Mythical creatures

[abracax]

I have studied ancient cultures and religions for many years because it is something that interests me a great deal. One thing I have always noticed is that in every myth or legend there is fact, finding exactly what is fact in a myth or legend is not always the easy part. This is the first observation.

The second observation is; Many cultures from around the world have the same myths and legends, most of the time with just a few changes in the names or places. One of the constants is mythical beasts, from the Americas to Europe, Asia and Australia there are many similarities. For instance, the most well known common myth is, Dragons.

Dragons exist in every ancient culture. Some anthropologists believe the dragon is a remnant of memories of dinosaurs. Is this possible, I find it hard to believe. However there is something that is fact in the belief in dragons, you cannot just toss it aside as a mythical creature because of the fact that every ancient culture believed in them. The problem is, what was the dragon, what could it have really been?

Please feel free to list a mythical creature that more than one culture believed in and give an argument as to why it might have actually existed.

[Lord Arumen]

Have you seen Fierce Creatures before? The title made me think of it. it has John Clease, check it out.

I believe dragons are a natural creation of the human mind. Snakes are one of the most frightening things to humans. Wings and fire make them scarier.

[abracax]

Have you seen Fierce Creatures before? The title made me think of it. it has John Clease, check it out.

I believe dragons are a natural creation of the human mind. Snakes are one of the most frightening things to humans. Wings and fire make them scarier.

Yet in many cultures dragons were a good thing, it is mainly in Europe that dragons are evil and eat people.

And yes I own that movie lol

[Lord Arumen]

Yet in many cultures dragons were a good thing, it is mainly in Europe that dragons are evil and eat people.

And yes I own that movie lol

In cultures dragons are good snakes are too. Snakes are a zodiac in china, and in South America the Snake was their heavenly king.

[gottibabe1]

in South America the Snake was their heavenly king.

where they really? i never knew that, interesting

[abracax]

In cultures dragons are good snakes are too. Snakes are a zodiac in china, and in South America the Snake was their heavenly king.

You might be thinking of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatle. He was a beared man that came to them on a flying boat, however is represented as a winged serpent. He was the patron god of the Aztec priesthood, of learning and knowledge.

It is said that he gave them the knowledge of medicine, mathematics and of the stars.

[Lord Arumen]

You might be thinking of the Aztec god Quetzalcoatle. He was a beared man that came to them on a flying boat, however is represented as a winged serpent. He was the patron god of the Aztec priesthood, of learning and knowledge.

It is said that he gave them the knowledge of medicine, mathematics and of the stars.

And the ruler of the 5th wheel, or Aztec heaven.

[Darkbrady]

Keep in mind that back then scientific knowledge was at a low; folklore and stories ruled the day. If a child came back sayin' that he saw a flyin' beast that matched the description of a snake/dragon, he would be taken much more seriously than he would nowadays.

The kid then goes outside and points to a komodo in the bush and a story is created. Artists envision this thing flyin' in the air and draw their own dramatisation of it.

There's nothin' to say that their stories off of were completely true; the had a baseline (dragons, snakes, reptiles..) and used their art to bring it to life. Keep in mind that not much of ancient art depicts an exact image of what things actually looked like; even pictures of humans were skewed to a degree.

Lookin' for somethin' exactly as described in ancient lore is about as futile as tryin' to prove that god exists up in the sky. But we can look at what the stories were based off of.

Snakes, reptiles and dragons bein' the obvious baseline for..well...flyin' dragons.

Unicorns were obviously enough based off of wild, vicious horses (unicorns were not always origianlly happy love-givin' ponies; they used to be considered fierce animals; in the Scottish Coat of Arms there's a Unicorn on the right thas shackled up; it's shackled because back then wild Unicorns were considered the most dangerous animal)

Those ones are pretty easy...I always find more interest in the wild, extreme ones; the Chimera, for example. How did they originally put together that beast?

[gottibabe1]

I cant say i totally believe in dragons, a creature spiting out fire? although, saying dragons could be an ancestor of some sort to dinosaurs makes sense, look at the teridactil (i don't think i spelled that right) its a "creature" with wings and fly's, i think ancient people might have mistaken dragons for dinosaurs maybe?

[Kalent]

I cant say i totally believe in dragons, a creature spiting out fire? although, saying dragons could be an ancestor of some sort to dinosaurs makes sense, look at the teridactil (i don't think i spelled that right) its a "creature" with wings and fly's, i think ancient people might have mistaken dragons for dinosaurs maybe?

Impossible.. No kind of human-like creatures lived when the pterodactyls existed.