The European dragon is a legendary creature in folklore and mythology among the overlappingcultures of Europe.
The Roman poet Virgil in his poem Culex lines 163–201, describing a shepherd battling a big constricting snake, calls it "serpens" and also "draco", showing that in his time the two words probably could mean the same thing. The European dragon we know today is based on the model of the ancient Greek dragon par excellence, Typhon. Typhon was represented as a winged, fire-breathing, serpent-like creature.