The Oldest Dragon Myths and its Origins

Is there a particular dragon you would like to know more about?

You had my attention with Dragons, but you blew my mind with that 75,000 year date and tracing the story along the lines of human migration. Love this story.

I'd be interested in learning about the origins behind Ancient Greece's large trove of unique, hybrid monsters, such as the gorgons, the manticore, and the chimera.

As someone that has worked professionally with dinosaur bones, teeth etc, it's never been lost on me how amazing and scary some of the dinosaurs appear. I found it interesting that in some of these myths the dragons lived underground. To early humans it may not have been a big leap to think these creatures in the ground (dinosaurs) were dragons or creatures from the netherworld. Very good and informative video. 👍🦖

What about the idea that a river looks a lot like a snake? Rivers were super important to early humans due to being a source of fresh water. The association with rain in a lot of the tales also seems to bear that out. If you climb a hill and look at a big river valley, you might think "a massive snake came through here and left the water behind". P.s. i love the channel, thank you for making this content!

Witnessing a tornado or water spout in person is truly an awe inspiring thing. It definitely brings up the image of a dragon destroying and bringing water at the same time. In Japan, one word for tornado is the same word for dragon. I've consumed many presentations on the origins of the dragon myth and have never heard anyone even bring up the tornado as a possible inspiration for the dragon myth.

Facinating, as someone who is also interested in paleoanthropology as well, the thought that our dragon stories are connected to our "snake aversion" going back to our early primate past is thought provoking. The more we learn about ourselves and our past the more connected we are to that distant past. The connecting of the Dragon mottif to stories in South Africa around 75,000 years ago is .... (running out of adjectives here) mind bogling. Thank you for your videos, I enjoy them hugely, wonderful stuff.

The Chinese dragon king’s story is really touching, I bursted into tears, everyone should be grateful for those kind beings.

Two interesting Native American creatures are the Piasa and Avanyu. There was a large painting/carving of a Piasa on the cliffs above either the Mississippi or Missouri River. The Avanyu were lake and river serpents that often fought with the Thunderbirds.

And the origin of those Chinese dragons is that each of them started as a ruler who later in their story becomes a dragon. One myth even describes the yellow dragon being made by combining animal aspects that represented different clans at the time.

In brazil we have a dragon myth called Boitatá, it has a snake like apperance that expels fire and eats the eyes of people, is seen as a guardian of the forests

“There’s only one story. There’s only one person in that story. And that person is you.” This channel does an excellent job explaining how the character and locations change in that story depending on the culture telling it. Here’s a hint for aspiring writers. It’s not the writer’s job to come up with a story. Their job is to keep the audience from realizing they are hearing the same thing over and over again. Writer’s block exist for writers that haven’t figured this out yet. Thanks for the content! I look forward to future videos.

I really love that Australian creation myth! It sounds, in the respect for the land and living things, much like the Old Stories from my NA great grandmother! ❤️❤️

I'm glad your channel exists to discuss these myths in detail. Too long Youtube's been infested with wannabe experts that speak very dismissively about the myths and their origins. It's truly a refreshing experience each time I click one of your videos.

As to dragons, I believe that somewhere between the 65 million year old, 2000 pound water-dwelling Titanaboa of South America and the smaller but still huge, aquatic Green Anaconda of modern Brazil there must have been enormous aquatic snakes known to humans that have gone extinct in the last 75,000 years. The original inspirations for the myths perhaps.

If dragon myths come from an ancestral/practical memory of snakes, imagine what "dragons" might be to other species... I've always wondered what an ant colony's mythology might be, or dolphins, or octopodes, parrots, elephants, or armadillos, etc.

Thank you for the great videos. I went to college in the 90’s during the peak of the anti-diffusionism movement. I use that term because calling my professors regionalists downplays their actual agenda. Any mention of Joseph Campbell and his theories about the interconnections between myths from various cultures was greeted with derision. I always felt that Campbell was onto something and that the various myths and ideas must stretch far back into deep time during the human migrations. It’s nice to see that computers and statistical analysis of these myths is showing that Campbell’s core ideas about their interconnections and diffusion were correct.

I've always wondered if the aspect of the Dragon being a reptile that has the ability to fly, not to mention that many older Dragons have FEATHERS, is due to the fact that it is a composite creature that combines snakes with that OTHER major predator of early mammals and hominids... Birds, specifically birds of prey that would swoop down and snatch away a small mammal, particularly their children, and carry them off over the horizon or into the darkness of night. This may also indicate the origins of very primitive morality and child-rearing, where what NOT to do in a herd boils down to "dont anger that slithering thing in the water or that flying thing in the air... it'll getcha! And whatever you are doing at the time when it does is a thing we should stop doing altogether" Just some shower thoughts that popped up whilst watching this.

The origins of the dragon are fascinating. Id love to learn more about how the rain and river serpent evolved into a winged, fire breathing lizard creature

"And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. "