Dragons

Nonfiction
One of the early portrayals of dragons hoarding gold is the dragon that Beowulf fought near the end of his life. According to the tale, this dragon was disturbed when it noticed that someone had taken a trinket from its hoard. A single missing object stirred it into a terrible fury, its wrath only quelled when the old king did battle with it, dying with the creature in the process.

In the middle ages, dragons came to embody humanity’s worst traits as described by Christian texts; the cardinal vices. When Tolkien revitalized the legends writing Lord of the Rings, he took the traits and amplified them. Dragons were the go-to monster for a tale of heroism and daring, there are few things like a good bounty to reward a daring knight errant.
 * Pride - Dragons were frequently and immensely arrogant. In the stories they were stubborn to defeat. In old texts they’d be too proud to submit to God’s command like other beasts while in modern stories they are often incredibly boastful.
 * Wrath - When slighted they’d unleash a terrible fury, and were very temperamental in the process.
 * Sloth - When they weren’t terrorising peasants or stealing cattle, they slept. A lot.
 * Greed - The aforementioned obsession with treasure.
 * Envy - Links with pride. Dragons were often quite judgmental and self-centred beings and always wanted the biggest hoard.
 * Lust - Their obsession with princesses and gold. Many creatures of old are said to do bad things to promiscuous young women or seduce/entrance women in general.
 * Gluttony - They were single beasts who would threaten entire fields of cattle. They were big certainly, but back in the middle ages we’re talking a horse/elephant sized. A horse-sized animal that would regularly eat cattle-sized prey would be considered quite the glutton.