The Azhdaha is the great serpent-dragon of Dido and wider Daghestani folktale, a monster of Iranian pedigree whose very name descends through Persian tradition from the Avestan serpent Aži Dahāka. In the tale-type shared across the Caucasus it coils about a spring or river and stops the water, releasing it only when the community yields up a maiden, until a hero comes to slay it and free both the water and the captive. As the embodiment of devouring chaos and withheld water it stands opposite the sky-god's gift of rain, and it belongs to the borrowed, Iranianised stratum of Daghestani demonology rather than to the oldest native pantheon.