Dragons, serpents, and slayers in the classical and early Christian worlds: a sourcebook

Contents

The classical dragon: The genealogy of the great dragons -- Typhon, slain by Zeus -- Python, slain by Apollo -- Heracles' dragons (I): baby Heracles and the dragon-pair sent by Hera -- Heracles' dragons (II): the hydra -- Heracles' dragons (III): Ladon, the dragon of the Hesperides -- Heracles' dragons (IV): Cerberus, the hound of Hades -- The chimaera, slain by Bellerophon -- Medusa, slain by Perseus -- Lamia, slain by Eurybatus and others -- The dragon of Ares, slain by Cadmus -- The dragon of Nemea, slain by the Seven against Thebes -- The dragon of Colchis, slain or sent to sleep by Jason and Medea -- The dragon pair sent against Laocoon and his sons -- The dragon of the river Bagrada, slain by Regulus and his army -- Some unique dragon-slaying and dragon-averting narratives in later Greek sources -- The sea monster of Troy, slain by Heracles -- The sea monster of Ethiopia, slain by Perseus -- Scylla, slain by Heracles and encountered by Odysseus -- The Christian dragon: The serpents of the Bible and its Apocrypha -- The dragons of the early hagiographical tradition -- St Philip, the echidna and the ophianoi -- St Silvester and the dragon of Rome -- Saintly tales originating between the fourth and sixth centuries AD -- Saintly tales of the central medieval period -- St Patrick and St George -- Appendix A: World-foundational dragon-slaying tales from the ancient Near East and India -- Appendix B: Germanic dragon fights of the eighth to thirteenth centuries AD -- Appendix C: A selection of dragon- and serpent-slaying tales of folkloric Interest.