CHIMERA
The Chimera is a fire-breathing monster with the body and head of a lion, a goat’s head on its back and goat udders underneath, and a serpent for a tail. As one of Echidna’s children, it resembles its mother in the fact that it is a conglomeration of multiple creatures that wreak havoc when put together. The goat head is interesting because it is specified as a she-goat, the name of the monster itself coming from the Greek name for a one-year-old female goat. A creature that is typically thought to be weak actually dominates the snake-goat-lion hybrid, determining the gender of the whole thing (Clay 111). It is also the only head to breathe fire, according to Homer (Bazopoulou-Kyrkanidou).
This fiery monster wreaked havoc in Lykia in Anatolia, apparently originally brought up by Amisodorous, King of Caria. The king of Lykia sent Bellerophon and Pegasus to kill the monster, hoping that Bellerophon would be killed himself (Homer, Iliad line 179). Of course Bellerophon went because the gods told him to kill the Chimera. Riding Pegasus into the battle, our brave hero slayed the fiery beast with a lead-tipped lance down its throat, suffocating it (Theoi Project).
The parentage of this hybrid is actually highly disputed, with many candidates for her mother. While the father is a complete mystery, the Chimera’s mother could technically be either Echidna, the Hydra, or Keto (Clay 113). Either way, she is distantly related to Echidna in some way. In Hesiod’s Theogony, the Chimera and Orthos (Echidna’s two-headed canine son) produced the Nemean lion (lines 325-7). It is debatable whether they also produced the Sphinx or if it was Echidna. At least this time around, the offspring has at least one trait from a parent (in this case, the leonine body from the maternal side).
The region in which the chimera lived is another aspect that gets confused throughout history. The land of Lykia is described by Strabo in his Geography: “The scene of the myth of Chimaera is laid in the neighbourhood of these mountains (Mt Cragus and Anticragus). Chimaera, a ravine extending up from the shore, is not far from them” (qtd. In Bazopoulou-Kyrkanidou). On the other hand, four centuries earlier Palaephatus claimed that Chimera is the name of a mountain in the region, and lions live in the front side of it with snakes taking up residence in the back. In the middle of this mountain was a ravine that spit fire (Bazopoulou-Kyrkanidou). These two descriptions are similar because of the ravine and mountain idea, but Palaephatus goes into more detail. Overall, it is safe to say that this monster spawned in a mountainous area with a large ravine.
KHIMAIRA. 350 - 340 BC. Musée Du Louvre, Paris, France
Throughout the ages, depiction of the Chimera has remained relatively unchanged. The goat head is always emerging from the back, the body of a lion always the same. The only detail that gets altered is the tail. It is either a serpent’s head or tail region that is depicted, but otherwise it keeps the serpentine aspect of the Chimera as found in mythology. It is also obvious that she does not resemble her mother at all besides the animal combination and snake-like hindquarters. As you can see, the lion is depicted as distinctly male with the characteristic mane. This just adds more confusion to the idea of the chimera as a female monster even though in art it is dominated by the male form of the lion. The goat’s head is a seemingly small portion of the monster, yet it determines the gender and has the fire-breathing power for which it is so well known and terrifying.
The only thing that changes throughout its depiction is the position of Bellerophon (if included at all) when he is slaying the Chimera. Either he is riding Pegasus and stabbing down towards the Chimera or he is crouched down and stabbing upwards at the beast (Bazopoulou-Kyrkanidou). The Chimera is commonly painted either alone or with Bellerophon/Pegasus slaying.
For this piece (left), the painter is unknown but the creation date is sometime around 350 to 340 BCE. It is located in the Louvre in Paris today. The shape is called a Kylix (a wide-bowled drinking cup that was popular during Mycenaean times), and it is a red figure piece from the Late Classical period (Theoi Project).