A storm god wields lightning bolts to punish the wicked, slay his enemies or inspire awe. Dragon lightning just happens. With no understanding of physical processes, or impersonal natural causes, the ancient mind was at a loss to explain the reasons for natural phenomena. The assumption was that these phenomena occur because some concious entity wills it to happen. Belief in divine beings may be an attempt to interpret natural phenomena in a human terms. God has sent lightning to punnish sinners. The rain has come because we prayed for it. The floods are late because we failed to sacrifice. Yet it also seems that such things often happen for no concievable reason. Even when all the omens are good, when all the sacrifices have been properly made, when the gods are surely on our side, suddenly an earthquake will flatten a city. A dragon has awakened - an event that none could foresee or prevent, not even the gods.
Dragons are the wandering monsters of the godplane. The gods have motives and objectives, they have a reason for being. Dragons are nature in the raw, yet they are still spiritual as well as physical beings.
I'm sure this interpretation is far from universal. Sometimes these entities can be conversed with. They don't always appear to be devoid of personality, but they are always inscrutable. They do have intelect, but they are often capricious and choose their actions based on criteria beyond mortal comprehension, or even logic. They may be helpfull, but their motivation for being so is often mysterious and unreliable.
Does anyone have sources on the symbolism and meaning of dragons in myth? What has Joe Campbell have to say?
Simon Hibbs
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