draconic fashion using scales, horns, wings, tails, and other draconic anatomy. In addition, many of these anthropomorphized dragons create a role reversal that juxtaposes the traditional fierce characteristics that dragons are associated with; instead, take on a more playful, relaxed, and warm persona, turning them into a more lovable creature. Some other common traits that people have associated with contemporary dragons is the love of shiny objects such as treasure, the ability to “lounge” just about anywhere, and a tendency to have long term views of situations. Anthropomorphized dragons are many times seen in different contexts as a result of their humanlike characteristics – for example, a dragon may be seen with advanced technological skill and knowledge rather than as wizards or predatory reptiles. In a comic strip Ozy and Millie written by D.C. Simpson, the anthropomorphic dragon Llewellyn is featured for comedic purpose.

Seledrex (talk) 08:08, 1 December 2015 (UTC)
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done: please provide reliable sources that support the change you want to be made. Your entire addition is unsourced. Please provide sources for what you want to add. Thank you. --Stabila711 (talk) 08:02, 7 December 2015 (UTC)


 * I've added sources and links to other Wikipedia sites. ~Seledrex — Preceding unsigned comment added by Seledrex (talk • contribs) 17:21, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

Edward Tregear in "The Maori Race"
Edward Tregear in "The Maori Race" recognized the Aryo-semitic nature of the taniwha (the Maori version of the dragon, as a reptilian monster) by connecting it on the one hand with the Sanskrit 'tan'= 'stretched out', and on the other with the Hebrew Leviathan (which is a fish, not a whale). By the introduction of the great Arabian serpent, the happy family is now complete; Arabic 'tannin', 'a great serpent', the same in origin as the Maori 'taniwha', 'a great water-monster'). Taniwha, and its Polynesian variant spellings, derives from Pali 'tanha', 'evil', particularly the longing to experience, which is the Buddhist root cause of all evils. The home of these monsters in water indicates they exist because of mind; water being symbolic of mind in all scriptures. This makes the myths (Maori, St George, Jonah, Theseus, Ulysses, Medusa, Hydra, etc) all ego-myths, with dragon-slayer heroes. When cut open, these monsters are found to have swallowed many characters. Or they perhaps may escape, as Jonah did when swallowed by 'pride' portrayed as a great fish. George Orwell treats this as ego-myth.Or in Maori legend, Ao-kehu, who climbed into a hollowed log (human body)and was swallowed by a taniwha, but cut his way out with TWO maripi (shark-toothed knives. Good and evil; the twin snakes of the caduceus of Hermes, or Scylla & Charibda, Jachim & Boaz, pillars of Hercules, yin/yang, etc). The derivation of taniwha from tanha also points to Sri Lanka and the Maurya Empire as Maori origin. In Maori legend, the taniwha Hotupuku ('longing for experience') is slain by Te Pitaka. The T(r)ipitaka is a dominant Buddhist canon dealing with (and said itself to kill) tanha. And Robley remarks on the affinity of the Hei Tiki charm to the Buddhist jade Buddha.122.57.152.168 (talk) 02:48, 11 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure what you intend by the above, but this 'Aryan Maori' stuff is nonsense - Tregear didn't 'recognize' anything. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dougweller (talk • contribs) 10:01, 11 October 2013 (UTC)

Apologies for omitting the source I quoted (Te Ao Hou, the Maori Magazine, no. 51 (June 1965) at the NZ National Library site. "The Relationship between the Maori and Sanskrit Languages", by Adele Schafer):-

"Among the early writers who discussed the relationship between Polynesian and Sanskrit were the Germans Franz Bopp and Max Müller. In 1855 Richard Taylor, in his book ‘Te Ika a Maui’, p.384 ff., discussed the question mainly with reference to the Maori language. However the most important contribution to this subject was made by Edward Tregear, who in 1891 published his ‘Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary’. This Maori dictionary quotes parallel words to be found in other Polynesian languages, and sometimes also quotes parallel words to be found in Asian languages such as Malayan and Sanskrit. Tregear believed that the Maori language was mainly derived from Sanskrit, and that Maori was therefore an Indo-European language, a distant branch of the same family to which most European languages belong. He discusses this theory in his book ‘The Aryan Maori’, published in 1885, and in an article in the ‘Transactions of the New Zealand Institute’, vol. 20, p. 400 ff.122.57.152.168 (talk) 02:35, 22 October 2013 (UTC)
 * See our guidance on reliable sourcing. Tregear's Aryan-Maori stuff is part of the 19th-century tradition of speculative European nonsense which is no longer taken seriously any more by science, if it ever was. See also WP:FRINGE. -- Orange Mike &#x007C;  Talk  18:13, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

