Are dragons "serpents"?

[avonlea0112]

No: HPFGUIDX 32044

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Elizabeth Dalton <Elizabeth.Dalton at E...> 
wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I was reading the first task in GoF last night and noticed that as 
Harry is
> trying to get the dragon (a Horntail, I think) to rear up or fly up 
to chase
> him, he *hisses* at it. <snip> 
> Dragons are considered serpents in some branches of mythology-- 
usually the same
> branches that consider serpents to be evil. (This dragon is also 
described as
> having "evil eyes.") Though I checked back a couple of pages, and 
JKR describes
> it as a "lizard," but not as a "serpent." JKR ought to know the 
difference, but
> she's been lax on "scientific" details of serpents before (they 
don't have
> eyelids, as a herpetologist pointed out on another list I was on 
once, and so
> can't wink).
> 
To bring in a literary parallel, in the Bible dragons are different 
from serpents.  The serpent in Genesis is actually Satan.  This 
serpent has legs, it is after the fall of man that God decrees that 
snakes will have to crawl on their bellies.  There are symbolic 
mentions of dragons in Revelation, and although they are also evil, 
they are distinct from serpents.

Perhaps the most interesting biblical passage on the subject, IMO, is 
a description in Job 41 of a beast called the Leviathon.  Although 
not necessarily evil, the Leviathon is dangerous, and the passage 
talks about God's power by posing a series of rhetorical questions 
about controlling it.  The description of the Leviathon is exactly 
like - guess what! - a dragon.

There are plenty of other literary examples on the subject, but 
biblically at least, dragons and serpents are distinct from each 
other.

So therefore, I think Harry "hissing" at the dragon is merely a 
descriptive word.

~Avonlea~