myths are not stories that are untrue
rather they are tales that don't fit
neatly into the historical record which
serve as a foundation to a culture
gather around the campfire myth lovers
or you know your screens because today
we're going to try a little thought
experiment when I say the word dragon
what do you think of you probably
picture a serpent like creature with
clawed feet that flies and has a long
horse like face but some of you may be
thinking of a terrifying monster and
others an auspicious sign of good luck
so where do these disparate myths of a
dragon come from nearly every
civilization on earth has dreamt up a
creature we might call a dragon from the
Babylonian Mushka shoe with its
snake-like body and lion like paws to
the Egyptians serpent God a pap the
enemy of raw who tries to cast the Sun
from the sky dragons have been with us
since the dawn of civilization though in
fact they actually predate what we often
call civilization for even older dragons
can be found in the Jade carvings and
Neolithic pottery of China Quetzalcoatl
the feathered serpent of Aztec fame was
the dragon of Mesoamerica centuries
before European sales appeared on their
Shores
and the Rainbow Serpent of Aboriginal
Australian faith is perhaps the oldest
continuously venerated deity in the
world from the world's serpent of Viking
myth to the venerable Japanese dragon
there's almost no part of the globe
where we don't find dragon like
creatures they appear in some of our
earliest myths they're one of the first
things we as a species ever dreamt up
either to frighten us or to protect us
to nurture the world or destroy it but
why o fiddy a phobia or fear of snakes
might be one reason it's been shown that
human beings have a biological reaction
to serpents and our fear of them is
atavistic and primal it exists deep
below our conscious level in our
amygdala show us a snake and our
internal alarm system starts to go off
it's why even if you aren't afraid of
snakes you might have felt your skin
start to crawl or get that tiny goose
bump feeling prickling your arms when
you see one or feel one slither over you
but let's face it a lot
folks are afraid of snakes in fact it's
the single most common reported phobia
and statistically more than a third of
you right now have some fear of snakes
so with this ancient primal urge it
makes sense we'd create powerful
creatures or deities out of Serpas myths
can form from manifestations of our
subconscious and here's one of our
strongest subconscious triggers but
there are other interesting answers too
let's look at some of the distinguishing
features of the dragon a surprising
number of cultures give the dragon an
odd non serpentine head from the horse
like head of the dragons of Western
Europe to the camel like head of the
dragons of China
we often get a facial structure on these
beings wholly unlike what we think of on
a snake and if dragons are just
manifestations of our fears why not just
adopt the image whole hog or you know
serpent
well there's one theory that says it was
dinosaurs more accurately than it was
fossils as people around the world
stumbled on the bones of these giant
creatures they naturally imagined what
beings they might have come from and not
knowing what parts went where it's easy
to see Stegosaurus plates as huge scales
or look at a Triceratops skull and start
giving things all manner of gnarly horns
plus early people not necessarily
realizing that sometimes they'd see
piles of bones from several different
animals they'd string together a
fanciful creation even putting multiple
heads on things like the dragons from
Slavic myth or the famous Hydra and
there's even some argument though it's
more of a hypothesis than anything
remotely conclusive that the different
fossils around the world also help
account for the variations in dragons
though again take that with a grain of
salt because it seems like there's just
as much if not more evidence against
that idea as for it another theory
though favors our own predilection for
telling tall tales in a few go-rounds
the campfire it's easy for that
crocodile that almost got you to go from
being 10 feet long to being 30 sprouting
wings and breathing flames but of course
this is one of those hypotheses that
feel right but we'll never really be
able to verify for sure next there's
whales a number of Dragons especially
across Northern Europe and Asia are
associated with water
seeing a whale leap could almost seem
like flight and seeing a whale launch a
geyser as it surfaces for air could
easily lead the imagination to the idea
it might be able to breathe all sorts of
in an explosive turret interestingly
though wherever they came from all of us
around the globe interpret them in
different ways in Western Europe dragons
are often seen as evil and even used as
allegories for demons or the devil after
Christianity became the dominant
religion while in China dragons were
seen as wise and benevolent a symbol of
good luck strength and prosperity and of
course these different Reebs on dragons
directly affect our myths about them for
in Europe stories evolved about heroes
slaying dragons while in China stories
were created about heroes descending
from them or seeking them out to get
their help now this next part is only my
own personal pet theory but I think this
was at least a little bit dare I say
political politics and myths well now
they've ruined everything see in ancient
Greece in medieval Europe where society
is dis unified you get a lot of dragon
stories however in the Roman period you
don't get as many so to me this is
because in that chaotic world of local
politics you as a politician want to
symbolize a dangerous enemy that will
ravage the countryside something that
only a strong leader and their heroic
retinue can defend you from but in Rome
you of course don't want anything that
could imply there were things out in the
world that the state couldn't handle and
in China with the long there version of
the dragon things went even a step
further by associating the dragon with
wisdom and might well used and then
associating the imperial house with the
dragon a myth cycle was created that
reinforced the social order and helped
encourage the idea of a wise and
benevolent ruler now again that's wild
speculation and in fact I'm not even a
hundred percent sure if I believe it but
it's always interesting to think of
myths not just on their own but as a
product of the societies that they came
from what I find hard to believe is how
these dragons could exist at all within
the rules of physics and biology Hey
whoo Lian permitted earth at my campfire
whoa good thing I brought extra animated
marshmallows
hey listen I'm so glad you're here
because I was just thinking how some
dragons throughout history might be
considered more plausible than others
exactly
in fact we could probably rank them by
most realistic I mean dragon I isn't
going anywhere with those tiny wings
true plus I've never heard of a flying
animal as giant as drogon oh man
now I'm thinking of so many pop culture
dragons let's head over to the minute
earth Channel and rank them lead the way
good sir oh and Zoe could you please
make who Leon's marshmallows to go yeah
nice and crispy
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legendary thanks to patrons Kyle
Murgatroyd and Amancio Turk
[Applause]
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