Dragon's teeth (mythology)

In Greek myth, dragon's teeth feature prominently in the legends of the Phoenician prince Cadmus and Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece. In each case, the dragon's teeth, once planted, would grow into fully armed warriors.

Cadmus Sowing the Dragon's Teeth, by Maxfield Parrish, 1908

Cadmus was the bringer of literacy, civilization, killed the sacred dragon that guarded the spring of Ares. The goddess Athena told him to sow the teeth, from which sprang a group of ferocious warriors called the spartoi. He threw a precious jewel into the midst of the warriors, who turned on each other in an attempt to seize the stone for themselves. The five survivors joined with Cadmus to found the city of Thebes.

The classical legends of Cadmus and Jason have given rise to the phrase "to sow dragon's teeth." This is used as a metaphor to refer to doing something that has the effect of fomenting disputes.

Cultural references

Dragon's Teeth are also mentioned in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter The reference is stated in Chapter 6. It states that Pearl, Hester Prynne's daughter never created imaginary friends, but she "seemed always to be sowing broadcast the dragon's teeth, whence sprung a harvest of armed enemies, against whom she rushed to battle."

In John Milton's Aeropagitica, his defence of the liberty of unlicensed printing, Milton argues that books "are as lively and as vigorously productive as those fabulous dragon's teeth; and being sown up and down, may chance to spring up armed men."

Stephen Baxter's novel Evolution includes a segment where 21st century soldiers are placed into suspended animation in hidden bunkers, ready to wake up and fight behind enemy lines if their territory is occupied. In the novel this is referred to as "sowing dragons' teeth".

Dragon's Teeth was also the title of a novel by Upton Sinclair about the rise of the German Nazi Party.

There is a problem in translation from the Greek. "Dragon's Teeth" should more correctly be referred to as "Serpents Teeth" In Robert Graves' interpretation, he does not refer to a dragon but a serpent. The reference in the film Jason and the Argonauts is actually not fanciful. The myth originally referred to the teeth of the Hydra, a serpent with many heads. Dragon is an Anglicized interpretation. One interpretation could be that killing an enemy with a strong belief of mission merely inspires many more to replace the one who is killed.

In the film Jason and the Argonauts, the Dragon's Teeth became the Teeth of the Hydra. Armed skeletons sprout from the teeth.

An abridged version of the myth was quoted by Chakotay in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. The episode's title is also "Dragon's Teeth".

In the Mass Effect series of video games, the Reaper-controlled Geth impale dead and dying sapient characters on mechanical spikes, which transform them into zombie-like cyborgs called "Husks." In-game reference material states that these spikes are colloquially referred to as "Dragon's Teeth."

In The Titan's Curse, Atlas tells one of the mortal henchmen to plant the teeth of the dragon into the soil of the Smithsonian, which sprouted into skeletal warriors, emphasizing the myth.

In the book A Tale of Two Cities the uprising of thousands of men is related to "...as if the dragon's teeth had been sown broadcast..."

In the song "Pieces of What" by MGMT, reference is made to dragon's teeth in the line: "lay my dragon's teeth and shallow water steel, at the Belgian Gates I waited for my meal."