What Dragons Teach Us about Culture and Symbols
When people think of mythical creatures, images of werewolves and mermaids come to mind. One of the most prominent of these are dragons. Stories of dragons are widely found across continents and cultures; they are even present in the media today in television shows and movies. But as overhyped as they are, this is not a tale about dragons; it is a story on how cultures perceive and create symbols.
This exhibit will discuss dragons. It will go over stories from the Shahnameh, an epic poem written by the poet Ferdowsi. It will analyze the passage “Sekandar Reaches a Land Where the Men Have Soft Feet and Kills a Dragon” (Ferdowsi 2016, 614-616) in which Sekandar, a king conqueror, comes face-to-face with a dragon and uses deception to defeat the monster. The exhibit will then travel to an opposing view by analyzing Chinese ceramic artifacts. It will show a funerary jar wrapped by a dragon sculpture, as well as other ceramics to explain how dragons have been integrated into East Asian culture and art.
Finally, the document will include an analysis relating the monster and the artifacts together. The two will be juxtaposed with each other, thus showing how different cultures create symbols, and how and why these ideologies can diverge from the same creature.
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The passage to be analyzed is shown below. It sets up the scene where the current protagonist Sekandar brings his army to a new city and needs a path through the mountainside. However, the people in the city warn him of a monster that would prevent them from safely crossing. The people then describe the monster - a dragon that resides in the mountains. One which threatens to destroy the town and kill the civilians if they do not heed his requests and bring him five cows to eat each day.
Sekandar then devises his plan and once again exemplifies his intelligence. Rather than directly fight the dragon and risk his life, he would weaken it first. He calls for the cow hides to be filled with poison and oil and inflated, then fed to the dragon. This weakens it, and Sekandar takes this opportunity to hail a storm of arrows at it and finally defeats it.
“A path exists around this mountainside
But first you’ll have to find a willing guide;
Beyond the crest there lies a dragon’s lair,
His poison sickens birds that venture there.
The noxious vapors reach the moon, there’s no
Safe route by which your warriors could go.
His massive maw breathes fire, and he could snare
An elephant with his two locks of hair;
Our city doesn’t have the strength to fight.
We have to take up five cows, every night,
For him to feed on; and how fearfully
We place them on the rocks for him to see,
Afraid that if he finds us he’ll come down
And, piece by piece, destroy us and our town.”
Sekandar said, “Tomorrow, see that no one takes him any food.” When the time for his meal had passed, the dragon stood on the mountain slope breathing fire, and Sekandar ordered his troops to shoot a storm of arrows against him. The foul dragon exhaled fire and caught a few men in the blast. Sekandar had the war drums beaten, and the dragon drew back in fear from the echoing drums. The sun rose in Taurus, and the meadows resounded with the song of larks. When it was again time for the dragon to be fed, the king chose a number of men from his army and gave them money to buy five cows. He killed the cows and skinned them, leaving the hide attached to their heads. The hides were then filled with poison and oil and inflated; prayers were said and the cows were passed from hand to hand up the mountainside.
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He ate them, and the poison spread throughout his body, bursting his intestines and forcing its way even into his brain and feet.