A dragon is a mythological monster that has the form of a flying reptile, and it is the product of the imagination of many ancient time people that saw pterodactyl fossil, flying beast, in the Chinese rocks and lands. Mythological monsters are known as a group of imaginary animals mystified by a town, country, etc. (for example: hydra, centaur, chimeras). Dragon should not be confused with dinosaurs, neither with giant lizard, although they present those features, because their origin is in the oriental legends and mythology.

However, the oriental culture defines the dragon as a fabulous animal with snake figure that has feet, membranous wings, and from whose nose and mouth fire is exhaled. In addition, in some oriental countries (China and Japan) the dragon is a spiritual emblem that represents the supreme power, which is why these people will never forget it.

But all the dragons posses the common characteristic of having hard scales that consist of imbricated or juxtaposed, small or big, badges that cover the skin of the animal. The skin of these animals can have different colors for certain species, from black, blue, green, brown to some very strange ones as white (for example, in the Japanese animation television series, Yugi-oh).

The Dragons may be classified as mythological flying beasts or monsters. Certainly, many fantastic flying creatures exist in the mythology. “Phoenix”, legendary bird, is an example of a flying beast. And “Pegaso”, the winged horse in the Greek mythology, too. Among the similar monsters to the dragon, there is the chimera. The chimera differs from dragon because it is a hybrid animal. In fact, chimera tosses fire from its mouth, it has a lion head, goat body and dragon tail. Nevertheless, dragons are one of the better known monsters. Some example: those of five claws, that became the Chinese Imperial Emblem; that of four claws, the normal dragon; and the Japanese that has three claws.

Besides, is possible to find inside of the books and novels many narrations and stories about dragons. For example, in the Sacred Hebrew Writings, the dragon represents the death and the bad. The Christian inherited the Hebrew idea of the dragon that appears in the most terrifying literature of the Bible, mainly in the Apocalypse, and in other later traditions.

In the Babylonian religion, according to the Enuma elish, an old epic poem of the creation, Marduk(goddess) defeated Tiamat, a dragon that personifies the oceans and it commands the hordes of the chaos and whose destruction was the previous condition to create an ordered universe. In as much as the Greek mythology the god Zeus, offered the beautiful fleece of gold to Eetes, who in turn placed it in a low sacred grove under the attentive look of a dragon that never slept. And finally, the Egyptians with the help of the God Sun, Ra, banishes Apohis every morning, the dragon of the darkness.

In conclusion, the classification of dragons grows with the step of the time. Because every day is created in the mind of a famous writer a dragon type, with characteristic new, either in the color of its skin or in how many claws have. Certainly the dragons are the better known monster, and considered for some people as flying monsters, and I would say that until the most important of they. Because everybody had heard some time a history in which a dragon participates, in general making the evil. Nevertheless, there are dragons that fight in favor of the well.

In time immemorial humanity, people has known of these creatures, and they have made it part of theirs culture, for example, in the countries as Japan and China that worship the dragon. In ultimate, the dragons are flying beasts that I arrived at our minds with the purpose of stay there, it doesn't care as much as time lapses, because we will find it in books and novels of any generation.

Daniel Gutiérrez Carrasco