Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds - Hardcover

Ogden, Daniel

4.35

20 ratings by Goodreads

9780199557325: Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199557322 ISBN 13: 9780199557325

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2013

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Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Wolrds is the first substantial survey to be focally devoted to the "dragon" or the supernatural serpent, the drakon or draco, in Greek and Roman myth and religion. Almost every major myth cycle of the Greek and Roman worlds featured a dragon-fight at its heart, including the sagas of Heracles, Jason, Perseus, Cadmus, and Odysseus. Asclepius, the single most beloved and influential of the pagan gods from the late Classical period until Late Antiquity, was often manifest as a giant serpent and even in his humanoid aspect carried a serpent on his staff.

Detailed and authoritative, but lucidly presented, this volume incorporates analyses of all of antiquity's major dragon-slaying myths, and offers comprehensive accounts of the rich sources, literary and iconographic. Ogden also explores matters of cult and the initially paradoxical association of dragons and serpents with the most benign of deities, not only those of health and healing, like Asclepius and Hygieia, but also those of wealth and good luck, such as Zeus Meilichios and Agathos Daimon. The concluding chapter considers the roles of both pagan dragon-slaying narratives and pagan serpent cults in shaping the beginnings of the tradition of the saintly dragon- and serpent-slaying tales we cherish still, the tradition that culminates in our own stories of Saints George and Patrick.

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About the Author:

Daniel Ogden is currently Professor of Ancient History at the University of Exeter, and Research Fellow at the University of South Africa. He has published widely on ancient Greek subjects, including myth, religion and magic, traditional narratives, reproduction and sexuality, and Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic dynasties.

Review:

"[Drakon] will become the essential resource for any further study of the serpents of the Greek and Roman worlds."--Laura Gawlinski, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

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