Now we are thrust into what feels like an entirely different world from the intimate poses of the Theotokos icons, for here we have tremendous violent action. Yet, perhaps, what connects these three Christian warriors to the icons of the Theotokos is purity—for in this troubled world the pursuit of pure union with God often looks like a battle. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul says, “for we wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with principalities, powers and the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12 KJV). Or, as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn has written, “The battle between good and evil runs through every human heart.”*
The Christian understanding of the nature of mankind is that we have three aspects: body, soul, and spirit. Each dragon in this icon symbolizes the temptations of the body, soul, or spirit. In the lowest register, Saint Theodore, a Greek warrior who was martyred in the fourth century, thrusts his spear into a dragon with reddish wings that represent clay, Old Testament man, the body. This beast symbolizes the physical temptations that cannot be tamed but must be killed outright. Thus, as the dragon’s tail wraps itself around his stallion’s leg, Theodore stabs it in the heart, quickly and emotionally.
In the middle register we see Saint George, who was martyred in the third century. The dragon he faces has greenish wings, the color of New Testament man, so this dragon represents temptations of the soul. These temptations are more subtle passions: a lustful ego disguised by good works, social consensus that veils a bid for power, or emotional outbursts used to blur moral responsibilities. These, like this dragon, don’t need to be killed but need to be ordered properly, which is why the princess on the right has a leash around the dragon’s neck. Once Saint George has pierced the dragon’s tongue, she will lead the wounded, now tame and ordered, dragon into the city behind her.
The upper figure portrays Archangel Michael fighting the great dragon described in the Book of Revelation, a battle yet to come. The dragon’s purplish wings encircled in a purplish disc are the most fugitive and difficult evil to detect: it is the delusion of religion gone awry, represented by the buildings of civilization on the dragon’s back. Only with the aid of the truth of the Gospel book Archangel Michael holds can the great angel’s spear pierce the dragon in the head.
The viewer will not want to miss the small, dark blue orb in the upper left corner, from which God’s hand reaches out to bless the efforts of the warrior Christians. Notice how this vivid image is mirrored in the lower right corner by the large cave in front of which Theodore battles, and be struck anew by humanity’s need to resist evil and to be rescued from it.