Appreciate a Dragon Day

 There are a lot of dragon books in the fantasy genre, and while Smaug from The Hobbit may be the most famous, it was a different series that inspired the day.

In 2004, Donita K. Paul released her first in a series, The DragonKeeper Chronicles.

I have not read a single one, or really much fantasy at all, but I've always liked the representation of dragons, the mythology.

They appear in the folklore of many cultures.  In the Western, they're typically winged, horned, and fire breathing.  In Eastern, they are wingless, four-legged serpentine creatures.  They appear as far back as in ancient Mesopotamian art.

The "mushussu" was actually a hybrid - a scaly animal with hind legs resembling the talons of an eagle, lion-like forelimbs, a long neck and tail, two horns and a snake-like tongue.

Considering the origin of the term is "draco" for serpent, and that many depictions are serpentine and reptilian, anthropologist David E. Jones suggests humans create them as a means to address our innate fear of snakes and other animals that were major predators of our ancestors.