The legend of Saint George and the Dragon describes the saint taming and slaying a dragon that demanded human sacrifices; the saint thereby rescues the princess chosen as the next offering.
Only a kernel of the legend occurs in the ancient hagiography of Saint George dating to the 7th century or earlier. Here, a monarch referred to as "dragon of the abyss" persecutes the saint. The dragon-slaying may have been transferred from the legend attached to St. Theodore.
The earliest known narrative of the full dragon episode is an 11th-century Georgian text. "Iconographical" artistic depictions that match the story in its important elements occur in the contemporaneous period in Georgia, corroborating the legend's possible origin there. The dragon-slaying St. George (without the princess) existed much earlier.
From its Eastern origins, it was introduced into Western Christian tradition, possibly by the Crusades. The earliest Latin text may be of the late 12th century, but the story was not popularized until the mid-13th century when the legend in appeared in Speculum Historiale and the Golden Legend, and thereafter became a favourite literary and pictorial subject in the Late Middle Ages. The legend has become part of the Christian traditions relating to Saint George.
Video Saint George and the Dragon
Summary
The names of location may differ among versions, and the princess may remain unnamed or otherwise.
Commonly known version
In the well-known version from Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda aurea (The Golden Legend, 1260s), the narrative episode of Saint George and the Dragon took place somewhere he called "Silene", in Libya.
Silene in Libya was plagued by a venom-spewing dragon dwelling in a nearby pond, poisoning the countryside. To prevent it from affecting the city itself, the people offered it two sheep daily, then a man and a sheep, and finally their children and youths, chosen by lottery. One time the lot fell on the king's daughter. The king offered all his gold and silver to have his daughter spared; the people refused. The daughter was sent out to the lake, dressed as a bride, to be fed to the dragon.
Saint George by chance arrived at the spot. The princess tried to send him away, but he vowed to remain. The dragon emerged from the pond while they were conversing. Saint George made the Sign of the Cross and charged it on horseback, seriously wounding it with his lance. He then called to the princess to throw him her girdle (zona), and he put it around the dragon's neck. When she did so, the dragon followed the girl like a "meek beast" on a leash.
The princess and Saint George led the dragon back to the city of Silene, where it terrified the populace. Saint George offered to kill the dragon if they consented to become Christians and be baptized. Fifteen thousand men including the king of Silene converted to Christianity. George then killed the dragon, beheading it with his sword, and the body was carted out of the city on four ox-carts. The king built a church to the Blessed Virgin Mary and Saint George on the site where the dragon died and a spring flowed from its altar with water that cured all disease.
Variants
In the tenth-century Georgian narrative, the place is the city of Lasia, and the idolatrous emperor who rules the city is called Selinus. The Greek text gives Lasia (?????) and the king is named Selbios (???????).
Only the Latin version involves the saint striking the dragon with the spear, before killing it with the sword.
Names of the princess
"Sabra" and "Cleodolinda" were names later devised for the princess rescued by St. George, who remains anonymous in the Golden Legend.
"Sabra" is her name invented by the English Elizabethan period writer Richard Johnson in his Seven Champions of Christendom (1596). In the work, she is recast as a princess of Egypt. This work takes great liberties with the material, and makes St. George marry Sabra, and have English children, one of whom becomes Guy of Warwick.
"Cleodolinda" and "Aia" are names used for the princess in Italian sources.
Slavic versions
In Russia, the saint is popularly referred to as "Egorii the brave" (Russian: ?????? ???????, Egorii chrabryii) and combats a type of dragon named zmei, often depicted as three-headed. The folk version expands on the legend and has the saint travel through Rus. In Bulgaria, where the zmei is regarded more benevolently, St. George combats the lamia (Bulgarian: ?????).
Maps Saint George and the Dragon
Origins
The earliest surviving form of the legend is a Georgian text (Greek Patriarchal Library, Jerusalem, codex 2) from the 11th century. The fact that the earliest art that depicts the complete legend (with the princess element) occurs in Georgia is seen as corroborative evidence the legend may have been created there.
The earliest martyrdom tales of St. George (the Acta) date to at least as far back as the 6th century. Some of the beginnings of the legend are contained in these old texts: although Saint George does not fight a literal dragon, he is persecuted by King Dadianus, who is called "dragon of the abyss" (Greek: ? ?????? ??????ho bythios drakon).
It has also been suggested that the dragon motif may have been transferred to the George legend from that of his fellow soldier saint, Saint Theodore Tiro.
The earliest Greek text, which dates to the 12th or 13th century, closely follows the Georgian text and may be a translation from it.
The earliest Latin text corresponding to this legend is De S. Georgio (BHL 3386).
However, the legend did not become widely known among the populace until the version combined with the already standardised Passio Georgii emerged, namely Vincent of Beauvais' encyclopedic Speculum Historiale and Jacobus de Voragine's Legenda aurea (Golden Legend).
The legend was brought back with the Crusaders, and retold with the courtly appurtenances belonging to the genre of romance.
Artistic depictions
The earliest known "iconographical" artistic depiction that features the saint, the dragon, and the princess may be a Georgian example, the earliest datable image at Pavnisi, Georgia (1154-58).