OK, does that mean Rev. Richard Taylor, and Max Müller, "who became Oxford's first Professor of Comparative Philology, founded on his behalf" (Wiki), have also been debunked? And the similarities between Arabic Tan, Hebrew Tannin (for almost all monsters in the Tanach), Western Polynesian Tanifa (shark), Maori Taniwha, Pali Tanha, Sanskrit Trsna, etc, are purely coincidental? 122.57.152.168 (talk) 00:13, 23 October 2013 (UTC)

Question related to the subject but not to the OP, In the article the line : " In modern Hebrew, the word Taninim is used for crocodiles but this is a 20th-century usage unconnected with the original Biblical meaning." is marked with "citation needed", can't a link to the wikitionary page in the hebrew language be made to prove the point? (https://he.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D7%AA%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%9F)77.126.24.108 (talk) 11:21, 5 May 2017 (UTC)

Naga
I think we need to source the references to naga. They were historically temple guardians, as i recall. The conflation of naga and dragon is...tenuous at best. Naga are serpents with human faces, usually depicted in art as human sized heads and proportionally snaky bodies; nothing I've ever read actually gives them a size. But, by that token, we can count chimera, the sphinx, griffons, pegasusi, Baba Yagi's chicken legged hut, and flying/gliding snakes as equally valid mythical proto-ancestors. It's unfounded and unsourced speculation with no reliable or primary sources. Nothing says "The belief in Naga on the India sub-continent lead to the spread of the belief in dragons elsewhere". They're two different creatures that even if we group all "Asian" cultures together and compare them to "Chinese" dragons are completely unrelated in every way. This connection seems more reminiscent of medieval european 'all unknown creatures/gods/spirits are obviously depictions of satan' and then back connecting that to the general/Christian myth of snake/dragon/Satan. But no one in India or within 300 miles thereof thought Naga had anything to do with dragons at any time in history that I've ever read of. Except maybe the British, in the 1800s. Khallus Maximus (talk) 01:03, 8 February 2016 (UTC)


 * Ok, maybe look in nagas, you may be off in the temple guardian originality, an early human source points to Nagarjuna. I am interested to find out how dragons and nagas conflated, cause I've been told dragons have a Chinese origin, that moved west.  I suspect it happened near The Thunder Dragons land. Would like to see better material in this regards. Zulu Papa 5 * (talk) 01:03, 9 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Earnest Ingersoll has the story in "Dragons and Dragons Lore" in the Indian Nagas and Draconic Prototypes chapter.  Vedic Nagas took on further eastern Dragon powers as Mahayana Buddhism developed a southern path, from northern India buddhism conflating with Naga tribes.  This then made its way into Greco-Buddhist art. This confluence occurred with new shipping trade developments in the region. The conflation can be attributed to Mahayana Buddhism spreading. Zulu Papa 5 * (talk) 01:33, 9 February 2016 (UTC)

Article reference
There is a very good article by the linguist and ethnologist Robert Blust called "The Origins of Dragons" in the 2000 issue of Anthropos. I will put the abstract here if anyone wants to incorporate the material into the article.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/40465957?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.201.21.30 (talk) 23:33, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

No mention of Fafnir or the Nibelungenlied?
Draconic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:A62:1174:1701:E5B5:6581:D20A:A99C (talk) 01:07, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 26 July 2017
Dirtbike00121 (talk) 23:36, 26 July 2017 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. Stickee (talk) 02:10, 27 July 2017 (UTC)

Apep as a dragon
The section "Historical African dragons" currently only links to the ancient Egyptian deity Apep. The linked article doesn't describe Apep as a dragon at all, and a quick Google search doesn't provide reliable sources considering Apep to be a dragon. As it stands, the "Historical African dragons" should be changed to explain how Apep could be considered a dragon, or not be included at all. If no one has anything to add to this, I will remove the section. —Rutlandbaconsouthamptonshakespeare (talk) 12:47, 5 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Apep was a big snake, not a dragon. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 22:10, 14 August 2017 (UTC)
 * The distinction between a "big snake" snake and a "dragon" is often muddled. Most so-called "dragons" from ancient literature are actually giant serpents. The word Greek word δράκων itself, from which our word dragon is derived, originally meant "giant serpent." --Katolophyromai (talk) 19:48, 15 August 2017 (UTC)

Reptiles?
The image of the dragon has nothing to do with reptiles. It comes from the story of the Nibelungenlied with Siegfried and Fafnir.

