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Ancient Greece – whose culture influenced European culture in later centuries – had many tales that involved dragons guarding vast hoards of wealth and treasure. These formidable creatures would guarantee that only the most resilient and daring of heroes could gain its bounty.
In the myth of Jason and the Argonauts, the Colchian Dragon kept watch over the sacred grove of Ares which stored the fabled Golden Fleece. Ladon, another serpentine creature, made its lair atop a tree in the Garden of the Hesperides to protect the golden apples from thieves.
It’s fascinating to note that dragons appear in a lot of different cultures around the world. Two main types of dragons exist – the four-legged, fire-breathing monsters in the West, and the wizened, wide-eyed serpents of the East. Historians believe that these two depictions developed independently from each other over time.
How did ancient people come up with the idea of dragons, though? According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the myth of dragons started with animals like snakes and crocodiles, although it’s also possible that the skeletal remains of whales, or even dinosaurs, served as fuel for our ancestors’ imagination.