Zahhak, the three-headed dragon, is a fascinating character that really is in a class all his own. Not just because Arab and Iranian legends are so little known here in the US.
When you hear the words “three-headed dragon,” don’t you picture a beast with three dragon heads? But Zahhak actually has two dragon heads and one human. That’s a pretty unique combination.
He also falls into that rare group of dragons who start out life as human, but become dragons because of their own evil. The legends relate that Zahhak, as a prince, was clever but weak-willed. He allowed the evil spirit Ahriman to lure him from the path of righteousness. In fact, it was Ahriman himself who “rewarded” Zahhak’s cooperation by giving him the two dragon heads.
This isn’t the same as Maleficent, who in the 1959 movie Sleeping Beauty turned into a dragon to battle Prince Phillip. Zahhak makes decisions that there’s no coming back from. The only other dragon I can think of who’s like this is Fafnir, of Germanic myth. Fafnir, a dwarf, was so overcome by lust for gold that he killed his own father. He, too, transformed into a dragon and never regained his original shape.
Wyrmflight 
Thought of you the other day when we were watching Miyazaki’s adaptation of Tales of Earthsea. Lovely dragons.
I’d only seen glimpses of the series, and didn’t know there were dragons. I’ll have to get a better look at it.
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