Entry #2: Greek monsters

Chimera

Chimera is a mythical monster that was made of many parts of different animals. In Homer, a Chimera is described as "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire." By many versions of myths, and many myth writers, Chimera is known to be a female from the beginning, although it has a mane on its lion face. Chimera was once known to be the sign of storms, shipwrecks, and natural disasters but mostly volcanoes. The Chimera defeated many heroes, and ended up killing most of them. It was finally defeated by a hero named Bellerophon with the help of Pegasus. Since Pegasus has wings and therefore can fly, he shot the Chimera with an arrow from a safe distance in the air where the Chimera isn't able to reach to hurt him. Bellerophon was commanded to fight offthe Chimera by king lobates of Lycia, whose original intenstion was to kill Bellerophon. Chimera was a motivation of many vase makers, who design their vases with mythical beings (shown above).


Citation:
Wikipedia, "Chimera (mythology)." Wikipedia 9 March 2008 11 March 2008 .