They symbolism was that of the Roman army spread long and thin in the Tutoburg Forrest. 2601:806:4301:C100:19B5:657E:F4:ADF2 (talk) 22:33, 11 October 2017 (UTC)

Quetzalcoatl/ Feathered Serpent / Kukulkan in Mesoamerica
What about including Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent or Kukulkan) as a subsection? It meets the classic definition of a dragon, and it even flies. Stone depictions resemble a stereotypical dragon as well. It technically does not have 4 legs (in one rendition his human-like form he has 2), but again the classical definition of a dragon is based on serpents. Legs don't necessarily define a dragon 107.0.114.24 (talk) 19:20, 17 November 2017 (UTC)
 * It doesn't matter what we think fits the description of a dragon, all that matters is what reliable sources label as dragons. FunkMonk (talk) 08:50, 25 November 2017 (UTC)

Well I believe that for the sake of information, it would be worth mentioning that a (asian type looking) dragon-like creature such as (Quetzalcoatl) or Kukulcan are part of a well documented mythology in mesoamerica. Raonipaes (talk) 11:54, 23 February 2018 (UTC)

Opening a Can of Wyrms
As with similar subjects from the folklore record, we need to be very careful to avoid projecting modern concepts of dragons (a flying tyrannosaurus, as in Game of Thrones) unto the historical record. For example, historically speaking, the ancient Germanic image of a dragon appears to have most commonly been that of a monstrous serpent. This creature was generally called some reflex of Proto-Germanic *wurmiz, predecessor of modern English's "worm". At various twists and turns, this noun encompassed a semantic field ranging from earthworms to snakes to generally serpentine things, such as maggots. An example of the semantic ambiguity of this term can be found in the Nine Herbs Charm, where the Old English extension of the god Odin is invoked to assist one who has been evidently poisoned by a wyrm (Wyrm com snican, toslat he man; a genam Woden VIIII wuldortanas).

This raises an important issue: article scope. Currently, the article runs the risk of absorbing anything that writers deem to be 'dragon-like', whatever exactly that may mean. Vague parameters make for incoherence. So where's the limit to this article's scope? Shouldn't it just include creatures quite explicitly referred to as a dragon in the historical record and then build from there? &#58;bloodofox: (talk) 16:45, 20 March 2018 (UTC)
 * The word "dragon" comes from the Latin word draco, which comes from the Greek word δράκων. Both of these words refer to a monstrous serpent very much along the same lines of what you are describing. (See the images in the "Ancient Greece and Rome" section, which clearly show dragons as essentially giant serpents.) The word drakon could also sometimes be applied to ordinary snakes, although the usual word for such creatures is ophis. The words wyrm and dragon are effectively synonyms. The modern concept of a "dragon" with wings and legs is mostly a development of the High and Late Middle Ages that resulted from the conflation of the serpentine dragons in classical and Germanic mythology with references to Near Eastern "dragons" preserved in the Bible and the less snakelike creatures of European folk tradition. The "dragons" of Near Eastern tradition, the Graeco-Roman drakon, and the Germanic wyrm are all integral aspects of the development of the concept of a dragon. In any case, all these creatures are referred to in scholarly sources as "dragons." (For the "Ancient Near East" section, I actually imposed the distinction of "dragon-like" myself to avoid confusion with the "flying tyrannosaurus" you mention above; whereas my sources - written by specialists on Near Eastern art, symbolism, and religion - simply call them "dragons.") --Katolophyromai (talk) 17:32, 20 March 2018 (UTC)
 * To be clear, I haven't looked at the article's history, so I don't know where your work here begins and what was here before ends, so none of the comments are aimed at you.


 * Regarding scholarship, it looks like you're encountering an issue that I've also often encountered in dealing with what are supposed to be first-rate sources: lack of concision and clarity. I don't know how many times I've encountered a scholar casually throwing in the semantically ambiguous words such as "witch", "giant", or "demon" into a study without any context or reasoning, as if it's supposed to be crystal-clear as to what they mean. (The best examples of the problem occur when these terms are dropped into lengthy studies discussing the complexities surrounding some other entity from the folklore record!) Lack of concision in secondary sources definitely makes articles like this one tougher to write than one might expect, and requires a highly critical approach.


 * Anyway, I'm sure you're well aware of this at that point. We could probably clear up a lot of these issues by explicitly stating that a scholar refers to these entities as "dragons" or "dragon-like" or what have you and fleshing out the etymology section. &#58;bloodofox: (talk) 18:00, 20 March 2018 (UTC)

