posted
well, if it goes back to the Chinese guard lions it's a differentiation between the sexes. The female of the pair would be depicted stepping on "playing with" a cub while the male would be depicted stepping on a ball. I'm assuming that there's crossover here with the implication that most/all dragon carvings are intended to be male (but that's some extrapolation by someone not intimately familiar with the culture, so take it with a couple Tbs of NaCl).
Posts: 1038 | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
I was actually thinking more along the lines of the traditional "fantasy" art dragon. But maybe the answer is as simple as crossover from the Chinese tradition?
Posts: 158 | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted
My quick research hints that in some cases it may or may not be a flaming pearl father than the Sun, go figure.
Edit to add: Or both.
quote: Many Chinese believed the dragon held, or at least chased, the sun, and many drawings depict this as a flaming red ball. However, over the years, this sun changed colour from red to a silvery-pearl colour, and gradually the ball came to be considered a flaming pearl, known as the night shining pearl. It is with this that the dragon is almost invariably associated in paintings.
Do you know, I've gotten so used to people not knowing the difference between this and 'hordes' that I now reflexively recoil from the word even when it's used correctly, as here. But you got it right. I award you two Internet Points!
Minus five for 'theyre' without apostrophe, but still.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
I remember seeing a Chinese exhibit that had the male and female dragon, and I think they said it either was a giant pearl that represented wealth, or a world/sun. I don't remember very well anymore. But it was a really cool exhibit (I was 9 when I saw it).
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
In traditional modern fantasy, which I consider an triple score oxymoron, the sphere is also a "crystal ball" signifying the dragon's magical power. After all, they can't really wave wands like humans do, so they give them some extra-masculine round object to fondle--in a very non-Gay way I am sure.
I mean, you have a large headed dragon with a long neck craning upward, while it clutches one, or perhaps a pair of spheroid objects. Completely non-Phallic I am positive.
Yep.
You also have Dragon Eggs and Dragon Ball Z references as well.
We won't bring up how overcompensating Dragon Ball Z is. Nope. That would be too easy.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
For the same reasons pictures of kings and saints and whatnot were always pictured holding a ball.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:Originally posted by The Genuine: I was actually thinking more along the lines of the traditional "fantasy" art dragon. But maybe the answer is as simple as crossover from the Chinese tradition?
So with this brief survey we're at around one half of one percent of pictures of dragons depicting them holding a ball in their hand. And that one was really kinda resting its hand on the ball if you really get down to it. Maybe the better question is why do you think that dragons are always depicted that way when they pretty rarely are?
The only dragon art I can think of which usually has a ball is those little pewter statues where they're always sticking a multifaceted piece of glass in somewhere. They typically also have red glass eyes. I look for no reason for this deeper than "our business model is selling sparkly objects."
posted
I haven't seen it that much in pictures, but I have seen it a lot in carvings of dragons. I'd say that they're that way in carvings because unless you make their claws be in a fist or holding something, they'd be too weak and would break off.
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