| Chimera | |
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Real Name |
Chimera, Chimaera, or Chimæra |
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First Appearance |
Greek Myth |
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Created by |
Greek Myth |
Origin[]
According to Greek mythology, the Chimera, Chimaera, or Chimæra was a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature from Lycia, Asia Minor, composed of different animal parts. It is usually depicted as a lion, with the head of a goat protruding from its back, and a tail that might end with a snake's head. It was an offspring of Typhon and Echidna and a sibling of monsters like Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra.
According to Homer, the Chimera, who was reared by Araisodarus (the father of Atymnius and Maris, Trojan warriors killed by Nestor's sons Antilochus and Trasymedes), was "a bane to many men". As told in the Iliad, the hero Bellerophon was ordered by the king of Lycia to slay the Chimera (hoping the monster would kill Bellerophon). Still, the hero, "trusting in the signs of the gods", succeeded in killing the Chimera. Hesiod adds that Bellerophon had help in killing the Chimera, saying, "her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay".
Apollo Dorus gave a more complete account of the story. Iobates, the king of Lycia, had ordered Bellerophon to kill the Chimera (who had been killing cattle and had "devastated the country") since he thought that the Chimera would instead kill Bellerophon, "for it was more than a match for many, let alone one". But the hero mounted his winged horse Pegasus (which had sprung from the blood of the Medusa) "and soaring on high shot down the Chimera from the height."
Public Domain Literary Appearances[]
- Bibliotheca of Pseudo-Apollodorus (book 1)
- Iliad (book 16) by Homer
- Fabulae 57 & 151 by Hyginus
- Metamorphoses (book VI 339 by Ovid; IX 648)
- Theogony 319ff by Hesiod
Notes[]
- The term "chimera" has come to describe any mythical or fictional creature with parts taken from various animals, to describe anything composed of disparate parts or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling. In other words a chimera can be a hybrid creature.