A dragon is a large, serpentine, legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. A giant lizard like being with four legs and two wings. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions. For much of history dragons were thought of as being like any other mythical animal: sometimes useful and protective, other times harmful and dangerous. That changed when Christianity spread across the world. Dragons took on a decidedly sinister interpretation and came to represent Satan. Some are only a few feet long, others span miles. Some dragons live in palaces under the ocean, while others can only be found in caves and inside mountains. Most dragons are known as protectors and not fire breathing beats that burn down villages.
The earliest attested reports of draconic creatures resemble giant snakes. Draconic creatures are first described in the mythologies of the ancient Near East and appear in ancient Mesopotamian art and literature. Stories about storm-gods slaying giant serpents occur throughout nearly all Indo-European and Near Eastern mythologies. Famous prototypical draconic creatures include the muḫuu of ancient Mesopotamia; Apep in Egyptian mythology; Vṛtra in the Rigveda; the Leviathan in the Hebrew Bible; Grand'Goule in the Poitou region in France; Python, Ladon, Wyvern, and the Lernaean Hydra in Greek mythology; Jörmungandr, Níðhöggr, and Fafnir in Norse mythology; and the dragon from Beowulf.
