CHIMAERA

chimaera, in greek mythology, a fire-breathing female monster resembling a lion in the fore part, a goat in the middle, and a dragon behind (_iliad_, vi. 179), with three heads corresponding. she devastated caria and lycia until she was finally slain by bellerophon (see h.a. fischer, _bellerophon_, 1851). the origin of the myth was the volcanic nature of the soil of lycia (pliny, _nat. hist._ ii. 110; servius on _aeneid_, vi. 288), where works have been found containing representations of the chimaera in the simple form of a lion. in modern art the chimaera is usually represented as a lion, with a goat's head in the middle of the back, as in the bronze chimaera of arezzo (5th century). the word is now used generally to denote a fantastic idea or fiction of the imagination.