Scaring off the dragon

The main worry of the Bulgarian farmers at the beginning of the summer (Apr/May) is drought. 

Traditionally people thought that drought was caused by a winged dragon (zmey), who "stole and locked up" the waters...

And so, to prevent the dragon from steeling the water, in northwest Bulgaria, on a certain date, all the strong and healthy village men would gather at midnight, strip naked and walk the village land in ritual silence brandishing axes or cudgels to scare off the dragon...

It is interesting that they carried axes, just like Perun, the Slavic thunder god, but also like may other Eurasian thunder gods...The dragon slayers...

Article "Kataibates" about the link between stone axes and thunder gods. An altar from Vindolanda dedicated to the late Roman god Jupiter Dolichenus, whose mystery cult was widespread in the Roman Empire in 2nd and 3rd c. AD, wielded an axe. And rode on a bull...

And it is interesting that they carried cudgels...Just like Orion, that father of (sky) gods...Check my posts "Jack and the magic beans" and "Grandmother's cudgels" you might find them interesting...

They are trying to answer the questions such as: Why was Orion seen by Ancient Greeks as a "the greatest hunter" armed with a cudgel (club)? And why do Bulgarians call Orion "cudgels (clubs)" and why do Serbs call Orion "Baba's (grandmother's) sticks" and all the stars "Baba's (grandmother's) cudgels (clubs)"? And why were thunderbolts believed to be made of stone?

Some people might say that maybe they just carried whatever "dangerous implements" they had. But they also had sickles, shovels, hoes, knives, swords, rifles...Why not carry them? I don't know, maybe I am reading too much into it...

Anyway, it is also interesting that the ritual was performed by "healthy naked men"...Considering that rain, and subsequently flowing water, which the "dragon scarers" were trying to protect from the dragon, was considered to be "the semen of the the sky father"...

Is this an example of sympathetic magic? Where men lend their reproductive power to the sky (father) to increase his ability to produce "heavenly semen", rain? Check this out:

In Serbia in the past people lived in extended families called "zadruga". When grain needed to be sown, the family would choose one man to do all the sowing. He had to abstain from sex from that moment until all the seeds were sown...

Sowing (spreading of seeds) is here directly linked with ejaculation (spreading of semen). Male reproductive energy which is usually used to impregnate a woman has to be during sowing period preserved and used to impregnate the Earth...

From my post "Sowing"...

Now while North Western Bulgarians were walking around naked scaring dragons, their North Western neighbours Serbs did this: In the past, during spring droughts, Serbs used to go to mountain lakes and pray for rain on their shores "to a dragon living in the lake who swallowed the rain"...

I talked about this in my post "Dragon who stole rain"...

The dragon that stole water is one of the oldest Indoeuropean myths. In Rig Veda we read:

"I WILL declare the manly deeds of Indra, the first that he achieved, the Thunder-wielder.

He slew the Dragon, then disclosed the waters, and cleft the channels of the mountain torrents."

But why are dragons steeling water is "a bit of a mystery"...Apparently...Well maybe a clue is in the fact that they are always fought by Thunder/Rain gods, who kill the dragon and release the waters...

Question: what causes droughts that the arrival of rains ends? The Sun...Sun's heat...

Now in Slavic folklore (remnants of old mythologies), an animal that is directly associated with the sun's heat is a snake. It eats sun's heat.

Snakes are the only true solar animals. They are in our world when sun is in our world (day and hot part of the year) and they are in the underworld when sun is in the underworld (night and cold part of the year)...Which is why we find them associated with the sun (gods)...I talked about this in my posts "Enemy of the sun", "The chthonic animal"...

Ok, amazing...But what is the link between snakes and dragons? 

Glad you asked...Have a look at this:

God most high...

Snake: Apr/May, beginning of the main snake mating season, beginning of summer.

Lion: Jul/Aug, beginning of the main lion mating season, end of summer. 

From my post "You will trample great lion and serpent"

Now have a look at this:

Possibly earliest depiction of a multi headed dragon...And dragon killer(s). 2200 BC, Akkad...Dragon is a symbol of a destructive sun's heat, and this one has lion body, cause Leo is the hottest time of the year, and 7 snake heads, cause of 7 summer months. I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

The reason why Mesopotamian dragon has a lion's body, is the same reason why the Mesopotamian god of death has a lion's body...

I am the (sun) god of death...About Nergal, the destructive sun in Leo, Jul/Aug, the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia...I talked about this in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

Slavs believed that "dragons are just old snakes"...So if snake marks the beginning of the hot dry part of the year, and if snake symbolises sun's heat, then old snake symbolises old sun, the destructive sun of the late summer which causes drought...The (lion) dragon...

It was this Slavic belief that snakes evolve into dragons which was a key that unlocked all these snake/dragon/lion symbolic links found all over the place...

Just search my twitter account or my blog for snake or dragon and you'l see what I mean...

Anyway, you can find more about Slavic snakes and dragons in this article "Letnitsa treasure"...Follow the links at the end of the article to (only some) related articles about snakes and dragons from other mythologies 🙂 

Sources for Bulgarian folklore: 

Ivanichka Georgieva's book "Bulgarska Narodna Mitologia" (1993) p 113, and Vihra Baeva's "Zmey, Zmeyitsa, Lamia, Hala" (2016) p316

I want to thank "A Spell In Time: British-Bulgarian storytelling company" for the info...

You can read more about snakes, dragons and lions in my posts "You will trample great lion and serpent", "Chimera", "Lion killing snake", "Jörmungandr", "Bactrian snakes and dragons", "Seven headed dragon", "Khafajeh vase", "Nude winged hero dominating snakes", "Winged superhuman hero", "Tiger and dragon", "Eagle snake struggle", "Wolf vs snake"...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...