Did Dragons existed in Macedonia?

Did dragons existed once in Macedonia? Probably yes (wink), because Edward Topsell came to this conclusion in his work “History of four-footed beasts and serpents”, dated from the year 1607, on page 704.

Edward Topsell (born circa 1572 – died 1625) was an English cleric and author. He is best remembered for his bestiary. Topsell’s work repeats ancient and fantastic legends about actual animals, as well as reports of mythical animals. Topsell, not a naturalist himself, relied on earlier authorities, most notably the Historiae animalium of the Swiss scholar Conrad Gessner.

Dragons were kept as pets by Macedonians

In his book we find interesting “details” about Macedonian and dragons. According to Edward Topsell, there were tame dragons in Macedonia that were kept as pets by the Macedonians. Children were even be able to ride the dragons and tease them without being attacked by them. The dragons were nursed by the women of Macedonia and were even allowed to sleep in their keepers’ beds.

So Topsell wrote in his work History of four-footed beasts and serpents:

There are likewise other kinde of Dragons in Macedonia, where they are so meek, that woman feed them and suffer them suck their breasts like little children. Their Infants also play with them, riding upon them and pinching them, as they would do with Dogs without any harm, and sleeping with them in their beds.

On the previous page of his work we can also find information that Alexander the Great is said to have reported dragon sightings. Topsell wrote about the great Macedonian king and the dragons:

It is also reported, that Alexander among many other Beasts which he saw in India, did there finde in a certain den a Dragon of seaventy cubits long, which the Indians accounted a sacred Beast, and therefore intreated Alexander to do it no harm. When it uttered the voyce with full breath, it terrified his whole Army: they could never see the proportion of his body, but only the head, and by that they guessed the quantity of the whole body, for one of his eyes in their appearance seemed as great as a Macedonian buckler. Maximus Tyrius writeth that in the days of Alexander, there was likewise seen a Dragon in India, as long as five roods of lands are broad, which is incredible. For he likewise saith that the Indians did feed him every day with many several Oxen and Sheep. It may be that it was the same spoken of before, which some ignorant men, and such as were given to set forth fables, amplyfied beyond measure and credit.

Source: Edward Topsell (1607), History of four-footed beasts and serpents, page 704