Redirect European dragon?
Should we just redirect European dragon to this article? As far as I can tell, it's redundant and its scope is artificially limited. &#58;bloodofox: (talk) 17:14, 30 March 2018 (UTC)
 * I have thought about that possibility. I think I would prefer to finish working on this article before I make I decision on whether I want to do that, though, because I am still trying to decide whether it may be a good idea to have a sub-article about European dragons in particular. It is worth noting that this article, in a much earlier phase in its development, was actually nothing more than a disambiguation page between the two articles European dragon and Chinese dragon. --Katolophyromai (talk) 20:11, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 27 April 2018
Could someone please create a separate subsection called "South Asia" in the "Orient" section of this page and move the information about the Druk to the "South Asia" subsection? Bhutan is not in Southwest Asia, it's in South Asia and is culturally similar to Tibet, India and Nepal. It's wrong to group the two regions together when they aren't the same. 120.144.156.6 (talk) 08:39, 27 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Pictogram voting question.svg Question: Are you asking me to rename that section from "Southwest Asia" to "South Asia"? OhKayeSierra (talk) 19:20, 27 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Hello, I wanted to create a separate section called "South Asia" within the broader "Orient" section that can include the information about the Bhutanese Druk and Indian dragons and keep the other section, "Southwest Asia" as it is. I'll show you what I mean below. Hope this makes sense. :) (120.144.135.29 (talk) 01:11, 28 April 2018 (UTC))
 * Yes check.svg Done Diff OhKayeSierra (talk) 08:21, 28 April 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you for making the changes . (120.144.135.29 (talk) 08:35, 28 April 2018 (UTC))

South Asia
In the Rigveda, the oldest of the four Vedas, Indra, the Vedic god of storms, battles Vṛtra, a giant serpent who represents drought. Indra kills Vṛtra using his vajra (thunderbolt) and clears the path for rain, which is described in the form of cattle: "You won the cows, hero, you won the Soma,/You freed the seven streams to flow" (Rigveda 1.32.12). In another Rigvedic legend, the three-headed serpent Viśvarūpa, the son of Tvaṣṭṛ, guards a wealth of cows and horses. Indra delivers Viśvarūpa to a god named Trita Āptya, who fights and kills him and sets his cattle free. Indra cuts off Viśvarūpa's heads and drives the cattle home for Trita. This same story is alluded to in the Younger Avesta, in which the hero Thraētaona, the son of Āthbya, slays the three-headed dragon Aži Dahāka and takes his two beautiful wives as spoils. Thraētaona's name (meaning "third grandson of the waters") indicates that Aži Dahāka, like Vṛtra, was seen as a blocker of waters and cause of drought. Nāga are snake-like dragons from India who were thought to guard massive hoards of treasure. They are usually portrayed as "destructive, evil, and terrifying creatures living in the mountains." They are constantly at war with Garuda, the god of the mountains.

The Druk (འབྲུག་), also known as 'Thunder Dragon', is one of the National symbols of Bhutan. In the Dzongkha language, Bhutan is known as Druk Yul "Land of Druk", and Bhutanese leaders are called Druk Gyalpo, "Thunder Dragon Kings". The druk was adopted as an emblem by the Drukpa Lineage, which originated in Tibet and later spread to Bhutan.

Southwest Asia
In Persian mythology, azhdahās are dragons with huge bodies, terrifying faces, wide mouths filled with teeth, and bright eyes. According to Ajāyeb ul-Makhlooghāt, a book by Mohammad b. Mahmoud b. Ahmad-e Tusi (written in 1160 AD), "when a snake lives 100 years and its length becomes 30 gazes, it is called an azhdahā". He also writes that "because of their harassment to other creatures, the God eventually will throw them in the sea and in there, their body continue to raise, such that their length becomes more than 10,000 gazes (a traditional measurement unit roundly equal to a meter). Then in the sea, they evolve to have two wings, like a fish, and the seawave is because of their movements. Eating the heart of an Azhdahā brings courage and bravery. Their skins are suitable to healing the wound of love, and if someone buries an azhdahā's head in a land, the conditions of that land will become good." In Shahnameh, the national epic of Greater Iran, dragons appear in a number of stories. Sām, Rostam, Esfandiar, Eskandar, Bahram V (Gur) are among the heroes that kill a dragon.

GA status
Hi and, I'm surprised that this failed GAN because it looks like a wonderful article. The GA criteria are fairly limited (see WP:GACR); articles don't have to be as comprehensive as they do for FAC, for example. Squeamish, was the scope the only issue or were there others? SarahSV (talk) 02:01, 8 May 2018 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your support, but I think the failure was justified (at least for now). The lack of discussion of "dragons" outside Eurasia is obviously a problem, but, even if that is ignored, I still think there are some major issues that need to be addressed before this article can become a GA. I think that the "Sources of inspiration for dragon myths," "Middle East," and "Occident" sections are either up to GA status or very close to it, and if the whole article was in the same condition as those sections, this article could easily pass the GA criteria. Nonethless, I think that is right that the "Orient" and "Modern depictions" sections need considerably more work in order to really be GA-level material. The main challenges with those sections are my own lack of expertise in those areas and an at least seeming lack of reliable scholarly sources. I think I will probably renominate this article within the next few months at least, after I have had a chance to find editors knowledgeable in those areas to help with those sections. --Katolophyromai (talk) 02:45, 8 May 2018 (UTC)