There are actually prolific examples of art showing St. George combating the serpent, but without the princess, for instance, the 10th- or 11th-century examples from Cappadocia (particularly the Churches of Göreme) An example from. A wall-painting at the Y?lanl? Kilise ("Snake Church") that depicts George and Theodore dates to the 10th century or even the mid-9th. A similar composition, with the two saints on horseback attacking two snakes coiled around a tree (Mavrucan No. 3, or Güzelöz, Ye?ilhisar No. 3) is thought to be from the 7th century.
It became a popular motif for paintings, sculptures,
Iconography
Iconography of the horseman with spear overcoming evil was widespread throughout the Christian period. In Pharaonic mythology, the god Setekh murdered his brother Osiris. Horus, the son of Osiris, avenged his father's death by killing Setekh. French researchers at the Louvre interpret a fourth century AD Coptic stone fenestrella of mounted hawk-headed figure fighting a crocodile, as Horus killing a metamorphosed Setekh, and they have considered this scene ancestral to later iconography of George killing a dragon.
Medieval iconography
- Eastern
Some icons depicting the saint as a horseman killing the dragon date to the 12th century. Older (11th-century) icons from Georgia (Labechina, Ipari) show George as a horseman slaying a human enemy rather than a dragon. The motif becomes popular especially in Georgian and Russian tradition, but it is also found in Greek icons (where the earlier mode of depiction of George as a soldier on foot and without the dragon remains more common). The saint is depicted in the style of a Roman cavalryman in the tradition of the "Thracian Heros."
In Russian tradition, the icon is known as ???? ??????? ? ????; i.e., "the miracle of George and the dragon." The saint is mostly shown on a white horse, facing right, but sometimes also on a black horse, or facing left. The princess is usually not included. Another motif shows George on horseback with the youth of Mytilene sitting behind him.
Some icons show George killing the dragon on foot.
- Western
The motif of Saint George as a knight on horseback slaying the dragon first appears in western art in the second half of the 13th century. The tradition of the saint's arms being shown as the red-on-white St. George's Cross develops in the 14th century.
Renaissance
- Donatello, Saint George, c. 1417. Bargello, Florence, Italy.
- Paolo Uccello, Saint George and the Dragon, c. 1470. National Gallery, London.
- Giovanni Bellini, Saint George Fighting the Dragon, c. 1471. Pesaro altarpiece.
- Lieven van Lathem, Saint George and the Dragon (c. 1471)
- Bernt Notke, Saint George and the Dragon, Storkyrkan in Stockholm, ca. 1484-1489.
- Andrea della Robbia, terracotta, c. 1490
- Albrecht Dürer, woodcut, 1501/4
- Raphael (Raffaello Santi), St. George, 1504. Oil on wood. Louvre, Paris, France.
- Raphael (Raffaello Santi), St. George and the Dragon, 1504-1506. Oil on wood. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., United States.
- Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), Saint George and the Dragon, 1555.
Early modern and modern art
Paintings
- Peter Paul Rubens, Saint George and the Dragon, 1620.
- Salvator Rosa, San Giorgio e il Drago
- Mattia Preti, St George triumphant over the dragon, 1678, at St. George's Basilica, Malta in Victoria, Gozo.
- Edward Burne-Jones, St. George and the Dragon, 1866.
- Gustave Moreau, St. George and the Dragon, c. 1870. Oil on canvas. The National Gallery, London.
- Briton Rivière, St. George and the Dragon, c. 1914.
- Uro? Predi?, St George Killing the Dragon, 1930.
- Giorgio de Chirico, St. George Killing the Dragon, 1940.
Sculptures
- The sculptures which form part of the clock of Liberty's store in Regent Street, London (19th century).
- Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm, Saint George and the Dragon, bronze, State Library of Victoria, 1889
- Salvador Dalí, Saint George and the Dragon, Open Air Museum in Cosenza, 1947
Mosaic
- Edward Poynter, Saint George for England, 1869. Central Lobby in the Palace of Westminster.
Engravings
- Benedetto Pistrucci, engraving for coin dies, 1817.
Prints
- On banknotes issued by the Bank of England:
- £1 note, 1917 until 1933, on obverse, with portrait of George V; 1928 until 1960, on reverse, duplicated.
- £5 note, 1957 until 1967, on obverse, with portrait of Britannia.
- £20 note, 1970 until 1993, on obverse, with portrait of Elizabeth II.
Christian tradition
The legend gradually became part of the Christian traditions relating to Saint George and was used in many festivals thereafter.
Coats of arms
- Australia: Hurstville
- Austria: Pitten, Sankt Georgen an der Gusen, Sankt Georgen an der Leys, Sankt Georgen an der Stiefing, Sankt Georgen im Attergau, Sankt Georgen ob Murau.
- Croatia: Ka?tel Su?urac.
- Czech Republic: Bru?perk.
- Denmark: Holstebro.
