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Dragon (Fabulous animal found)

a fabulous animal, found in the mythology of nearly all nations, generally as an enormous serpent of abnormal form. Ancient legends represent the dragon as a huge hydra, watching as sentinel the Garden of the Hesperides, or guarding the tree on which was hung the Golden Fleece at Colchis. In other places he appears as a monster, making the neighborhood around his cave unsafe, and desolating the land; his death being ascribed to a hero or god made for the task, which was a service to all mankind.

In Christian art the dragon is the usual emblem of sin; is met with in pictures of St. Michael and St. tures of St. Michael and St. Margaret, conquest over sin; it also appears under the feet of the Saviour, and under those of the Virgin.

The The dragon also typifies idolatry. In pictures of St. George and St. Sylvester it serves to exhibit the triumph of Christianity over paganism. As a symbol of Satan we find the dragon nearly always in