 * 3a was certainly the main consideration here, but not the exclusive one. By means of example, I judged that the article didn't reach the 3a "main aspects" topic by failing to address any Australasian or Western Hemisphere material. On the other hand, if the article had provided some reasonable mention of dragons in Aztec tradition, but failed to make any mention whatsoever of Olmec and Mayan material, that would be satisfactory for GACR 3a, but would fall short of FACR 1b. The East Asian material is a little closer on the line, but the lack of coverage of the Azure Dragon (which is a major pan-Asian cultural element) in favor of relatively minor Warring States-era stories, and the lack of any modern Asian depictions whatsoever are also problematic under 3a. The result was an article that has a pretty well-researched Near East and European perspective, but presented incomplete or absent views of the topic from other cultures. I'm not entirely sure that systemic bias is the sort of "editorial bias" contemplated by GACR 4, but it's certainly a problem regardless. Finally, it didn't help that there were several sections cited entirely or primarily to a source that presented 2b reliability problems. Squeamish Ossifrage (talk) 02:31, 8 May 2018 (UTC)
 * and, if you both agree that it doesn't meet the criteria, that's fine. But I wonder whether this was closer to an FAC review. GACR 3a says (in a footnote): "The 'broad in its coverage' criterion is significantly weaker than the 'comprehensiveness' required of featured articles. It allows shorter articles, articles that do not cover every major fact or detail, and overviews of large topics." Also see What the Good article criteria are not: "Point (a) means that the 'main aspects' of the topic, according to reliable sources, should each be 'addressed' in the article; it does not require comprehensive coverage of these major aspects, nor any coverage of minor aspects." SarahSV (talk) 04:59, 8 May 2018 (UTC)
 * , I agree with that the article is already up to GA standards, or nearly so. Doing a Google Scholar on "dragons" mythology", I couldn't find any evidence of mythology outside of Europe and Asia being a major aspect of the subject. I wonder if any citation indices have been consulted in making judgments about GA broadness.--  Farang Rak Tham   (Talk) 22:20, 23 July 2018 (UTC)
 * Hadn't pinged yet.--  Farang Rak Tham   (Talk) 23:03, 24 July 2018 (UTC)

Recent changes to article
Iv'e noticed that the article has been almost halved in size even though most of them were officially credited to officil sources, such as the Welsh dragon, can anyone explain why so much was haemorrhaged/chiseled away? I see there is a 'revising caption per request by GA reviewer' in the edits.. but surely some should be edited, bettered & corrected instead of a huge deletion?. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Hogyncymru (talk • contribs) 10:51, 26 May 2018 (UTC)

Removed hyperbolic statement from non-technical source
Previously, the section called Sources of inspiration for dragon myths began, "Dragon-like creatures appear in virtually all cultures around the globe", with a ref note to "The Guardian of All Things: The Epic Story of Human Memory" by Michael S Malone. Malone is a writer on economics and IT, and isn't an authority on topics related to dragons, but more to the point, the statement is obviously false. A feature that is not found in any culture of Australia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas or Polynesia can obviously be said not to "appear in virtually all cultures around the globe". I replaced this opening with a more modest statement. Ordinary Person (talk) 10:37, 11 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Actually, there are plenty of creatures in Australia, sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, and Polynesia that are routinely referred to as "dragons" (see, for instance, Rainbow Serpent, Taniwha, Quetzalcoatl, as well as countless others). This article's lack of coverage of those creatures is actually the main reason why it failed to become a "Good Article" back in May of this year. Furthermore, per WP:OR, we are required to report what sources tell us, even if we disagree with them. This statement must either be preserved or omitted holistically; we do not have line-item veto, so we cannot change it to say that dragons appear in "several cultures in Europe and Asia" unless we replace the source for the current statement with a different one saying that dragons appear in "several cultures in Europe and Asia". The main problem here, of course, is that the word "dragon" is so utterly vague that it is widely applied to any mythical entity that is even vaguely serpent-like. The word itself has such a broad definition that it is practically meaningless in terms of trying to apply it to any one specific creature. It originally only applied to the so-called "European dragon," but it has been applied to so many other creatures of entirely separate origin that it has taken on a much broader definition. --Katolophyromai (talk) 12:09, 11 September 2018 (UTC)

First Punic War - Regulus vs. the 120-ft Dragon in North Africa
Haven't you missed the dragon that Regulus' army fought against in North Africa during the First Punic War? 204.136.203.128 (talk) 20:16, 7 January 2019 (UTC)

