Chimera (mythology)

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For other uses of this word, see Chimera (disambiguation).

In Greek mythology, the Chimera (Greek Χίμαιρα (Chímaira); Latin Chimaera) is a monstrous creature made of the parts of multiple animals. Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and sister of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra. Descriptions vary – some say it had the body of a goat, the tail of a snake or dragon and the head of a lion, though others say it had heads of both the goat and lion, with a snake for a tail. It is generally considered to have been female, despite the mane adorning its lion's head. All descriptions, however, agree that it breathed fire from one or more of its heads. Sighting the chimera was a sign of storms, shipwrecks, and natural disasters (particularly volcanos). In Medieval Christian art, the chimera appears as a symbol of Satanic forces.

While there are different genealogies, in one version it mated with its brother Orthrus and mothered the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion.

Chimera was finally defeated by Bellerophon with the help of Pegasus, the winged horse, at the command of King Iobates of Lycia. There are varying descriptions of its death – some say merely that Bellerophon ran it through with his spear, whereas others say that he fitted his spear point with lead that melted when exposed to Chimera's fiery breath and consequently killed it. Another story is that Bellerophon chopped off the three heads of the Chimera, and it fell to the ground dead.

The myths of the Chimera can be found in Apollodorous' Library (book 1), Virgil's Aeneid (book 6), Homer's Iliad (book 6), Ovid's Metamorphoses (book VI 339; IX 648) and Hesiod's Theogony.

[edit] Theory about origin

See main article: Chimaera (geography)

Some say this geothermically active region was the inspiration for the myth

Ctesias (as cited by Pliny the Elder and quoted by Photius) identified the Chimaera with an area of permanent gas vents which can still be found today by hikers on the Lycian Way in southwest Turkey. Called in Turkish Yanartaş (flaming rock), it consists of some two dozen vents in the ground, grouped in two patches on the hillside above the Temple of Hephaistos about 3 km north of Çıralı, near ancient Olympos, in Lycia. The vents emit burning methane thought to be of metamorphic origin, which in ancient times sailors could navigate by, and which today the custodian uses to brew tea. (Strabo held the Chimaera to be a ravine on a different mountain in Lycia.) [1]

[edit] See also

Image:Commons-logo.svg	Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Chimera

Azhi Dahaka, a three-headed Persian dragon associated with deceit and mendacity.
Nue, a creature from Japanese folklore that is similar in appearance to the Chimera.
Tuba, a mythological Mongolian beast with the head and body of a goat, but the lower half of a snail.
Manticore, another mythological beast that had the head of either a man or a lion (or a mix of the two), the body of a lion and usually the tail of a dragon/snake or a scorpion.
Qilin, a Chinese mythical creature, thought to bring good luckbg:Химера