Ie Serpent Slayer

myth:ie_serpent_slayer

The Serpent-Slayer — the storm-hero who kills the great serpent or dragon that withholds the waters or threatens the order of the world: Vedic Indra smites Vritra and frees the rivers; Zeus blasts Typhon; Thor battles the world-serpent; the Iranian Verethragna 'smites resistance' (kin to Indra's own epithet). Beyond the family the same combat echoes — Marduk splitting Tiamat, Susanoo slaying the eight-headed Orochi. The oldest reconstructed Indo-European story. — comparative mythology