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Do Dragons Have Gemstones Embedded in Their Heads?

3/3/2016

18 Comments

 
I received my McFarland sales report and royalty check this week, and I was pleasantly surprised that the check was larger than last time. But it confirmed to me that there is really no point in writing books, at least if I have any intention of reaching an audience. When I added up all of the lifetime copies I’ve ever sold of all of my books and then generously assumed that ten people read every copy (an unrealistic assumption), I still reach five times more people each week through my website than I have done in ten and a half years of publishing books. Over the course of a month or a year, the multiple becomes stratospheric. Spending time writing books is all but literally the least efficient way of communicating with an audience, or of spreading ideas that have an impact on audiences. 
On a completely different note, I can’t resist sharing what has to be one of the weirdest ancient claims I’ve ever read. It concerns a gemstone thought to form from the brain of dragons, or large serpents (Latin: draco, Greek: drakon​). The story is told by Pliny the Elder in Natural History 37.57: 
Draconitis or dracontia is a stone produced from the brain of the dragon; but unless the head of the animal is cut off while it is alive, the stone will not assume the form of a gem, through spite on the part of the serpent, when finding itself at the point of death: hence it is that, for this purpose, the head is cut off when it is asleep. Sotacus, who tells us that he once saw a stone of this kind in the possession of a king, says that persons go in search of it in a chariot drawn by two horses; and that, the moment they see the serpent, they strew narcotic drugs in its way, and then cut off its head when asleep. According to him, this stone is white and pellucid, and admits of no polishing or engraving.  (trans. John Bostock). 
The weird idea probably would have faded into obscurity if Isidore of Seville hadn’t decided to include it in his Etymologies, in the section on stones: “Dracontites is forcibly taken from the brain of a dragon, and unless it is torn from the living creature it has not the quality of a gem; whence magi cut it out of dragons while they are sleeping. For bold men explore the cave of the dragons, and scatter there medicated grains to hasten their sleep, and thus cut off their heads while they are sunk in sleep, and take out the gems” (16.14.7, trans. Ernest Brehaut).
 
As weird as this seems to be, it probably relates to the “Serpent Stone” that Photius, in Biblioteca codex 190, summarizing Ptolemy Chennus’ New History, says came from serpents and gave people the power to see invisible things. (Cf. the Persian mohrah, the stone snakes use to see hidden treasure.) This, in turn, must be derived from Indian stories that spread into Greece. Consider, for example, the passage in Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana (3.8) which describes how large serpents have stones in their heads. The Indians, Philostratus says, catch the dragons in this manner:
They embroider golden runes on a scarlet cloak, which they lay in front of the animal's burrow after charming them the runes to cause sleep; for this is the only way to overcome the eyes of the dragon, which are otherwise inflexible, and much mysterious lore is sung by them to overcome him. These runes induce the dragon to stretch his neck out of his burrow and fall asleep over them: then the Indians fall upon him as he lies there, and dispatch him with blows of their axes, and having cut off the head they despoil it of its gems. And they say that in the heads of the mountain dragons there are stored away stones of flowery color, which flash out all kinds of hues, and possess a mystical power as resided in the ring, which they say belonged to Gyges. (trans. F. C. Conybeare)
According to M. J. Walhouse, writing in 1875, different groups on the Indian subcontinent continued to believe that that snakes bore diamonds or other precious stones on or in their heads down to his day, and snake charmers would make a great show of using prestidigitation to “extract” such a stone from one of their pet snakes for the amusement of the crowd. According to modern newspaper accounts and YouTube videos, removing stones called nagamani from snakes’ heads is s still a widespread snake-charming practice in India, leading rationalists to try to educate the public about the real anatomy of snakes. Conmen even try to scam cash with such stones. Walhouse also reported that the Jews of Cyprus made amulets of counterfeit precious stones and used them against venom, claiming them to be from the head of the kouphi, or viper.
 
