CHIMAERA

A fire-breathing monster of Lycia, destroyed by Bellerophon. 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 Amisodarus as a plague for many men. Hesiod calls her the daughter of Typhaon 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, and goat, and a serpent. In numerous works of art, as in statues, 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.