The Anatolian legend of Shahmaran affords a particularly clear exposition of the Indo-European "Dragon-Slayer as Doctor" paradigm

The attribution of healing powers to the dragon-slayer and/or his son must stem from a common Indo-Iranian source, but the underpinning rationale is not obvious. Examples of this nexus include Apollo and Asklepios (Greece), Teshub and his son (Syria/Mesopotamia/Anatolia), two forms of Horus (Greco-Roman Egypt), and Dian Cécht and Miach (Ireland). Surprisingly, the underlying logic for the association is best revealed by the Anatolian legend of Shahmaran, "The Queen of Serpents," which can be viewed as a dragon-slayer tale despite its non-conformity to ATU 300. The revealed basis for the slayer–healer conjunction is that a dragon-slayer has access to the flesh and blood of a dead dragon, or to broths made therefrom, and that some fractions of these are magically beneficial while other fractions are lethally poisonous. Ingestion of one beneficial fraction confers profound wisdom on the slayer (allowing him to understand the languages of animals and plants, as in ATU 673, and revealing to him all the secrets of medicine) while another beneficial fraction effects ATU 305-like magical cures of the sick (and may even raise the dead or confer immortality on the slayer). Many embodiments of this paradigm are partial; for example, exposure to dragon meat/blood allows the Germanic slayer Sigurd/Siegfried to understand bird-song and makes his skin invulnerable, but he does not develop healing skills.