While that’s interesting enough, it’s probably worth noting that the French medievalist Claude Lecouteux made a complete hash of it in trying to describe the dragon stones in his book A Lapidary of Sacred Stones (Inner Traditions, 2012). There, he attributed Philostratus’ text to Herodotus and quotes Pliny without identifying him. 
18 Comments
Time Machine
3/3/2016 02:15:00 pm

There would also be no profit in holding skeptical conventions.

And that's where the fringe authors get their money, charging $50 admission fees.

Reply
Shane Sullivan
3/3/2016 03:07:54 pm

Reminds me of something I read on a Dungeons & Dragons card once, about dragons having pearls embedded in their brains that allow them to fly. Those were eastern dragons, though, and probably based on depictions of such dragons holding magical pearls, unrelated to Pliny's accounts.

Reply
Dan D'Silva
3/3/2016 03:11:11 pm

I see a lot of potential for free association there -- the flaming pearl of Chinese dragons, serpents and the philosopher's stone (which goes through a white phase), and, in turn, snakes as a symbol of immortality. I don't know the history behind these threads, but it's almost tempting to weave some probably very fringe thinking out of them.

Reply
Lemmiwinks
3/3/2016 10:59:55 pm

"There really is no point in writing books"
You need to take the advice of another author........
If you want to get rich, you start a religion

Reply
Time Machine
3/4/2016 06:18:11 am

>>>If you want to get rich, you start a religion<<<

Irrationality is a great moneyspinner.

Reply
John Melvin link
3/4/2016 06:40:51 am

Thanks for confirming a suspicion I've had about blogging vs. print. Of course books are better for length and different kinds of content, but blogging can sometimes accomplish more.

Reply
Time Machine
3/4/2016 07:11:53 am

Books JUST cannot keep up-to-date like Blogs and websites. Books also have to be approved for publication unlike Blogs and websites, Their publication is not automatic - especially when manuscripts are bounced back with the message from the publishers: "Make this a bit more spicey". This is where self-published books are sometimes more important than conventionally published books. Book publishers can be a hindrance and not an asset for many reasons. And if Blogs and websites can minimise the lunatic fringe subject matters than that has to be a good thing.

Reply
DaveR
3/4/2016 08:38:02 am

You can make any claim you want regarding a mythical creature.

What many people do not know about dragons is that if you drink their blood it will make you immune from all diseases.

Dragon talons are so strong that if you fashion one into a short sword it will cut through any other sword no matter what material is used in its construction.

Dragon scales, if thrown like a Frisbee, will cut through any material.

The ultimate price, however, is the very heart of the dragon, for if one is brave enough to digest an entire dragon heart, and has the gastric fortitude to hold it down, he will gain immortality!

Reply
Gary
3/4/2016 01:00:06 pm

Yes, those are all facts. My friend's cousin read it somewhere.
Also, dragons carry the Zika virus so pregnant women should not come in contact with them. Dragons only like virgins anyway.

Reply
V
3/4/2016 01:11:02 pm

Now, now, you're mixing up dragons and unicorns. Dragon's blood allows you to understand all animals. UNICORN blood makes you immune to all disease.

...depending on precisely where and when you're drawing your mythology from, of course.

Reply
DaveR
3/4/2016 01:22:40 pm

It's easy to mix up mythology, of course, however my understanding is that Unicorn blood makes you irresistible to the opposite sex. Also if you cut off the Unicorn's horn it can be used as a magic wand, sort of like the wands in Harry Potter, but you don't have to state some made up incantation, all you need is to imagine what you want to happen and the horn does the rest.

V
3/4/2016 11:36:08 pm

Like I said, depends on where and when you're drawing from. Unicorn blood was supposed to have ALL the properties! to quote a meme. I'm most familiar with the unicorn horn as a universal panacea against poisons, though--either as a cup or via slivers or powdered horn. Because unicorns purified nasty water with their horns, of course.

