The motif of the woman and the dragon has been prevalent in Western art since antiquity, yet has hitherto remained understudied, and artworks featuring this motif in Western Mediterranean cultures have been examined primarily in relation to the topos of the male dragon-slayer. This book analyzes artistic images of women and dragons over an extensive period, from Classical Greece and Rome (with forays to Egypt and Mesopotamia) to the early modern period in Western Europe. The unique methodology employed in the study of this motif reveals its sacred core, as well as its relationship to rituals of fertility and oracular knowledge, to the liminal realm between life and death, and to the symbolism of Great Mother goddesses. At the same time, the images explored throughout expose stereotypes and biases against women in unusual positions of power, which were embedded in the motif and persisted in Western European art.
- Cover
- Table Of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Aims of the Book
- Outline
- Methodology
- State of the Arts and Theoretical Background
- Key concepts
- 1. The Dragon
- 2. The Cave and the Womb: The Myth of Cadmus and the Myth of Apollo and Python
- Cadmos – Following the Cow to the Cave
- Apollo and Python and/or Delphyne – The Oracle and the Dragon
- Python and Drakōn – The Dragon is the Goddess and the Cave
- 3. Eligible Wives and Monstrous Women: Andromeda and Medusa
- The Eligible Wife: Andromeda and Perseus
- Medusa – The Dangerous Woman
- The Permitted Versus the Forbidden Woman
- 4. Medea – The Holy Woman and the Witch
- The Myth of Medea
- The Healer and the Witch: Medea in Iolcus
- Feeding the Dragon: Medea in Colchis
- Serpents in the Soul: Medea in Corinth
- Sin and Repentance: Representations of Medea on Sarcophagi
- The Analogy between Women and Dragons
- 5. Eve and Lilith — Christianizing the Great Goddess and the Dragon
- Eve – Christianizing the Great Goddess and the Dragon
- Lilith – The She-Demon of Childbirth
- 6. Saint Margaret – Taming the Dragon
- The legenda
- The Iconography of Saint Margaret from the Tenth to Fifteenth Century
- The Dissonance between Literary and Visual Sources
- The Role of Saint Margaret in Childbirth Rituals
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Primary Sources
- Secondary Sources
- Catalogues, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias
- Electronic Sources
- Index
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