Bel and the Dragon, customary name for chapter 14 of the Book of Daniel, a passage included in the Septuagint and the Apocrypha. It was written possibly in the 1st cent. B.C. as a response to ...

Dragon's blood, name for a red resin obtained from a number of different plants. It was held by early Greeks, Romans, and Arabs to have medicinal properties; Dioscorides and other early writer...

Flying dragon, gliding lizard of the genus Draco, found in tropical forests of SE Asia. There are about 15 species. Most are about 8 in. (20 cm) long. On either side of the lizard's body are t...

Bel, deity of the Middle Eastern religions. The name is a cognate of that of Baal. For Bel in the Bible, see Bel and the Dragon.

Hesperides, in Greek mythology, daughters of Atlas. They lived in a fabulous garden located at the western extremity of the world. There they guarded (with the aid of the dragon Ladon) a tree ...

Leviathan, in the Bible, aquatic monster, presumably the crocodile, the whale, or a dragon. It was a symbol of evil to be ultimately defeated by the power of good.

Draco [Lat.,=the dragon], northern constellation lying SE of Ursa Minor and N of Lyra and Hercules. It is traditionally depicted as a dragon. Draco contains the bright star Eltanin (Gamma Drac...

Siegfried or Sigurd, great folk hero of early and medieval Germanic mythology. His legend, important in several Germanic epics, recounts his killing of the dragon Fafnir, his marriage to Gudru...

Cadmus, in Greek legend, son of Agenor and founder of Thebes. Misfortune followed his family because he killed the sacred dragon that guarded the spring of Ares. Athena told him to sow the dra...

Drachenfels [Ger.,=dragon's rock], mountain, 1,053 ft (321 m) high, in the Siebengebirge, W Germany, on the Rhine. It is of volcanic origin. In legend, it is the scene of Siegfried's triumph o...