Dragons: A Brief History of the Mythical, Fire-Breathing Beasts

[Judi Lynn]

By Benjamin Radford, Live Science Contributor | April 11, 2019 10:49am ET

Dragons are among the most popular and enduring of the world's mythological creatures.

Dragon tales are known in many cultures, from the Americas to Europe, and from India to China. They have a long and rich history in many forms and continue to populate our books, films and television shows.

It's not clear when or where stories of dragons first emerged, but the huge, flying serpents were described at least as early as the age of the ancient Greeks and Sumerians. For much of history dragons were thought of as being like any other mythical animal: sometimes useful and protective, other times harmful and dangerous. [Top 10 Beasts and Dragons: How Reality Made Myth]

That changed when Christianity spread across the world; dragons took on a decidedly sinister interpretation and came to represent Satan. In medieval times, most people who heard anything about dragons knew them from the Bible, and it's likely that most Christians at the time believed in the literal existence of dragons. After all, Leviathan — the massive monster described in detail in the Book of Job, chapter 41 — sounds like a dragon:

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1. Dragons were what ancient man called dinosaur fossils

Ancient man lacked the science to understand fossils for what they are, instead interprering them to be the bones of otherwise living animals. In fact, dinosaur fossils are likely the source of all manner of legends about giants and monsters.