Note 6 — Chapter XVIII · Japanese Gods and Dragons
Reading edition
Susa-no-wo, as the rescuer of the doomed maiden, links with Perseus, the rescuer of Andromeda from the water-dragon.6 The custom of sacrificing a maiden to the Nile each year obtained in Ancient Egypt. In the Tiamat form of the Babylonian myth, Marduk cut the channels of the dragon’s blood and “made the north wind bear it away into secret places”.7 The stories of Pʼan Ku of China and the Scandinavian Ymir, each of whose blood is the sea, are interesting variants of the legend.8