Slavic dragon

Similar representations include the Aztec Quetzalcoatl (Feathered Serpent) or Caduceus (Sumerian symbol of the god Enki borrowed into Greek mythology).

In the Balkans, the zmei type is overall regarded as benevolent, as opposed to malevolent dragons known variously as lamia [bg], ala or hala, or aždaja.

Some of the common motifs concerning Slavic dragons include their identification as masters of weather or water source; that they start life as snakes; and that both the male and female can be romantically involved with humans.

The further derivation that Serbo-Croatian zmaj "dragon" and zemlja "earth" ultimately descend from the same Proto-Slavic root zьm-, from the zero grade of Proto-Indo-European *ǵhdem, was proposed by Croatian linguist Petar Skok.

[2] Lithuanian scholarship also points out that the connection of the snake (zmey) with the earthly realm is even more pronounced in folk incantations, since its name would etymologically mean 'earthly (being); that which creeps underground'.

[8] the Slovene zmaj, the Slovak drak and šarkan, Czech drak,[citation needed] In the legends of Russia and Ukraine, a particular dragon-like creature, Zmey Gorynych (Russian: Змей Горыныч or Ukrainian: Змій Горинич), has three to twelve heads,[9] and Tugarin Zmeyevich (literally: "Tugarin Dragon-son"), known as zmei-bogatyr or "serpent hero", is a man-like dragon who appears in Russian (or Kievan Rus) heroic literature.

According to this explanation, the term is to be understood as a poetic form of chudovishche (чудовище) meaning "monster", with a -iudo ending appended simply for the rhyme.

[22][23] The six-, nine-, and twelve-headed Chuda-Yuda that appear out of the Black Sea are explicitly described as zmei in yet another cognate tale, #136 "Storm-Bogatyr, Ivan the Cow's Son" (Буря-богатырь Иван коровий сын).

[28][29][30] Or, if the body of a decapitated snake (zmiya) is joined to an ox or buffalo horn, it grows into a lamia after just 40 days, according to Bulgarian folk tradition published by Racho Slaveykov [bg] in the 19th century.

[32] The weather-making dragon, ismeju (or zmeu[33]), of Romanian Scholomance folklore is also locally believed to grow out of a snake which has lived for 9 years (belief found at "Hatzeger Thal" or Hațeg).

[8] Locally in Ukraine, around Lutsk, the rainbow is called tsmok ("sucker") which is said to be a tube that guzzles water from the sea and rivers and carries the moisture up into the clouds.

[37][38] There is the notion (thought to be inspired by the tornado) of a Slavic dragon that dips its tail into a river or lake and siphons up the water, ready to cause floods.

[8][44] A favorite topic of folk songs was the male zmey-lover who may marry a woman and carry her to the underworld, or a female zmeitsa (zmeitza) who falls in love with a shepherd.

[45][46] When a zmei falls in love with a woman, she may "pine, languish, become pale, neglect herself.. and generally act strangely", and the victim stricken with the condition could only be cured by bathing in infusions of certain herbs, according to superstition.

[46] In Serbia, there is the example of the epic song Carica Milica i zmaj od Jastrepca (Serbian: Царица Милица и змај од Јастрепца) and its folktale version translated as "The Tsarina Militza and the Zmay of Yastrebatz".

Some girls get sick by loving a zmey, and symptoms include paleness, shyness, antisocial behaviour, watery eyes, quietness and hallucinations.

In the well-known tale[52] "A Pavilion Neither in the Sky nor on the Earth" the youngest prince succeeds in killing the dragon (zmaj) that guards the three princesses held captive.

[32] The Bulgarian lamia dwells in the bottoms of the seas and lakes, or sometimes mountainous caverns,[32] or tree holes[e][61] and can stop the supply of water to the human population, demanding sacrificial offerings to undo its deed.

[f][65] One of the versions collected by ethnologist Dimitar Marinov [bg] begins: "Тръгнал ми е цветен Гьорги/Да обиди нивен сънор/На път среща сура ламя.. (George of the Flowers fared out / Going around his congregation /On the road he met the fallow lamia..)".

[70][h] The demon or creature known as hala (or ala), whose name derived from the Greek word for "hail" took the appearance of a dense mist or fog, or a black cloud.

[60][32] Hala was believed to be the cause of strong winds and whirlwind in Eastern Bulgaria,[60] whereas the lamya was blamed as the perpetrator in Southwestern Bulgarian lore.

[j][59][49] The word aždaja or aždaha is borrowed from Persian azdahā (اژدها),[73] and has its origins in the Indo-Iranian mythology surrounding the dragon azidahā.

[k] In Međimurje County, the Čakovec pozoj was said to dwell beneath the city, with its head under the church and tail under the town square, or vice versa, and it could only be gotten rid of by a grabancijaš (a "wandering scholar", glossed as a "black [magic] student").

[77] Poet Matija Valjavec [sl] (1866) has published some tales concerning the pozoj in the Slovenski glasnik magazine, which also connected the creature to the črne škole dijak ("black school student"),[78] which other Slovene sources call črnošolec ("sorcerer's apprentice"),[79] and which some equate with a grabancijaš dijak[80] Dragons in Slovenia are generally negative in nature, and usually appear in relation with St.

[84][85][need quotation to verify] Some prehistoric structures, notably the Serpent's Wall near Kyiv, have been associated with dragons as symbols of foreign peoples.