Dragons play a significant role in Greek mythology. Though the Greek drakōn often differs from the modern Western conception of a dragon, it is both the etymological origin of the modern term and the source of many surviving Indo-European myths and legends about dragons. Origins The word dragon derives from the Greek δράκων (drakōn) and its Latin cognate draco. Ancient Greeks applied the term to large, constricting snakes. The Greek drakōn was far more associated with poisonous spit or breath than the modern Western dragon, though fiery breath is still attested in a few myths. There is also the drakaina, the specifically female form or "she-dragon." The drakaina is occasionally treated differently from the more common masculine or gender-neutral drakōn, often surviving by mating with a hero or being the ancestress of an important lineage. Daniel Ogden speaks of three ways to explain the origins of Greek dragon myths: as vertical evolution from (reconstructed) Proto-Indo-European mythology, as horizontal adaptation from Ancient Near Eastern mythology, or as sitting within "the cloud of international folktale". Regarding theories of horizontal transmission, Ogden argues that they carry "an unspoken assumption that prior to such a transfer the Greeks' own myth-world was a tabula rasa", which he calls absurd; only Typhon's Near Eastern origins are, in his view, plausible. List of dragons Typhon Typhon was the fearsome monster of Greek mythology. Typhon was the last son of Gaia. He is usually envisioned as humanoid from the waist up, serpentine below, almost the size of a mountain. With his mate Echidna he would father many monsters. Later he would attempt to overthrow Zeus for the title of ruler of the cosmos. Zeus would hurl an enormous rock on him to beat him. Ladon Ladon was the serpent-like drakon (dragon, a word more commonly used) that twined round the tree in the Garden of the Hesperides and guarded the golden apples. Ladon was also said to have as many as one hundred heads. He was overcome and possibly slain by Heracles. After a few years, the Argonauts passed by the same spot, on their chthonic return journey from Colchis at the opposite end of the world, and heard the lament of "shining" Aigle, one of the Hesperides, and viewed the still-twitching Ladon (Argonautica, book iv). The creature is associated with the constellation Draco. Ladon was given several parentages, each of which placed him at an archaic level