In folktales, dragon's blood often contains unique powers, keeping them alive for longer or giving them poisonous or acidic properties. Some depictions show dragons with one or more of: feathered wings, crests, ear frills, fiery manes, ivory spikes running down its spine, and various exotic decorations. In and after the early Middle Ages, the European dragon is typically depicted as a large, fire-breathing, scaly, horned, lizard-like creature the creature also has leathery, bat-like wings, four legs, and a long, muscular prehensile tail. 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 is a legendary creature in folklore and mythology among the overlapping Illustration of a winged dragon by Friedrich Justin Bertuch, 1806.