Also, Gary, do virgins taste better than those who are not?

DaveR
3/7/2016 09:35:39 am

V, it's not on the mythology one is drawing from, but also how that individual chooses to adapt, combine, or enhance the myths. Not to mention someone is at liberty to completely fabricate new additions to existing mythology.

According to vampires, virgins do taste better.

Kal
3/4/2016 02:00:07 pm

Do both. Keep writing in blogs and novels.

I think if you put the part about the mind altering drugs first, all of this talk of draconian crystal brains makes sense. Hey, that's a cool name for a band. I call it!

Reply
Kal
3/4/2016 02:01:21 pm

It's been taken, but there is some dragon/nephilim stuff out there too.

Reply
Victoria
3/4/2016 03:31:50 pm

I wonder if Pliny could have misunderstood the meaning when he heard the story, or misconstrued it. A serpent is the symbol of kundalini rising in ancient yogic tradition. Different colors, that have sometimes been associated with gem stones, represent the seven chakra centers in the human body that the rising energy passes through. One of these chakras is located in the third eye position of the head. There is also one on the outside just above the crown of the head.

Just a guess, but he wouldn't be the first to take something metaphorical and translate it into literal.

By the way Jason, the world will always need well researched and written books. When blogs are no longer accessible there will still be the books for generations in the future to discover and learn from. Money and mass communication are important considerations, no doubt. My hope is that your current frustration doesn't diminish your former worthy efforts.

Reply
SouthCoast
3/5/2016 02:46:07 pm

Any relation to the toadstone?

Reply
RCZ
3/12/2016 03:07:04 pm

Adrienne Mayor in her "The First Fossil Hunters" claims that Apollonius' of Tyrana original account may be based on accual characteristics of North India's rich Tertitiary fossil deposits.

"Dragons of enormous size and variety infested northern India, according to Apollonius of Tyana, who traveled from Asia Minor to the southern foothills of the Himalayas in the first century A.D.
The countryside was full of dragons and "no mountain ridge was without one," relates Philostratus, who compiled a biography of Apollonius based on the sage's lost letters and manuscripts. The local people spun fantastic tales about hunting these dragons, using magic to lure them out of the earth in order to pry out the gems embedded in their skulls.
(...)
In the wealth of Apollonius's description of the dragons, several details catch the eye of a paleontologist. The dragons of the high ridges were said to be larger than dragons of the marshes, which had sharp, twisted tusks. When marsh dragons fought elephants, both perished, and their entwined bodies were a great find for the
dragon-hunters. The dragons of the ridges had long necks, very
prominent brows, and deeply sunken eye sockets, giving them a
frightening aspect. Impressive "crests" grew from their heads,
which were of moderate size on the young, but grew to huge
proportions on the adults. Men and boys hunted these creatures
for the gems stored inside their skulls: the gems were iridescent,
"flashing out every hue." [pp 129-130]

Adrienne Mayor idetifies "lowland dragons with dostorted tusks" as fossils of various probiscean species and "long-neced crested mountain dragons" as giraffid fossils. As for gems in their skulls:
"In 1834 - 4 2 , paleontologist Hugh Falconer was the first scientist
to excavate the abundant deposits of the Siwalik Hills (...) He was struck by the colorful
minerals and "ornamental" quality of the fossils: the bonemarrow
crevices of the black bones were filled with sparkling crystals.
In 1836, Falconer amassed more than 2 5 0 proboscidean and
giraffid heads (many of them complete). In 1848 he shipped over
five tons of fossils to London museums. Since his discoveries,
many paleontologists continue to excavate the rich deposits of
Siwalik remains. They too have noticed large calcite crystals on the
fossils once taken for dragon bones.
The folklore about dragons in northern India gathered by Apollonius
and preserved by Philostratus was criticized in antiquity as
nonsense, and modern scholars dismiss the dragon passages as sensational travelers' tales." [pp 133-134]

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