shaped like snake heads (protective ones in this case). Furthermore, in Romanian villages in the Brașov's region surveyed by Teutsch, the vaults of certain gates bear snakes carved in the shape of garlands with their ends representing the "sun-wheel". Mythology According to historian Vasile Pârvan, the Dacian war flag, representing a wolf with a serpent's body, depicted the balaur. The balaur is not identical to the other creature of Romanian myth., the zmeu. The biggest difference is that the zmeu, even if it has some lizard features, nevertheless is a human-like figure, while the balaur is the true form of the dragon. Usually, in all Romanian myths, legends and fairy tales, the balaur always has three, five, seven, nine or twelve heads. The balaur sometimes is a malefic figure, but most of the times is a neutral figure, guarding various places, objects or knowledge. Also, in various myths and lore, there will be a series of dragons that have to be defeated in order to obtain the precious objects or entrance to the guarded places, usually three dragons, with scales of iron, silver and respectively gold, or silver, gold and respectively diamond, each stronger than the previous one, the number of their heads increasing with the difficulty. Some motifs developed in the folk tradition that defines the snake as protective of the household correspond, to some extent, to the interpretation of a protective Dacian "Dragon" symbol. See also Dacian warfare Draconarius Draco (constellation) Draco (military standard) European dragon Bunchuk Olm (Proteus anguinus)-A species of cave salamander of Slovenia locals call baby cave dragon Carnyx Kabura-ya Gallery Notes References Further reading Gelu Florea - Dragonul dacic, în Archeologica et Historica, Nicolae Gudea dicata, Zalău, 2001, p. 195-201; Augustin Muresan - Cu privire la cea mai veche reprezentare a a stindardului geto-dacilor, în Adevărul omenește posibil pentru rânduirea binelui, Oradea, 2001, pag. 455-459; Liviu Marghitan, Stindardul dacic flutura la Tapae, în Revista de istorie militara, 2001, 1, pag. 52-55. Liviu Mărghitan, Mioara Turcu - Mărturii arheologice referitoare la stindardul geto-dacilor, în Thraco-dacica, 2001, 22, nr. 1-2, pag. 213-221. Mioara Alecu-Călușiță, Steagul geto-dacilor, în Noi Traci. Centro Europeo di Studii Traci, Roma, 1992, pag. 14-22; Traian Herseni - Le dragon dace, în Ethnologica, 1979, nr. 1, pag. 13-22. External links Dacian Draco at CRW Flags Dacian Draco in Enciclopedia Dacica Dacian Draco Draconul The Dragon (Balaur) Myth In Romanian Folklore. Themes, Motifs, and