Note 786 — Chapter X · THE MUMMERS’ PLAY
Reading edition
Cf. p. 138. The myth has attached itself to other undoubtedly historical persons besides St. George (Bury, Gibbon, ii. 569). In his case it is possibly due to a misunderstood bit of rhetoric. In the Coptic version of the legend edited by Budge (p. 223), Dadianus is called ‘the dragon of the abyss.’ There is no literal dragon in this version: the princess is perhaps represented by Alexandra, the wife of Dadianus, whom George converts. Cf. Hartland, Perseus, iii. 44.