From The Alpha and the Omega - Volume III
by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © July 20, 2002, all rights reserved "Volume III - The Ninth Month - Constellation Names for Draco" In the Ninth Month of Sagittarius

Draco, the Dragon.
The constellation name for Draco:

• As a constellation it winds around the sky close to the north celestial pole.    Around 2700 B.C., Draco's alpha star, Thuban, in Arabic taban, "dragon" was the polestar, which is now in Ursa Minor, called Polaris.
  
• Dragon: Thuban, in Arabic taban,
  • Dragon.
    • Hebrew tanniyn, tan-neen', also tannin or tanniym (Ezek. 29:3), tan-neem', also tannim, intens. from the same as Heb. tan, tan, from an unused root probably meaning to elongate, thus a marine or land monster, i.e. sea-serpent or jackal, thus dragon, sea-monster, serpent, whale.
      • See the Greek word in the next section, which appearing thirteen and fourteen times respectively in the OT, are translated in different passages and versions as "dragon," "jackal," "sea monster," "serpent," "whale," and "wolf."    They were evidently large creatures of frightening aspect.    In the NT, Satan is referred to as a dragon.
    • Sumerian ušum, ušu: n., dragon, composite creature (uš₁₁, 'snake venom', + am, 'wild ox'); adj., solitary, alone.
      • Sumerian ušumgal: lord of all, sovereign; solitary; monster of composite powers, dragon (ušum, 'dragon', + gal, 'great').
    • Draco the Dragon has his head under the foot of Hercules, as if cast down.    Also we see Cetus the Sea Monster, or Leviathan, who is bound, and Hydra the Old Serpent who is destroyed.
    • The Sumerians believed that Tiamat, was a Babylonian goddess who created fearsome monsters to help her and in fact turned herself into a dragon.    She was eventually defeated by the hero, the Akkadian Marduk (Hebrew Merodak, mer-o-dawk', of foreign origin, Merodak, found in Jer. 50:2, KJV "Merodach" Babylonian idol or god, meaning in Syria "little lord," from which Merodach-Baladan took his name; also mentioned is Bel, the tutelary god of Babylon, the same idol as the Phoenician Baal, i.e. lord, the sun in Isaiah 46:1), by splitting her body, and making her become the sky and the earth (the world).    This story is found on a fragment of a clay tablet from Nineveh, with the Assyrian epic of Creation called enuma elish ("when the gods").
    • In Persia Draco was Azhdeha, the Man-eating Serpent, occasionally transcribed Hashteher; and, in very early Hindu worship, Shi-shu-mara, the Alligator, or Porpoise, which also has been identified with our Delphinus.
    • Babylonian records allude to some constellation near the pole as a Snail drawn along on the tail of a Dragon that may have been our constellation; while among the inscriptions we find Sir, a Snake, but to which of the sky serpents this applied is uncertain.
  
  
• Latin and Greek Draco, Vulgate, shown as "trodden on."
  • Archaically it was a large snake or serpent [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin draco, dracon-, large serpent, from Greek drakon, perhaps from derkethai, or derkomai, to look].    It has stood for all dragons of mythology.    In the New Testament the Greek Drakon, drak'-own, means a dragon, a hydra as a large serpent with keen power of sight, of the Devil in Revelation.
    • Other meanings for the Greek word Drakon are "Trodden Down."
    • In "The Witness of the Stars," by E.W. Bullinger, page 71 "Its name is from the Greek, and means trodden on, as in the Septuagint of Psalm 91:13, 'The dragon shalt thou trample under feet,' from the Hebrew Dahrach, to tread."
      • Tread.
        • Hebrew darak, daw-rak', a prim. root, to tread.
        • Latin dracon, Greek drakon, from drak, 'monster with the evil eye', cognate with Sanskrit darc (see), Avestic darstis (sight), Old Irish derc (eye), Old English torht, and Old High German zoraht, from the Indo-European root derk- 'To see'.
      • Trample.
        • Hebrew ramac, raw-mas', a prim. root, to tread upon, trample, tread (down, upon).
  
