Chimaera
（
Χίμαιρα). A fire-breathing monster of Lycia, destroyed by
Bellerophon (q.v.). According to Homer the
Chimaera was of divine origin. In front it was a lion, behind it was a serpent, and in the
middle a goat, and was brought up by King Amisodarus as a plague for men. Hesiod calls her the
daughter of Typhon and Echidna, and by Orthos the mother of the Sphinx and the Nemean lion. He
describes her as large, swift-footed, strong, with the heads of a lion, a goat, and a serpent.
In numerous works of art, as in statues,
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Bellerophon and the Chimaera. (From a Terra-cotta in the British Museum.)
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and the coins of Corinth, Sicyon, and other cities, the Chimaera is generally
represented as a lion, with a goat's head in the middle of its back, and tail ending in a
snake's head. The bronze Chimaera of Arretium, now in Florence, is a very celebrated work of
art. Even in antiquity the Chimaera was regarded as a symbol of the volcanic character of the
Lycian soil.
