Are you talking about the story of Bel and the Dragon?
Nah, that’s not symbolism. It’s a detective story with some kewl scientific monsterslaying!
Generally, people think the dragon in this story is some sort of memory of a crocodile, komodo dragon, giant python, or other big lizard/snake thing that had been brought to Babylon as a curiosity and kept around as a sacred animal of the gods. Daniel killed it, thus demonstrating God’s power (and the fact that God expects us to use our brains to deal with problems).
Using your God-given smarts and guts to defeat evil was also the theme of the story of Daniel and Susanna in the previous chapter, if you recall. This sort of story was understandably important and meaningful to the Greek-speaking Jews living outside Judea, so it’s not surprising that these two stories were preserved in the Septuagint.
