Mythic Parallels
In Chinese folklore and art, most dragons, including the long 龍, are represented with two horns. Besides the chi 螭, only a few dragons supposedly lacked horns, for instance, jiaolong 蛟龍 "aquatic dragon; hornless dragon; crocodile" or qiulong 虯龍 "horned dragon; hornless dragon".
In comparative mythology as well, horned dragons are generally more common than hornless ones. Based upon the chishou 螭首 "hornless-dragon head" roof adornment, Kroll (1989:329) translates chi as wyvern, "a footed winged dragon with a serpent's tail, becoming in medieval times an oft-pictured heraldic beast."
Read more about this topic: Chi (mythology)
Famous quotes containing the words mythic and/or parallels:
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