- France: Aydoilles, Couilly-Pont-aux-Dames, Ligsdorf, Maulan, Mussidan, Saint-Georges (Moselle), Saint-Georges-Armont, Saint-Georges-d'Espéranche, Saint-Georges-d'Oléron, Saint-Georges-d'Orques, Saint-Georges-de-Reintembault, Saint-Georges-du-Bois, Saint-Georges-du-Vièvre, Saint-Georges-sur-Baulche, Saint-Georges-sur-Loire, Saint-Jurs, Saorge, Sospel, Villeneuve-Saint-Georges.
- Georgia.
- Germany: Bürgel, Hattingen, Mansfeld, Rittersbach, St. Georgen im Schwarzwald, Schwarzenberg.
- Hungary: Bácsszentgyörgy, Balatonszentgyörgy, Borsodszentgyörgy, Dunaszentgyörgy, Homokszentgyörgy, Pécsvárad, Szentgyörgyvár, Szentgyörgyvölgy, Tatárszentgyörgy.
- Italy: Reggio Calabria.
- Lithuania: Marijampol?, Prienai, Varniai.
- Netherlands: Ridderkerk, Terborg.
- Poland: Brzeg Dolny, Dzier?oniów, Milicz.
- Romania: Suceava, Sfântu Gheorghe.
- Russia: Moscow, Moscow Oblast.
- Serbia: Srpski Krstur.
- Slovakia: Svätý Jur.
- Spain: Alcalá de los Gazules, Golosalvo, Puentedura.
- Switzerland: Castiel, Kaltbrunn, Ruschein, Saint-George, Schlans, Stein am Rhein, Waltensburg/Vuorz.
- Ukraine: Kiev Oblast, Liuboml, Nizhyn, Taikury, Volodymyr-Volynskyi.
- United Kingdom: Badge of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
Literary references and popular culture
- William Shakespeare refers to Saint George and the Dragon in Richard III ( Advance our standards, set upon our foes Our ancient world of courage fair St. George Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons act V, sc. 3), Henry V ( The game's afoot: follow your spirit, and upon this charge cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!' act III, sc. 1), and also in King Lear (act I).
- Edmund Spenser expands on the Saint George and the Dragon story in Book I of the Fairy Queen, initially referring to the hero as the Redcross Knight.
- Edward Elgar, The Banner of St George: a ballad for chorus and orchestra, words by Shapcott Wensley, 1879.
- A 17th-century broadside ballad paid homage to the feat of George's dragon slaying. Titled "St. George and the Dragon", the ballad considers the importance of Saint George in relation to other heroes of epic and Romance, ultimately concluding that all other heroes and figures of epic or romance pale in comparison to the feats of George.
- The 1898 Dream Days by Kenneth Grahame includes a chapter entitled The Reluctant Dragon, in which an elderly Saint George and a benign dragon stage a mock battle to satisfy the townsfolk and get the dragon introduced into society. Later made into a film by Walt Disney Productions, and set to music by John Rutter as a children's operetta.
- In 1935 Stanley Holloway recorded a humorous retelling of the tale as St. George and the Dragon written by Weston and Lee.
- The Dragon Knight, a series of books by Gordon R. Dickson, adopted this story as a past event into its canon, significant in that dragons had since referred to humans as "georges." The story of Saint George and the Dragon is referred to on occasion, but never told. The first book in the series, The Dragon and the George, is a retelling of a previous short story by the same author, "St. Dragon and the George."
- In the 1950s, Stan Freberg and Daws Butler wrote and performed St. George and the Dragon-Net (a spoof of the tale and of Dragnet) for Freberg's radio show. The story's recording became the first comedy album to sell over a million copies.
- EC Comics published a comic called "By George!!" in Weird Fantasy #15 (1952). The story revealed that the 'dragon' was in fact a lost, misunderstood alien child who did not mean any harm.
- The poem "Fairy Tale" by Yuri Zhivago-the main character from Boris Pasternak's novel Doctor Zhivago (1957)-relates a modified account of this legend; Yuri's poem differs in that it is nonreligious and makes no mention of the village.
- The 1962 film The Magic Sword is loosely based on the legend.
- The 1968 children's book The Iron Man, by Ted Hughes, is a contemporary re-telling of the myth in which nature (the dragon, named the "space-bat-angel-dragon" in the book) and man eventually work together symbiotically, creating harmony on Earth after the eponymous Iron Man defeats the beast in a contest of endurance.
- The 1981 Paramount Pictures/Disney film Dragonslayer was loosely based on the tale.
- The story was referenced on the cover art of the posthumous Bob Marley & The Wailers album Confrontation (1983), which depicts Bob Marley in the role of Saint George.
- Margaret Hodges retold the legend in a 1984 children's book (Saint George and the Dragon) with Caldecott Medal-winning illustrations by Trina Schart Hyman.
- In Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian, Saint George is chronicled as being the saint who killed Vlad Tepesh (also known as Dracula, which means "son of the dragon" or "son of the devil").
- In Graham McNeill's Horus Heresy novel Mechanicum, Book 9 of the Horus Heresy book series, the story is retold and George is revealed to be the future Emperor of Mankind.
See also
- Saint George
- Saint George: Devotions, traditions and prayers
- Princess and dragon
- Ducasse de Mons
Explanatory notes
References
- Citations
- Bibliography
External links
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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