Page "Christian mythology" Paragraph 40

According to Mircea Eliade, one pervasive mythical theme associates heroes with the slaying of dragons, a theme which Eliade traces back to " the very ancient cosmogonico-heroic myth " of a battle between a divine hero and a dragon.

He cites the Christian legend of Saint George as an example of this theme.

An example from the later Middle Ages is Dieudonné de Gozon, third Grand Master of the Knights of Rhodes, famous for slaying the dragon of Malpasso.

Eliade writes, " Legend, as was natural, bestowed upon him the attributes of St. George, famed for his victorious fight with the monster.

In other words, by the simple fact that he was regarded as a hero, de Gozon was identified with a category, an archetype, which equipped him with a mythical biography from which it was impossible to omit combat with a reptilian monster.