Draco is Latin for 'dragon' from Greek dracon. 'Dragon' seems to be a term for any mysterious snakelike creature in mythology. Dragons are often depicted as having a snake body on four feet. There is no fossil evidence for dragons ever having existed.

"'The tree of the Summit' was a type of the Celestial Pole, Seat of Judgment, and was guarded by the celestial serpent, the constellation Draco" [1]. "The constellation Ursa Minor which contains the Polestar, Polaris, as is now drawn enclosed on three sides by the coils of Draco; formerly it was almost entirely so" [Allen, Star Names, under Ursa Minor]. This pole, or the constellation Ursa Minor, was also imagined as a tree, and Draco, or the Dragon Ladon, is seen as guarding either the constellation Ursa Minor, or the tree in the garden of the Hesperides. Ladon, representing Draco, was the serpent-like dragon that twined round the tree in the Garden and guarded the golden apples, while tormenting the Titan Atlas (maybe Camelopardalis) as he held the heavens on his shoulders.

There are three known myths of dragons that relate to this constellation

1.  One is the dragon, Ladon, who guards the apples in the land of the Hesperides [2]. Ladon was a River-God of northern Arkadia (Arcadia), in the Peloponnesos [3]. This is in the general direction of Ursa Minor, who represents Arcas, from which the name Arcadia derives.

2.  "Some also say this Draco was thrown at Minerva (Athene) by the Gigantes (Giants), when she fought them. Minerva snatched its twisted form and threw it to the stars, and fixed it at the very pole of heaven. And so to this day it appears with twisted body, as if recently transported to the stars." [Hyginus, Astronomica 2.3 4] "Today we see him forever asleep as the much-knotted, battered, and twisted Draco" [5]. [Minerva threw the dragon to the stars — or slung it. A German word for snake is Schlange "which is probably related to 'sling'", Old English *slang ‘a snake, sinuous, snakelike, long and narrow and winding’ and slingan ‘twist oneself, creep’ [6, p.195], cognates are sling and slink, from Indo-European *slengwh- 'To slide, make slide, sling, throw', and maybe slang (casual speech).]

3.  The dragon slain by Cadmus at Thebes: Boeotian Thebes, the City of the Dragon. (Allen, p.209).

See Barry Long's feature excerpted from the book; The Origins of Man and the Universe. Subtitle: The Myth That Came to Life, The Draconic Syndrome... The character of myth and the Draconic Transverse (Draco).

Draco from the Latin dracon, Greek drakon, from drak, 'monster with the evil eye', cognate with Greek derkomai 'I see', derkesthai, 'to look at', Sanskrit darc (see), Avestic darstis (sight), Old Irish derc (eye), Old English torht, and Old High German zoraht, from the Indo-European root *derk- 'To see'. Derivatives: dragon, dragoon, drake² (a mayfly or drake fly used as fishing bait), draconian (harsh, strict, drastic), tarragon (Artemisia dracunculus, from Greek drakontion ‘dragonwort’, New Latin tarchon), rankle (to cause persistent feelings of bitterness, resentment, or anger, from draoncle, 'abscess, festering sore'. The notion is of an ulcer caused by a snake's bite). [Pokorny derk- 213. Watkins] Other related words: Dracula, Dracaena, mandrake, Mandragora, snapdragon.

The longan tree, 'dragon eyes' from Chinese long, dragon, is so named because of the fruit's resemblance to an eyeball when it is shelled. The black seed shows through the translucent flesh like a pupil/iris. See picture.

The root *derk- should relate to the 'drakon-breeding Dirke', a fountain of Thebes [5]. Derketis (or Dercetis) identified with Dirke which is interpreted as coming from this root; 'to look upon, see, shine (derkô)' [6]. Dirke was the second wife of Lycus (after he abandoned his first wife Antiope), she was jealous of Antiope and had her imprisoned and ill-treated. Antiope escaped and found her sons Amphion and Zethus. In revenge for their mother's mistreatment Amphion and Zethus had Dirke tied to the horns of a wild bull and dragged (drag, from Old English dragan, is not a recognized cognate of 'dragon') to death over rocks. Dionysus made the famous spring, Dirke, near Thebes in Boeotia, spring up from her body.

Dercetis is also referred to as the Philistine Derceto [7], or Derketo, was said to have thrown herself into a lake near Ascalon, on which she was changed into a fish or mermaid. The Greeks recognized Atargatis under the name Derketo, known in Syria as Tirgata, also known as Dea Syria, 'Goddess of Syria'.

"And there appeared another wonder. In heaven; and behold a great red dragon... and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth...." (Rev. 12:3-4).

The words drag and draw comes from the Indo-European root *dhragh- 'To draw, drag on the ground'. Rhyming variant of *tragh-. Derivatives: draw, drawer, (these words from Old English dragan, to draw, pull), drag (from Old Norse draga, to draw, pull, or Old English dragan), dray (from Old English draege, dragnet), draft (from Middle English draught, a pull, from a Scandinavian source akin to Old Norse *drahtr, drattr, act of drawing), dredge. [Pokorny dheragh- 257. Watkins]

“The dragon (draco) is the largest of all the snakes, or of all the animals on earth. The Greeks call it drakon, whence the term is borrowed into Latin so that we say draco. It is often drawn out of caves and soars aloft, and disturbs the air. It is crested, and has a small mouth and narrow pipes through which it draws breath and sticks out its tongue. It has its strength not in its teeth but in its tail, and it causes injury more by its lashing tail than with its jaws. Also, it does not harm with poison; poison is not needed for this animal to kill, because it kills whatever it wraps itself around. Even the elephant with his huge body is not safe from the dragon, for it lurks around the paths along which the elephants are accustomed to walk, and wraps around their legs in coils and kills them by suffocating them. It is born in Ethiopia and India in the fiery intensity of perpetual heat.” [The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, 7th century AD, p.255.]

"Today we see him forever asleep as the much-knotted, battered, and twisted Draco" [8]. To wake a sleeping dragon is to awake a dormant power.

"Dr. John Tanke has theorized that the words dragon and draugr might be related. He notes that both the serpent and the spirit serve as jealous guardians of the graves of kings or ancient civilizations. Dragons that act as draugar appear in Beowulf as well as in the stories of Siegfried" [9]. Draugrs seem to be dream characters or characters from a vision as described here. The word dream is related to Old Norse draugr, German traum, 'dream', Old Saxon bi-driogan, 'to deceive', Old High German triogan, 'to lie', from the Indo-European root *dhreugh- 'To deceive'. [Pokorny 2. dhreugh- 276. Watkins] With Australian aboriginals, creation is the Dreaming.

According to Carl Jung, "the structure of a dream is similar to a drama", dreams are drawn from our life experiences and those past experiences that rankle us influence our dreaming (rankle from the same root as dragon; *derk- 'To see'.)

In Sanskrit *derk- became darsanam, 'seeing, meeting'. In Hinduism Darshan refers to a sight or glimpse of a holy personage, such as a guru [12]. darshana, refers to any of the six schools of Hindu philosophy (literally, 'views').

Greek dorkas, a gazelle (so called in reference to its large bright eyes), from derkesthai, perfect dedorka, see, look at. Drake and dragon are of the same ult. origin. 'dedorka' , 'have seen' 'I see' [13, p.116]. [There is no English cognate word in the IE *derk root referring to 'sight' or 'see', but there is the word 'gaze' (a word of unknown origin) in 'gazelle' which is a translation of the Greek dorkas?]

http://www.constellationsofwords.com/Constellations/Draco.html