What about Skyrim and other popular video games?
No mention of any dragons from Skyrim or even Spyro. SPYRO!!! Makoshark5 (talk) 04:29, 21 February 2019 (UTC)
 * This is an article about history, not pop-culture trivia. If there is significant coverage about the dragons in certain video games, we could include it, but there is no reason to list video games that just happen to have dragons in them. ~Anachronist (talk) 05:09, 21 February 2019 (UTC)
 * You are in the wrong article. See List of dragons in popular culture and add whatever is missing. Dimadick (talk) 08:08, 22 February 2019 (UTC)

Recent revert of my edit

 * (edit comment "included the addition of random, uncited bits of trivia thrown in seemingly random places and the wholesale removal of the entire section on dragons in western Europe, which was replaced with merely links to other articles")
 * Best check which of these items are trivial. The section about Virgil is NOT unreferenced :: his poem Culex is on the internet and linked to.
 * The section on dragons in western Europe was not destroyed :: I text-merged it into European dragon, to keep all this information together, to avoid WP:content forking.
 * See this compare. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 14:16, 14 March 2019 (UTC)
 * As Content forking points out, all the information about a subject should be kept together. As I found it, some of the information about European dragons was in page Dragon, and some was in page European dragon, causing inconvenience to a reader and forcing him to repeatedly leaf back and forth between the two pages. Anthony Appleyard (talk) 16:13, 14 March 2019 (UTC)
 * See Content forking. The section "Medieval western Europe" is a necessary and adequate summary of the parts of the article "European dragon" dealing with medieval western Europe. The article "European dragon" is a more specific meta-article that gives more information on this specific aspect of the subject of the article and is available if the reader is seeking more information. All the most significant information, though, must be covered here as well and cited to reliable sources.
 * Merely listing links to other articles is not adequate here; we need to provide a section giving the most pertinent information about dragons in medieval western Europe in this article, because dragons in western Europe during the Middle Ages are a significant aspect of the subject of this article (i.e. dragons). Having articles on more specific aspects of a subject spun off from sections of a more general article is common and accepted practice here on Wikipedia. As an example of this, see for instance the article "Ancient Greece," which has full sections giving summaries of the most pertinent information concerning each specific aspect of ancient Greece, with a link to another article specifically dealing with each of those aspects in particular. There are hundreds of other articles that do this. That is the same thing I have tried to do here, but you removed the section talking about dragons in medieval western Europe and replaced it with just a bunch of links to other articles. In fact, not having the section on dragons in western Europe during the Middle Ages here would be a violation of the very policy you cite, because we would be omitting a crucial aspect of the subject of this article from this article and forcing the reader to go to a different article to find it.
 * Concerning your additions, I may have perhaps jumped the gun a little in calling all of them "trivial" and I apologize if I offended you by saying that. I do, however, have several serious problems with them. For one thing, none of them are cited to reliable secondary sources. As you should already know, all information added to Wikipedia is supposed to be cited to reliable, secondary sources. The one about Virgil that you mention above was only cited to Virgil, but Virgil is a primary source. Per WP:PRIMARY, we are allowed to cite primary sources, but only if we also cite secondary sources interpreting them. The reason for this is because primary sources do not interpret themselves and any interpretation of the primary source at all—including even the interpretation of the source's relevance to the article—must be cited to a reliable, secondary source.
 * Another major problem with your additions is that you just inserted them into the article at various points in stand-alone paragraphs without trying to work them into the text of the article at all. This is supposed to be a well-organized encyclopedia article, not just a bunch of pieces of information about dragons arranged in a disjointed and haphazard fashion. Some of your additions also covered things that were already discussed elsewhere in the article, making them redundant. —Katolophyromai (talk) 18:41, 14 March 2019 (UTC)


 * A complication about writing a history of dragons is that people's image of what a dragon is, changed down the centuries. It started in Roman times as merely "big snake". Anthony Appleyard (talk) 17:39, 15 March 2019 (UTC)
 * I am not sure why you are bringing this up here because this is already addressed extensively in the article. There is already an entire section on ancient Greek and Roman conceptions of dragons: "Dragon." (Also, the word dragon comes from Greek, not Latin, and the Greeks already had a highly developed notion of a dragon as a giant serpent, just as you describe, long before the Romans, so the changing meaning of the word dragon actually starts with the Greeks, not the Romans, but dragon-like creatures that are usually identified with dragons are found in earlier cultures.) --Katolophyromai (talk) 22:37, 15 March 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 20 April 2019
Change "Heracles must procure a golden apples" to "Heracles must procure a golden apple". Pluralizing seems incorrect. SamCWill (talk) 22:57, 20 April 2019 (UTC)
 * Done. Thank you very much for pointing out this grammar error. I am surprised no one noticed until now, since it appears to have been there for a very, very long time. —Katolophyromai (talk) 05:21, 21 April 2019 (UTC)

