The Evolution of the Dragon

Complete and unabridged, with 59 full-page plates by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Jean-Léon Gérôme and Giovanni Paolo Panini. An anatomist argues that the dragon of every mythology descends from one Egyptian source carried along the trade routes - the diffusionist case, made at full stretch. Elliot Smith was a leading anatomist of the brain and brought the same confidence to comparative religion; the argument is wrong and the material is remarkable. Fifty-nine plates of painting, from Redon's closed eyes to Bonavia's Roman landscapes, run alongside the text and mirror the book's own passage from anatomy to myth.