Dragon Clock

The name is also popularly applied to the giant monitor, Varanuskomodoensis, discovered on Komodo Island, Indonesia.

The Chaldean dragon Tiamat had four legs, a scaly body, and wings; where as the biblical dragon of Revelation, "the old serpent," was many-headed like the Greek Hydra.  Thus, in the Iliad, King Agamemnon had on his shield a blue three-headed snake, just as the Norse warriors in later times painted dragons on their shields and carved dragons' heads on the prows of their ships.  In England before the Norman Conquest, the dragon was chief among the royal ensigns in war, having been instituted as such by Uther Pendragon, father of King Arthur.

On many early sea maps, unexplored areas were marked 'Dragons Lie Here.'  Early dragon stories tended to center around creation, or preserving creation from chaos, but the focus later shifted to the quest for treasure and the rescuing of a princess.