Winged lizard listed at Redirects for discussion
An editor has asked for a discussion to address the redirect Winged lizard. Please participate in the redirect discussion if you wish to do so. signed,Rosguill talk 04:46, 2 June 2019 (UTC)

It's a green dragon
Please, someone make it so that on the caption of the D&D dragon it specifies that it is a GREEN dragon. Dragonfyre (talk) 19:14, 31 August 2019 (UTC)
 * Why does it matter? It is shown as an example of a contemporary representation of a dragon; for the purpose that it serves in this article, it hardly matters what color it is supposed to be. —Katolophyromai (talk) 23:01, 31 August 2019 (UTC)

'Notes' section of the article should be deleted
In my opinion, the 'Notes' section of this article should be deleted if there are no notes to add to it as it is pointless in my opinion to have a section in the article that is empty. Xboxsponge15 (talk) 15:20, 31 December 2019 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 4 January 2020
please let me edit 2A00:23C5:CC12:DD01:E17B:DDA2:BAAB:D08C (talk) 12:49, 4 January 2020 (UTC)
 * Red question icon with gradient background.svg Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format and provide a reliable source if appropriate. Majavah (t/c) 13:02, 4 January 2020 (UTC)

what does "above-average intelligence" mean?
maybe we should say, if the myths agree, that dragons are more intelligent than humans. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jrm2007 (talk • contribs) 11:13, 10 October 2021 (UTC)

Proposal to split off “East Asian dragons” section
Imagine if a section dedicated to Mesoamerican feathered serpent deities took up a quarter of this article, without articles of their own: this is the predicament that East Asian dragons are currently facing.

Considering that this article is supposed to be a general-purpose overview of dragons, with a particular emphasis on the European-type dragon, the glut of text dealing with East Asian dragons seems out of place. These dragons are completely unrelated to the type portrayed in Indo-European and Afro-Asiatic mythologies, and the two only share the name because of association. The other non-European dragons listed in the article have a much clearer relationship to one another than East Asian dragons do to anyone else.

Therefore, the section dealing with East Asian dragons should be split off into its own article, with only a redirect or much smaller section remaining on this one. This split would unify the purpose of this article in dealing with Western dragons, and also allow for the shared history between East Asian dragons to be gone over with more depth in its own article. If not that, then the section should at least be vastly reduced in length, so that the real articles can do the talking themselves. Marisauna (talk) 22:07, 16 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I agree that East Asian dragons should be made into a new article. It takes so much space in this article. Also, having a new article for East Asian dragons would benefit both sides, with a more concise Dragon page and a more focused East Asian dragons page. But I also think that sections about European dragons in this article should be shortened, since there is already an entire article for European dragons. Ggrandez17 (talk) 23:37, 23 May 2020 (UTC)
 * I also agree. The concepts of "Dragon" in the West and East are not the same topic. Ashorocetus (talk&thinsp;&#124;&thinsp;contribs) 23:02, 25 October 2020 (UTC)
 * I thought one of the most interesting facts about the dragon myth is that it's a global phenomenon.Shtove (talk) 12:32, 3 December 2020 (UTC)


 * I support a split too. Its simply sily to not have an article on eastern dragons.★Trekker (talk) 13:13, 2 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Support, so long as a summary is retained in the context of the global phenomenon. Shtove (talk) 12:32, 3 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Yeah Shtove, I agree with you, that’s one of the great things about dragons. But the pan-human aspect of it is probably better covered in an article like Serpent (symbolism). This isn’t to say that global examples of dragon-like creatures shouldn’t be covered, though, they just shouldn’t be covered in depth on a general article like this. Marisauna (talk) 08:16, 16 December 2020 (UTC)


 * Hold on. I think basically everything we were planning to do is covered in Chinese dragon, Japanese dragon, Vietnamese dragon, etc. Instead of making a whole new article it would probably just be best to pare down the sections here and provide links to these ones. Marisauna (talk) 19:26, 17 December 2020 (UTC)
 * Good catch. I *would* like to add, though (in case this issue is not resolved) that I agree with Shtove's sentiments, and also, regarding Marisauna's comment referencing Serpent (symbolism): to clarify, @, you were using that as a parallel example, correct? Rather than opining that such an article should be labeled serpent and not dragon? Because if that was what you meant (which I don't think you did, but just in case), then I have to say I would strongly oppose such an action. Serpents and dragons are similar, but they are not the same, and it isn't Wikipedia's place to make any such declarations.


