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General Notes and Short Tales
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Region: Rome, Italy
Time Period: Unknown
References in Literature:
Sources: Nature of Spirit and Spirit of Nature, Dragons and Dragon Lore, Enchanted World: Dragons, Dragon Baits World, Grandpa / PJ Criss

Notes:
  • Romans painted red dragons on their standards and call them "dracones" or dragons.
  • In their victory parades they would fly a "dragon kite" with an open mouth that hissed. It was adopted around the first century AD.
  • "Pliny, the Elder, .,.. speculated that dragons hunted elephants to drink their blood - which was known for its coolness - and thus find relief from the heat of the desert and of their own bodies"
  • According to Ernest Ingersoll in Dragons and Dragon Lore, Romans in general weren't too fond of dragons and thus left them out of most histories.
  • The Romans gave them crests, fiery eyes and scaled coils.Pliny, the Elder (23/24 - 79), who wrote Natural History (Naturalis historia) was later discredited, around 17th century. (Source: Book of Fabulous Beasts, pg 59)
  • Lucan, in Pharsalia (39-65), wrote an epic of the Roman war that says the 2-headed amphibaena and basilisk are born from Medusa's blood as it dripped from the head Persus carried. Later, he described the iaculus or javalin snakes. (Source: Book of Fabulous Beasts, pg 66).
  • Dragons are golden and Lucan implies that it is Africa's heat that makes them bad and that they are benevolent away from it. (Source: Book of Fabulous Beasts, pg 67).
Tale 1:

An Iacuus flew at Laevus from a nearby tree and went right through his head through his temple. (Source: Book of Fabulous Beasts, pg 67).

Tale 2:

Murrus speared a basilisk, but the blood flowed up the blade to his hand. Murrus severed his won arm at the shoulder and lived. (Source: Book of Fabulous Beasts, pg 67)

Tale 3:

There is a story from the Bal d'Arno in Italy, told to Hartland by an illiterate peasant. It is, a hero finds a maiden in a chapel and she tells him to pass by quickly or else he might become a snack for the 7-headed dragon. But he stays, attacks the dragon, and takes its 7 tongues a trophies.

Tale 4:

According to the Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs, Vol 1, "Latin fables acquaint us with the fox who comes upon a dragon with buried treasure, the dragon who promises a farmer wealth and good fortune and the rich dragon who tests a man's friendship with an egg supposedly essential to the dragon's life." (pg 402).

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