Dragon Spotlight 11: Gandarewa

Our featured dragon this week hails from Iranian mythology.  Gandarewa was so large that, although he lived in the ocean, the water merely pooled around his ankles.  As he grew ever larger, he began eating humans and livestock alike.  He also jealously guarded the haoma plant, keeping its powerful medicine for himself.  One brave man named Keresaspa went into the sea to fight Gandarewa and stop his destruction.

Keresaspa was losing the battle until he grabbed the skin on the sole of Gandarewa’s foot and, with a mighty yank, snatched his skin from his entire body.  He tied up Gandarewa in his very own skin, dragging him ashore.  But despite his immense pain, the sea beast suddenly slashed at Keresaspa’s eyes, blinding him for just a moment.  It was long enough for Gandarewa to escape, and he proceeded to wreak more destruction on humankind than ever before.  His turned his attention to the home of Keresaspa especially, eating all of his horses and stealing his wife and children to bring back to his undersea abode.  Keresaspa’s wrath over this was so great that he marched into the ocean, dragged Gandarewa ashore, and clubbed him to death on the beach.  Afterwards, Keresaspa’s family and all of Iran was safe from the dragon’s wrath.

In Rachel’s drawing of Gandarewa, he is guarding the haoma plant, displaying his greed and jealousy.  This version of Gandarewa draws influence from the Permian era fossil amphibian Diplocaulus. His skin and external gills are like those seen in extant larval salamanders. Of course, real amphibians cannot survive in salt water.  Below is an image of a Diplocaulus fossil, estimated to be at least 251 million years old.

Gandarewa shows up in pop media today, notably in the Final Fantasy series as a holy man who went into the mountains, fed on dragon blood, and was changed forever.

Dragon Spotlight 10: Leviathan

Greetings all!  As the semester continues, so does our weekly dragon spotlight!  As promised last week, we’ll be looking at the great water beast Leviathan, a monster so popular that its name can substitute for any enormous sea monster.

Leviathan is described in Job 41 in the Old Testament with many dragon like features:

14 Who dares open the doors of its mouth,

     ringed about with fearsome teeth?

15 Its back has rows of shields

     tightly sealed together;

…

18 Its snorting throws out flashes of light;

      its eyes are like the rays of dawn.

19 Flames stream from its mouth;

      sparks of fire shoot out.

As time moved on, Leviathan was paired with increasingly fierce descriptions, so that in many Christian texts the Leviathan is given an more evil connotation and has even been said to swallow the souls of the damned on Judgement Day.  

Rachel’s drawing of Leviathan is based on the mosasaur. Mosasaurs (which were recently featured in the film Jurassic World) are an extinct group of marine reptiles, distantly related to modern monitor lizards. These aquatic predators are thought to have swallowed their prey whole like a snake, and so they make for perfect inspiration for Leviathan, who is associated with swallowing souls.

Like our friend Behemoth from last week (and the Leviathan’s possible partner in crime), this fearsome sea dragon has inspired films.  In fact, Leviathan has been the title of two films, one in 1989 and another, from Russia, in 2014.

If you've ever seen either one, or have the time to watch them, let us know what they're all about! Until next week, dragon fans!

Dragon Spotlight 9: Behemoth

     With the start of a new semester, we are back and bringing dragons back with us!  This semester at UMass Amherst our developing text, A Discourse on Dragons, will be used in a 3-credit course on dragon mythology around the world, taught by our own Dr. Jean Foward!

    Picking back up on our weekly dragon spotlight, this week we'll be looking at Behemoth, from the Old Testament. Behemoth is often depicted as either an ox or a hippopotamus, but is usually described alongside Leviathan, who will be our dragon spotlight next week. Some texts describe God creating the male Behemoth as a counterpart to the female Leviathan. Still other iterations speak of God slaying both Behemoth and Leviathan when Israel is delivered from all enemies to be served as food for the righteous.

   In Rachel's drawing of Behemoth, seen above, he towers over the mountains like a gargantuan sauropod dinosaur. He is historically depicted as a bull, so he is drawn here with bull-like horns and ears.

   Many Christian sources draw a link between Behemoth and dinosaurs, especially Brontosaurus.  Often Behemoth is depicted as a Brontosaurus, Brachiosaurus, or a comparable dinosaur.  Additionally, such a Biblically inspired monster was featured in a 1959 sci-fi horror flick, "Behemoth the Sea Monster," in spite of the fact that Behemoth  was more often related to land, while Leviathan was associated with the sea.

       

Check back in next week, when we’ll be taking a look at Leviathan!