 * I also want to say, generally, IF anything be split out of this article and into a separate Eastern dragon article, we still cannot treat Eastern and Western dragons as though they are two entirely different things that have nothing to to with one the other. Origins notwithstanding, the two dragon types have clearly come to be seen as being, while distinct, variations within the same larger concept, and, just as it would be outside of wikipedia's scope to decide that dragons are really the same as serpents, so would it be for us to decide that there be no general concept of 'dragon' (or worse, to make dragon a disambiguation page!). English is not the only language that uses the same word for the two types, and as far as I know nearly all languages do, both Eastern and Western. There is clearly a reason for this, and who is anyone to say that everyone was 'wrong' in doing so? (These are mythical beasts, for crying out loud! It's not like we're talking about New World people's being called Indians because the first modern European that landed in the New World thought he was in the Old World. These beasts do not truly exist in the mundane World... ;P ) Firejuggler86 (talk) 05:35, 31 December 2020 (UTC)


 * A problem: we have different pages for Phoenix and Fenghuang though many languages (include English and Chinese) use the same word for the two types often. Why can't we have a different pages for East Asian dragon (though possibly titled Loong/Long/Lung)? --John Smith Ri (talk) 04:31, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
 * BTW, making dragon a disambiguation page is not bad—just like Phoenix.--John Smith Ri (talk) 05:02, 14 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Support.--John Smith Ri (talk) 05:05, 14 February 2021 (UTC)


 * Oppose. No evidence has been provided that a coherent idea of "East Asian dragon" even exists. Just because Chinese dragon, Japanese dragon, Vietnamese dragons are similar, doesn't mean that the concept of "East Asian dragon" is a real one supported by scholars. And then what would happen to the African dragon section? Would it be split up into an "African Dragons" article? Then this article would have only European, West Asian and South Asian sections, which is equally bizarre. The phenom is one of the most interesting in the world, and it is disappointing that others would want to disrupt this rather well-written article in favor of the OR "East Asian dragon" idea. Aza24 (talk) 02:27, 6 September 2021 (UTC)
 * Agree. There's no particular similarity between the dragons of the rest of the world outside east Asia, and the preamble makes it clear that Asian dragons are generically somewhat different (to be pedantic, the concept 'dragon' is different). If this article is too unwieldy (and it's not the worst I've seen) then detail should be split off into more precise articles. How much, for example does the Vietnam-related content of this article duplicate the content of Vietnamese dragon? (Rhetorical question!) If new detailed articles are needed, base them on this text and replace them here with 'Main article XYZ' Chrismorey (talk) 16:32, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

Something else that may be relevant (and might warrant mention in the article itself, if more reliable sources can be found): while modern depictions of Eastern and Western dragons are very different, it seem to me that the further back in time you go, the more similar they become. I've seen a few examples of Han and earlier dragons that to me look remarkably similar to Norse or Celtic images of dragons. See for example this image of a Zhou-era dragon, or this one from the Warring States era. My suspicion is that Eastern and Western dragons (or at least their depiction in art) may have had a common origin, and then diverged over time. Iapetus (talk) 09:43, 7 September 2021 (UTC)


 * I think a split is a good idea. I mean this article is honestly way too long. Not to mention there are differences between western and eastern dragons.CycoMa (talk) 16:40, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 21:37, 27 January 2022 (UTC)
 * Owain Glyndwr Siegel 2.jpg

Added changes to lead paragraph
There was a notification saying the lead was too long. Upon review, the lead was two paragraphs, with the second essentially being a list of common features among cultures. It was unnecessarily long - so I shortened it into a summary and merged the paragraphs together. --Tunakimbap (talk) 11:36, 20 March 2022 (UTC)

Main Image
Can someone add the source material of the main image of the page? Bellaloca (talk) 08:54, 9 June 2022 (UTC)

Levant
The translation of the Hebrew text sounds unusual - I don't think "dragon" is the standard translation for תנין — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:4040:ADF8:D00:CC52:E3B:7A02:BF7E (talk) 02:06, 28 November 2022 (UTC)


 * 1000 188.71.239.200 (talk) 04:18, 7 May 2023 (UTC)

the Beast of Revelation
The Wikipedia article on Number of the Beast (666) mentions the Dragon, apparently as a synonym for the Beast. The Book of Revelation contains 3 visions: the seven headed dragon, the Serpent and the Beast. It's possible that since dragon derives from the same word as serpent, that the distinction between the Serpent (in the Bible) and the Dragon is due to incorrect translation or possibly some other confusion. I don't know, but it *is* a term used in the Christian Bible, so that needs to be included. Oh, there's a book, The Throne, the Lamb & the Dragon which is about Revelations and almost certainly contains more information for any editor wanting to pursue this.40.142.183.146 (talk) 21:02, 27 May 2023 (UTC)