Web Theoi
Greek Name Transliteration Latin Spelling Translation
Δρακων Θεσπιακος Drakôn Thespiakos Draco Thespiacus Dragon of Thespiae

THE DRAKON THESPIAKOS was a monstrous serpentine Dragon which ravaged the land of Thespiai in Boiotia (Central Greece). It was slain by the hero Menestratos, who sacrificed himself to the jaws of the beast.

Probably GAIA, though nowhere stated

Pausanias, Description of Greece 9. 26. 7 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) :
"In Thespiae [in Boiotia] is a bronze image of Zeus Soter (Saviour). They say about it that when a Drakon was devastating their city, the god commended that every year one of their youths, upon whom the lot fell, should be offered to the monster. Now the names of those who perished they say that they do not remember. But when the lot fell on Kleostratos, his lover Menestratos, they say, devised a trick. He had made a bronze breastplate with a fish-hook, the point turned outward upon each of its plates. Clad in this breastplate he gave himself up, of his own free will, to the Drakon, convinced that having done so he would, though destroyed himself, proved the destroyer of the monster. This is why the Zeus has been surnamed Saviour."


  • Pausanias, Description of Greece - Greek Geography C2nd A.D.