And so the dragon drifts off to sleep
One eye open to watch his hoard
For he knows that during his dreams
A sudden knight with sword will form
Stolen treasure is hard to hold
This he knows to be true
He steams to himself and softly flames
But trying to steal it is even harder to do

In Western culture, a knight slaying a dragon can be considered as man overcoming his problems and finding his inner-self. When a knight rescued the maiden in distress, what he actually rescued was innocence from darkness.

In the ancient Mesopotamian culture, the ocean Goddess Tiamat was often dispicted as a dragon or as having dragonish charactoristics. It was believed necessary for Her to bring chaos first before order could reign

In the Orient, dragons are believed to be very wise and love human company. They live in the mountains, and come down to Earth when mankind is in trouble and need knoweldge.

Among All the Kinds of Serpents, There is None Comparable to the Dragon.
Edward Topsell, 1658

In the German town of Heidelberg, there have been legends of dragons living amongst the people. Dragon eggs were gathered and hatched so the dragons would be friendly to humans. Once grown, they would protect the family and home and use their fire to help heat the house.

In old Western representations, Christian saints and martyrs would be showen crushing dragons under their feet. This was used to show Christianity overcoming Pagan traditons and peoples.

At one time, eclipses of the moon or sun was regarded as happening because a dragon was trying to eat the heavenly bodies. A full eclipse was feared as the dragon being successful in his meal.