Dragon of Rhodes

The Dragon of Rhodes is the monster that, according to the Knights Hospitaller, terrorized medieval Rhodes until the knight Dieudonné de Gozon killed it with trained dogs, defying his Grand Master's orders.

The Story

In the 14th century the island of Rhodes was ruled by the Knights Hospitaller, the crusading Order of Saint John. The legend says a dragon lived in a cave by a marsh outside the city, devouring livestock and travelers. Several knights died trying to kill it, and the Grand Master, Hélion de Villeneuve, forbade anyone else to try.

A young knight from southern France, Dieudonné de Gozon, studied the beast from a distance and noticed its belly was not armored like its back. He went home to his family's castle in France, built a model of the dragon, and trained his horse and a pair of mastiffs to attack it, the dogs going for the soft underside. Back on Rhodes he rode out alone. The dogs seized the dragon's belly, and Gozon killed it. Instead of praising him, the Grand Master stripped him of his habit for disobedience, then forgave him. In 1346 Gozon was himself elected Grand Master, an office he held until his death in 1353.

Origins and Sources

Gozon was a real Grand Master, but no source from his own time mentions a dragon. The earliest known record of the legend is in the account of a German pilgrim, Ottheinrich, Count Palatine, who visited Rhodes in 1521, about 170 years after Gozon's death. The story became official history through Giacomo Bosio's history of the Order (1594), which also claimed that Gozon's tomb bore the words Draconis Extinctor, "slayer of the dragon." A head said to be the dragon's hung in one of the city gates, where travelers saw it from the 17th century until it disappeared in 1839; it was probably a crocodile's. The archaeologist F. W. Hasluck, writing in 1913-14, argued that the tale grew from older dragon stories and festival customs that were later attached to a famous name.

Legacy

Friedrich Schiller turned the story into the ballad "Der Kampf mit dem Drachen" ("The Fight with the Dragon," 1798), which stresses the knight's lesson in obedience over his courage. Painters and engravers took up the scene, and Rhodes still remembers the legend. It is one of several stories in which a knight kills a dragon by studying it first. Compare Saint George and the wider history of dragons.

Related

• Dragon of Silene: The Dragon of Silene is the lake-dwelling, plague-breathing dragon killed by Saint George in medieval legend after he rescued a princess offered to it, the best-known version appearing in the Golden Legend around 1260.
• Tarasque: The Tarasque is a river dragon of Provençal legend, a monstrous hybrid said to be the offspring of Leviathan, which Saint Martha tamed at Tarascon on the Rhône and which the town still parades in its festival.
• Lambton Worm: The Lambton Worm is a giant serpent of County Durham folklore, fished from the River Wear by young John Lambton, which grew huge, coiled around a hill, and could rejoin its body whenever it was cut apart.
• Saint George and the Dragon
• The History of Dragons

Sources and Further Reading

• F. W. Hasluck, "Dieudonné de Gozon and the Dragon of Rhodes," The Annual of the British School at Athens 20 (1913-14)
• Giacomo Bosio, Dell'istoria della sacra religione et illustrissima militia di San Giovanni Gierosolimitano (Rome, 1594)
• Friedrich Schiller, "Der Kampf mit dem Drachen" (1798)

Cite this entry: “Dragon of Rhodes,” Draconika Encyclopedia of Dragons, https://www.draconika.com/dragons/dragon-of-rhodes.