Meanings
- alternativeAlternative form of Draco (“Athenian lawgiver”).
The Athenians claimed that their earliest constitution was the work of the lawgiver Drakon in 620 BC.
2006, Peter Liddel, “Democracy Established”, in John Stevenson, editor, The Rise and Fall of the Classical World: 2500 BC–600 AD (The History of Europe), London: Mitchell Beazley, →ISBN, section 10 (Ancient Greece), “The Archaic and Classical Periods: 750–336 BC” subsection, page 32, column 33 more examples
[T]he law codes drafted in Athens in the late seventh and early sixth centuries were the work of individuals, Drakon and then Solon.
1976, L[ilian] H[amilton] Jeffery, “Kylon and Drakon”, in Archaic Greece: The City-States, c. 700-500 b.c., New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press, →LCCN, →OCLC, section II (Central and Northern Greece), subsection 7 (Athens and Attica), page 86Whatever the extent of the lost code of Drakon, the creation of any fixed public laws signals a symbolic change and the emergence of an important new mentality.
1990, Philip Brook Manville, “Laws, Boundaries, and Centralization”, in The Origins of Citizenship in Ancient Athens, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, published 1992 (2nd printing), →ISBN, page 79It remains unclear what (if any) other matters were addressed in the laws of Drakon, although in later Athenian legend, he was believed to have prescribed death for a wide range of offenses.
2015, Josiah Ober, “Citizens and Specialization before 550 bce”, in The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, published 2016 (3rd printing), →ISBN, page 148
Origin
- Ancient GreekΔρᾰ́κων
- EnglishDrakon
Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek Δρᾰ́κων (Drắkōn).
More words from Ancient Greek
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
Drakon. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Drakon
“Drakon.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Drakon. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Drakon,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Drakon.
Source: Drakon on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.