The mythology of dragons enthralled minds across time and space that they have become embedded into our global culture. Dragons are one of the few aspects of mythology that is found around the world among various cultures, even ones that wouldn’t of have had any connections to one another. Additionally as much as they are a part of our mythology, they are in our current major and minor religions of the world. The question is then, when and how did the inceptions of dragons happen? Also what do they represent to people considering how they have become embedded into our collective global culture?

There are some places in which we can begin looking to follow the trail of this magnificent beast…

1. The number one place that most scholars would agree to look for the mythology of dragons is by looking at dinosaur bones. The theory is really a true story of how a historian made an assumption of dinosaur bones upon wondering what kind of animal must the bones have belonged to. You see, this story is about a 4^th century B.C. Chinese historian named Chang Qu. He was exposed to a fossilized stegosaurus which average 30 feet in length, and 14 feet tall. The bones collected included the stegosaurus’s armored plates and spikes. Now if you are a 4th century B.C. historian with no knowledge of dinosaurs and only knowledge with the animals in your vicinity, how would you come to describe the animal whose gigantic bones those belonged to? In fact, when you begin to look at the structure of dragons, many of their attributes come directly from the structure of many different dinosaurs. This may also explain how many dragon interpretations have different bodily structures that are based on terrain as various dinosaurs lived in various regions. Many scholars believe dragons in various myths were able to fly because of the assumptions based off of pterodactyl bones. In fact, the creator of the Hobbit, and Lord of the Rings alluded to saying that the dragons in his books meant to be more pterodactyl-like, however when the movies were made the CGI crews went with the dragon imagery instead of dinosaur and the creator never confirmed which was closer to his own imagination (maybe he liked how they looked in the movies).
2. There are other scholars that believe megafauna may have prompted early civilizations to create stories based on the bones that really belonged to animals obscure to human understanding for centuries. One of the most misunderstood animals, including their bones, is the whale. Because all whales spend most of their life (90%) underwater, people have always tried to explain what animals they are, but none were close. This obscurity between people and whales may also have prompted the mythology of krakens, much the same way scholars believe dolphins prompted the mythology of mermaids. The misunderstanding and creation of these myths can be directly related to our beginning anthropological studies.
3. There are some other scholars that say the mythology of dragons is really a conglomeration of all the beastly animals that have been created in the human mind and carried over from generation to generation. This is to say that people's view on predators of the wild became exaggerated because of our primal fear of animals, specifically predators. In many literature and mythologies, people describe beasts with body parts of real animals. These different body parts tend to be body parts of megafauna like the lion, bull, snake, panther, ox, eagle's talons, elephant tusks, large lizards, etc.. This would mean that the various dragons are really the most gruesome and terrifying beasts that the human mind can think of. And for the most part, this is true. There is no other animal that is more powerful than the dragon in our mythologies. From culture to culture, minor to major religions, the dragon is the most powerful. To Christians, Satan and the Devil transform into dragons at the end of days, which goes to say that dragons, to christians, are evil made flesh.

So what do the dragons represent? We can find what they represent according to the attributes that were given to the characters of the dragon. In many tales the dragon is an all powerful, all knowing figure that can sense danger, and see things beyond this universe. This comes from the roots of the word dragon. The word with its Greek roots literally means "the all-seeing huge serpent". This goes onto dragons being wise and ancient. In Chinese culture, dragons were attributed to emperors, and painted dragons were on the walls of rooms and hallways only emperors could walk and enter. In medieval times, the dragons were obstacles for people to kill in order to attain a goal which for the most part was a journey really about conquering one's own ego. The human ego is such an obstacle to conquer, we attributed the most powerful animal to describe this journey. However, I find that the mythology of dragons is really meant to represent the world in general. The world however big, deadly, violent, and ancient is the most beautiful and interesting place in all of the known universe. It is this dualism between powerful beauty and powerful savagery that enthralled people. The same way people understood ying yang, and the same way people love stories and people with good and bad qualities, is the reason people are enthralled by dragons. The mythology of dragons comes to represent ourselves in all of our good and bad qualities.