The Virgin and the Dragon
Conversely to the role of military saints as figures of male domination, there is the figure of Saint Margaret, born to a Pagan leader father, but raised by a Christian nurse, who pledged her soul and purity to God. She was courted by a powerful man, who, upon her refusal, had her tortured and imprisoned. While imprisoned, Margaret was visited by a dragon who threatened to eat her. In one version, she crossed herself and it disappeared, but in another, she crossed herself as she was swallowed, and the dragon died, almost birthing Margaret through its back. She was then visited by a male figure whom she also vanquished, and she was eventually beheaded, officially able to be deemed a martyr saint (Voragine, 368-370).
In this legend, the dragon is a symbol for Satan, not for Pagan tyrants. The direct challenge to Margaret’s purity by her suitor and by the male figure who appears after the dragon are challenges to her dedication to God himself as they try to corrupt her (Petroff). Margaret is valued for her purity, but in ways, she still dominates the dragon and aforementioned male figure by not giving in, and in some versions actively killing them (Riches). Above is another work by Gaddi, the painter of Saint Sylvester and the Dragon, and again the dragon seems peaceful, though also much more cartoonish, while Margaret is seemingly praying as she is swallowed, not even trying to fight back. Unlike Sylvester, George, and Theodore, Margaret takes a passive role in the domination of her dragon. Women were not allowed to have the same agency that men had, and so, despite the transcendences of normal gendered traits in both George and Margaret’s legends (Riches), the physical depictions of these works (paintings, sculptures, etc.) all help to cement the ancient gender traditions and binaries that Christianity the western world have enforced.