  
• Egyptian/Coptic.
  • On the Denderah Zodiac there is no representation for either Corona Australis or Borealis, although both seem to be relevant constellations in the 36 decans of the 48.    This makes Draco in reality the oddball or pushed out in the loop, and helps confer with the omissions by various sources.
    • This is also why on the Denderah Zodiac, Draco is in the center, seen just above Libra, instead of as proposed in Sagittarius (under the feet).    It is possible that Draco, could well be located as a decan of Libra with Lupus, Crux, and Corona Borealis.    The Denderah Zodiac allows for it, but then it is also connected with Sagittarius, and seen with Lyra, Ara, and Corona Australis.
  • Draco is a crocodile or hippopotamus.    Some claim this is an image of Tauret, a pregnant hippopotamus, with cow horns.    Egyptian temples were oriented to Thuban, the polestar 4,700 years ago, which lies in the middle of the long tail of the dragon.    You can see this figure very clearly in the Zodiac of Denderah.
    • On the Denderah Zodiac, Draco has a head as if a mixture of a hippopotamus and crocodile with a tongue protruding and with a female body like a hippopotamus with a long pointed tail.    In its right hand it is holding the shaft of a very large feather.
      • Ammut with horrible looks, a cross between a crocodile, lioness and hippopotamus.    A demonic goddess who attended the Judging of the Dead and devoured condemned souls.
      • Sebek a Crocodile god of Fayum (Crocodiliopolis) thought to be the creator god, emerging from the waters of chaos to lay his eggs on the bank.    He was linked to the evil god Set.    Some connect Sebeck or Seveck (the crocodile-headed God in Egypt and also as Saturn) to the Indian Makara, often translated by "crocodile."
      • In another source Draco is seen with a crocodile on its back with a folded feather on its wrist, while holding a chain attached to the leg of an animal (Ursa Major) as seen on ESNE Plate 87.
    • In the Zodiac of Denderah, Draco is the serpent under the forefeet of Sagittarius and called Her-fent, "the serpent accursed."    Fent means serpent.
      • In "The Witness of the Stars," by E.W. Bullinger, page 72 "In the Zodiac of Denderah it (Draco) is shown as a serpent under the fore-feet of Sagittarius, and is named Her-fent, which means the serpent accursed!"
      • This why Draco is shown in Libra on Denderah Zodiac instead of here as in Sagittarius.
      • Corona (Borealis) has no Denderah Zodiac representation, but it is included in Draco.
      • Richard H. Allen comments: ... in early Egypt, although differently figured than as with us.    Some of them were a part of the Hippopotamus, or of its variant the Crocodile, and thus shown on the planisphere of Denderah and the walls of the Ramesseum at Thebes.    As such Delitzsch says that it was Hes-mut, perhaps meaning the Raging Mother.    An object resembling a ploughshare held in the creature's paws has fancifully been said to have given name to the adjacent Plough.
            The Egyptian Necht was close to, or among, the stars of Draco; but its exact location and boundaries, how it was figured, and what it represented, are not known.
    • The Egyptian deities mentioned are associated with "leviathan" (Isaiah 27:1, Ezek. 32:1-4, Job 41:1-2), twisted animal, sea serpents, crocodiles, great water beast, and Satan.
  
  
• Draco can be seen in Job 26:13.
  • Crooked.
    • Hebrew bariyach, baw-ree'-akh, or bariach, a fugitive, i.e. the serpent (as fleeing), and the constellation by that name, crooked, noble, piercing -
      • Seen in Aquila, under starname b AlAlshain.
        • Piercing.
          • Hebrew bariyach, baw-ree'-akh, or (short.) bariach, baw-ree'akh, from Heb. barach, baw-rakh', a primary root to bolt, i.e. fig. to flee suddenly, put to flight, thus a fugitive, i.e. the serpent (as fleeing), and the constellation by that name, crooked, noble, piercing, Bariah was a son of Shemaiah, and a descendant of David through Solomon in 1 Chron. 3:22.
  
  
• Rahab.
  • Hebrew Rachab, raw-khawb', the same as Heb. rachab, raw-khab', roomy, broad, proud, Rachab, a Canaanitess, Gr. Rhaab, hrah-ab', of Heb. origin, Raab, i.e. Rachab.
  • Hebrew Rahab, rah'-hab, (i.e. boaster), an epithet of Egypt.
    • Rahab was the prophetic goddess of the Sea, Guardian of Sheol, a mythical monster of the deep, found in such passages as Job 9:13 and Psalm 89:10 with the motif of the slaying of the dragon.
    • In Isaiah 51:9 the Lord's victory is complete because he has cut Rahab, the monster, to ribbons.
    • The Rahab Yashab ("Rahab the Do-Nothing") of Isaiah 30:7 portrays the impotency of the monster of Egypt (symbolized by the crocodile in the day of invasion).
  
  
• In England, Saint George slew a monster before A.D. 303.
  
  
• Other names for Draco: Abeen', Aben', Alanin', Algha'vil Attannin', Altanin'o (Shickard), Al 'Awaid (stars), Al 'Awwad (stars), Al Shuja', Al Sdibal Waki (Arabic fig.), Daban (Postellus), Etabin', Etanin', Al Hay'yah, Al Rub'ah, Al Thu'bae, Al Tiyasan (stars), Taben', Tanem', Tannim, Tannin, Al Tinnin, Al Waid.
  • Bayer cited from Turkish maps Etanin, and from others Aben, Taben, and Etabin; Riccioli, Abeen vet Taeben; Postellus, Daban; Chilmead, Alanin; and Schickard, Attanmo.    Al Shuja', the Snake, also was applied to Draco by the Arabians, as it was to Hydra; and Al Hayyah, the Snake, appeared for it, though more common for our Serpens, with which word it was synonymous.
  • In "Gospel of the Stars," by Joseph Seiss, page 60, "Al Waid, who is to be destroyed."
  • Rolleston and in "The Witness of the Stars," by E.W. Bullinger, page 72 "Arabic it is still called Al Waid, who is to be destroyed (Job 21:17)."
    • Destruction.
      • Hebrew 'eyd, ade, from the same as Heb. 'uwd, ood, (in the sense of bending down), oppression, by implication misfortune, ruin, calamity, destruction.
  • The German Drache, the Italian Dragone, and the French Dragon.

See Star Names of Draco.

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    This file was updated on July 15, 2008.

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