Roundel with Daniel Slaying the Dragon

In this image, there is a man feeding a dragon a ball, a crowd of people standing behind him all against the backdrop of a castle. The majority of the image is gray with the exception of some small yellow and gold details. The dragon has its long tongue and is about to be fed a ball. The man feeding the dragon is clad with a long cloak and has a sword by his side. The people behind him are all kneeling with the exception of a man holding a scepter and wearing a crown. The dragon has long sharp claws, big wings, large yellow eyes, large ears and a long tail. The dragon is standing in front of a wall of rocks.

Daniel and the Dragon is a story that can be found within the old testament of the Bible. In this story, the Babylonians and their king all revere a dragon. Daniel is very skeptical and does not believe that the dragon is a living deity( de Bruyn, J. (2015)).  He shocks everyone when he asks the king to kill the dragon, proving that he is not an Idol. The people say to Daniel that they cannot destroy their god. Daniel says he can destroy the dragon without a sword similar to how Sekandar was able to defeat the dragon. This makes me think that inspiration from this the Bible was taken into the Shahnameh.  The author states that food is a symbol of destruction ( de Bruyn, J. (2015)). Daniel takes a pitch, fat and hair and boiled it together into lumps to put into the dragons mouth and kill him. The dragon ate them and burst open. Then Daniel  said see what you have been worshipping. The Babylonians were very upset with Daniel for getting rid of idol. This object contributes to my understanding of the dragon because again the dragon here was symbolic. Unlike Middle Eastern tradition, the dragon actually symbolized something good for people. However, Daniel demonstrates the power of his mind by slaying it. To me this represents that although many people want to believe something, you must use your judgement before being a blind follower.