Oriens writes that the dragon is "neither markedly feminine nor
markedly masculine", but would a mediaeval artist have bothered to
indicate the sex of the dragon? I doubt it, but (being no art
historian) would gladly hear argument to the contrary. Or perhaps
a dragon was considered to have nothing externally visible (rather
like a snake or a fish, say).
In heraldry animals are very occasionally shown with visible
genitalia, and I believe that the adjective applied to animals thus
depicted is "pizzled".
Mark Harris
University of London
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