Dacians Bearing the Draco Standard on Trajan's Column
A lot of ink has been spilt on the subject of Uther's star/comet. Some attempts to identify it have been incredibly articulate, if seriously flawed. A good example may be found here:
The most important thing to recognize is that the description of the star, as provided by Geoffrey of Monmouth, does not allow for any other interpretation than that of a comet.
Why? Because the star has two tails. This is the hallmark of a comet, which has two tails, one of gas and one of dust. Here is Geoffrey of Monmouth's account of the star:
"On his way to the battle, Uther saw a most remarkable spectacle in the skies. There appeared a star of such magnitude and brilliance that it was seen both day and night. The star emitted a single ray of light that created a fiery mass resembling the body and head of a dragon. Shining from the mouth of the dragon came two rays of light [actually the typical two tails of a comet]. One extended out across the skies of Britain and over Gaul. The other extended out over the Irish Sea culminating in seven lesser beams of light. Such was its magnitude, it could be seen all across Britain and beyond, and filled the people with fear and dread not knowing what it might portend."
Now, you can go ahead and dream up any kind of explanation for Uther's star that you'd like, but if you are not going to accept the obvious comet description then you have to propose that Geoffrey got it wrong and substituted the comet for something else the draco might have represented. You may come up with some interesting ideas from mythology or folklore, but none will succeed in convincing anyone that the star of Uther was anything other than a comet.
I've written several blog posts on comets in relation to that of Uther's star and, indeed, have identified exactly which comet it was in terms of Uther's presumed floruit and mention of such a comet in early literary sources:
But what I haven't done yet is really make a forceful argument for the draco standard as being emblematic of a comet or meteor.
Before I can do this, I had to consider what the Dacian draco looked like, and how it "behaved" in battle.
What we must see in our mind's eye is the standard being held aloft, the mouth of the 'wolf-serpent' gaping wide, as if to clamp down on quarry and swallow it. The body, long and sinuous, trailing behind, moving in wind either generated naturally or through the fast, forward movement of the standard bearer (whether on foot on on horse).
Wolves, traditionally, were seen as dangerous predators who were ravenous in their habits. It is not at all inconceivable that from time to time ancient peoples on the steppes or in Dacia saw meteors or cometary fragments fly across the heavens and strike the earth. They could have witnessed or been told of craters and fires and clouds of dust created when these all-devouring monsters came to ground.
Certainly, the long tail or tails of a comet did not resemble the body of a wolf, and so a hybrid creature was created with the head of a wolf and the body of a serpent. [Although, it should be noted that ancient Chinese dragons could have ears and even horns, and some scholars have suggested that the design of the early draco of the steppes may have been influenced by contact with Chinese culture.]
But however the animal came to be, we cannot identify a celestial monster that flies rapidly across the field of battle with a regular star, constellation or even planet. These last were either very slow-moving or all but stationary, some exhibiting only seasonal changes in their relative positions.
The only objects in the sky that match the form and function of the draco are comets and/or meteors.
We have two other candidates for the draco, although these do not conform with the Romanian folklore that clearly identifies meteors and comets with dragons: lightning and the aurora borealis.
Lightning is generally depicted in the various ancient religions and mythologies as a divine weapon, rather than as a living creature. It does not seem to work for a creature being held over one's head as one runs and gallops forward into battle.
Recently, an attempt has been made to interpret the 'fiery dragons' of an ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE entry with the aurora borealis:
I don't find the aurora borealis theory proposed in this article very convincing. The ASC entry actually reads:
The timing, then, in going from the beginning of the year to 8 June, heavily favors the Lyrids:
Etc.
The Eta Aquariids are also in that time window, and originate from Halley's Comet, but they are mostly visible from the southern hemisphere. They are not prominent in the northern hemisphere, as is the case with the Lyrids.
In speaking of Halley's Coment, I am reminded of its appearance at the Battle of Hastings, where the English happened to have a draco standard:
The Dragons of Wessex and Wales
J. S. P. Tatlock
Speculum
Vol. 8, No. 2 (Apr., 1933), pp. 223-235
955 Years Ago: Halley’s Comet and the Battle of Hastings
NOTE:
Modern scholarship thinks that the Roman most likely adopted the draco standard from the Dacians (see Coulston, https://mistshadows.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-draco-standard-by-jc-n-coulston.html). In answer to Dr. Linda Malcor's claim that the body of the Dacian draco did not represent a serpent, but was merely a serpent-shaped windsock and that the Dacian standard was actually a flying wolf (because of its wolf-head), we need only go to the following source. It nicely demonstrates that, at least as far as the Romans were concerned, the body of the draco was, indeed, that of a snake.
"The Symbolism Behind the Dragon Standard" by Kirsi Simpanen
ARCTOS 55 (2021)
"According to Greogory of Nazianus, however, Roman dracones had woven scales on their bodies."
The note to this statement cites Oration 4, 66:
66. Moreover he shows his audacity against the great symbol,44 which marches in procession along with the Cross, and leads the army, elevated on high, being both a solace to toil, and so named in the Roman language,45 and king (as one may express it) over all the other standards, whatever are adorned with imperial portraits, and expanded webs in divers dyes and pictures, and whatever, breathing through the fearful gaping mouths of dragons, raised on high on the tops of spears, and filled with wind throughout their hollow bodies, spotted over with woven scales, present to the eye a most agreeable and at the same time |38 terrible show. And when things about him were settled according to his mind, and he was, as he fancied, out of the reach of danger in his own vicinity, he then proceeds to what came next.
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