You may call me Saboor. Together we will overfly the Realm of the Boa and take a look at how the Dragons, be they lessor or greater, have influenced your civilizations over the years. You will be very surprised at what you are about to learn. If you wish to disagree or argue that you never learned about any of this that is all right. I have been telling this story for a very long time to the elders of your tribes and most of the time I get skepticism from you kind. That is all right and as it was meant to be. You can think of this as a tall tale or fantasy. Or you could learn to suspend your disbelief and see what you may learn from this tale.

On your physical planet stories of Dragons go back a very long time. And since your earlier histories start on the other side of this planet we will first go back to this time and look at these interesting stories.

The very first "written" stories (that you have uncovered so far) on the creation of the world is from the Sumerian civilization generally in the area you call Mesopotamia. The actual word "dragon" comes from the Greek language much later than this time so any mundane interpretation of creatures by this name before the Greeks must be by descriptions and attributes and not by the actual name Dragon. These creatures were generally considered "monsters" even if they had divine attributes or influences.

The Sumerians established agricultural villages in an area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers at least 10,000 years ago. The bounty of all this fertile land and water soon created surpluses of grain and some leisure time. Soon a class of traders, scribes, merchants, and philosophers emerged. City-states were formed and governments started experimenting as various social classes arose. Finally a nation arose, armies were raised, and a network of trade insured free flow of ideas in and out of the region. Recorded history was now kept and preserved for future generations.

The very origins and foundations of the entire Mesopotamian culture comes from the stories, culture, and ethics of these Sumerians. The later civilizations of the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, and then Grecian's all got much of their philosophy, cosmology, and religion from the earlier stories (called myths) of the Sumerians so it behooves us to first look at these very early stories and pay particular attention to them. In fact so many of the stories sprout the same type general storyline that we can actually divide them into two categories; Gods versus monsters (dragons) before creation and heroes versus monsters (dragons) after creation. Later versions of these stories often change the names of the parties about but maintain the basic storyline. From the very start Dragons were seen as guarding treasures, holding back the floods, and dispensing knowledge. They also are battled by gods or heroes from the very beginning.

The earlier myths often have a god, usually a storm god or a god armed with thunder and lightning bolts, chasing a dragon that has something to do with water. Examples are almost all of the Mesopotamian stories, the Indian god Indra, both Chinese and Japanese myths, the Mayan Rain Gods, the Egyptian sea dragon/serpent Apophis and pursuer Re, and even many early Semitic stories.

The first written commentary, found on clay tablets, uses the names of Asag, a monster/dragon (sometimes named as Kur) and Ninurta, a god/hero. Later we are introduced to this same god/hero as Marduk by the Babylonians and the dragons name has been changed to Tiamet. There is some confusion here as the preserved evidence is not in good shape or complete.

In the Babylonian version called "Enuma elish" Tiamet is one of the original pair of god and goddess at the founding of the universe. From these two all later creatures, good or bad, came into creation. This Goddess is in effect the "mother of all." In the beginning of the tale Tiamet defends her offspring and all of creation from all evil. But later, when her husband Apsu is killed, she apparently goes mad and decides to end all creation. This irrational action pits her against all the others and one of her offspring, named Marduk, is talked into opposing her. In the fight that ensues Marduk finally kills her by shooting an arrow into her mouth as she tries to swallow him. She is a shape shifter as most or all early Dragons are assumed to be so fought him in different guises. After the battle he uses her dragon body to form the earth and from death we have life and substance.

The first epic of the hero or human and dragon encounter is the "Epic of Gilgamesh." This we know of by clay tablets from Semitic origin. But these tablets are telling about much earlier versions of the story. Here the hero is pitted against a Dragon named Humbaba who also has shape shifting abilities. Gilgamesh with the aid of the god Shamash finally kills the Dragon but gets in trouble with those other gods who were friends with or supported the Dragon and so has a phyric victory.

Not much later we find the Egyptians with a similar story of either Re the sun god or Seth the hero destroying the snake or Dragon named Apophis. Again there is much confusion and contradictions. In this story both the side of good and the side of evil have attributes of the dragon. So once again we see the idea that the winner of the contest with the dragon take on the attributes of the dragon.

The Hittites have a story of the battle of a storm god with the Dragon named Illuyankas which also has contradictions and different versions but also follows the earlier stories in general details.

Later on we get several versions from the Grecian civilization. There is the story of Zeus fighting Typhon. Typhon is described as "Up from his shoulders there grew a hundred snake heads, those of a dreaded dragon." We will deal with the relationship between snakes and dragons a little latter. But suffice for now to say they are essentially the same. And again this monster/dragon is slain by a mighty thunderbolt from Zeus.

Very similar to this is the story of Apollo and Python. Python is alternately described in different versions of the story as a giant snake or a female dragon with many coils. In any case in some versions she is killed by Apollo when the young god shoots an arrow down her throat. But in other version she is taken into his service and becomes a protected oracular serpent at Delphi. It is interesting to note that both Grecian and Romans had serpents or dragons that were kept at various temples including Delphi that were considered to have great knowledge.

It is also interesting that Hercules himself consulted the Oracle of Delphi and was directed on his "12 labors" by the advice he got their. Included in his labors were the destroying of the dragons Ladon and Hydra of the Seven heads.

A good example of another Greek hero is Perseus who instead of fighting for good versus evil killed a dragon that was about to devour the princess Andromeda in order to marry her and gain a kingdom. The dragon was sent by the god Poseidon or Neptune to avenge an insult.

Another hero dragon slayer was Jason who along with his companions the Argonauts had to overcome the unsleeping "dragon of a thousand coils" who guarded the golden fleece. In one version the dragon is ensorcelled into sleeping and they stole away unharmed with the treasure. In another Jason fought the dragon who was a sea dragon and lost the fight and so was swallowed. it was only by intercession of the god Athena that the dragon gave up her prey.

An interesting story related to Jason is that of Cadmus who later went on to be the King of Thebes. He was also given advice by the Oracle of Delphi (who was herself a dragon) that eventually led him to fight and kill a golden crested dragon at the spring of Ares. For killing this dragon Cadmus was forced to serve the god Ares for a year but was then allowed to found his city from the children of the dragons teeth.

There are many more stories of Dragons that are almost all to have been spun off and possibly changed to suit the appropriate local culture and mores of the people telling the tale. But this is the early history of Dragons as recounted by mankind in the "Old World." It is much better preserved than most records in North and South America which are covered more in the Realm of the Rattlesnake. Here you will meet my cousin Aziz and he will tell you even more about another kind of New World teacher, the Quetzalcoatl.