Myths & Folklore : Gods, Heroes, and Monsters

11/27/2025

11/24/2025

Myths Monsters Series:
Chimera

Myths Monsters Series: Chimera

This Album is about Chimera and contains Fantasy art and info from various sources on the Internet I do not write them I just share and the stories also artist versions may also vary

* Source: Wikipedia

** Source: Mythopedia

11/24/2025

Myths Monsters Series: Chimera

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** The Chimera, one of the terrifying offspring of Typhoeus and Echidna, was a hybrid monster made up of the body parts of a lion, a goat, and a snake. Many sources claimed that it also breathed fire.
For years, the Chimera terrorized the inhabitants of the foothills where it had made its home—a reign that only ended with the arrival of the hero Bellerophon, a son of Poseidon. Riding the winged horse Pegasus, Bellerophon tracked down the Chimera, fought it, and killed it.

11/24/2025

Myths Monsters Series: Chimera
My favorite pic- WJ

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* According to Greek mythology, the Chimera, Chimaera, Chimæra, or Khimaira (/kaɪˈmɪərə, kɪ-, -mɛər-/ ky-MEER-ə, kih-, -⁠MAIR-; Ancient Greek: Χίμαιρα, romanized: Chímaira, lit. 'she-goat')[2] was a monstrous fire-breathing hybrid creature from Lycia, Asia Minor, composed of different animal parts. Typically, it is depicted as a lion with a goat's head protruding from its back and a tail ending with a snake's head. Some representations also include dragon's wings.[3] It was an offspring of Typhon and Echidna, and a sibling of monsters like Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra.

11/24/2025

Myths Monsters Series: Chimera

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* 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. [citation needed] In other words, a chimera can be any hybrid creature.
In figurative use, derived from the mythological meaning, "chimera" refers to an unrealistic, or unrealisable, wild, foolish or vain dream, notion or objective.

11/24/2025

Myths Monsters Series: Chimera

** Etymology:
The Chimera’s name comes from the Greek word chimaira, meaning “one-year-old animal” or, more specifically, “she-goat.” It is related to other Indo-European words for baby livestock, such as the Old Norse gymbr (“young sheep”). The name “Chimera” may also be related to the Greek cheimōn/cheima and the Indo-European ǵʰ-ei-m-, meaning “winter.

11/24/2025

Myths Monsters Series: Chimera

* Family
According to Hesiod, the Chimera's mother was a certain ambiguous "she", which may refer to Echidna, in which case the father would presumably be Typhon, though possibly (unlikely) the Hydra or even Ceto was meant instead.
However, the mythographers Apollodorus (citing Hesiod as his source) and Hyginus both make the Chimera the offspring of Echidna and Typhon. Hesiod also has the Sphinx and the Nemean lion as the offspring of Orthus, and another ambiguous "she", often understood as probably referring to the Chimera, although possibly instead to Echidna, or again even Ceto

* Source: Wikipedia
** Source: Mythopedia

11/24/2025

Myths Monsters Series: Chimera

** Appearance and Abilities:
The Chimera was a hybrid monster, comprising parts of a lion, a goat, and a snake. The earliest description of the creature comes from Homer’s Iliad, where it is said that the Chimera was “in the fore part a lion, in the hinder a serpent, and in the midst a goat, breathing forth in terrible wise the might of blazing fire.”[4] Hesiod gives the same description,[5] as do all major subsequent literary sources.
The Chimera also breathed fire, though Hesiod and later writers specified that it was only the goat’s head (the middle one) that held this power.[

11/24/2025

Myths Monsters Series: Chimera

* Description:
A Roman mosaic of Bellerophon riding Pegasus and slaying the Chimera, 2nd to 3rd centuries AD, Musée de la Romanité
Homer described the Chimera in the Iliad, saying that "she was of divine stock not of men, in the fore part a lion, in the hinder a serpent, and in the midst a goat, breathing forth in terrible wise the might of blazing fire." Hesiod and Apollodorus gave similar descriptions: a three-headed creature with a lion in front, a fire-breathing goat in the middle, and a serpent in the rear.

* Source: Wikipedia
** Source: Mythopedia

11/24/2025

Myths Monsters Series: Chimera

**Iconography
In the visual arts, the Chimera was commonly represented with the head of a lion in front, the head of a goat in the middle, and a serpent tail.
There were some small variations—for example, the Chimera could be represented with or without a mane, with the forelegs of a goat (in addition to a goat’s head), or even without any serpent tail.

11/24/2025

Myths Monsters Series: Chimera

* Killed by Bellerophon:
A Hellenistic Greek pebble mosaic depicting Bellerophon riding Pegasus while killing the Chimera, Archaeological Museum of Rhodes, dated 300–270 BC
Bellerophon riding Pegasus and slaying the Chimera, central medallion of a Gallo-Roman mosaic from Autun, Musée Rolin, 2nd to 3rd century AD
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,

* Source: Wikipedia
** Source: Mythopedia

11/24/2025

Myths Monsters Series: Chimera

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* "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".
Apollodorus 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 (who had sprung from the blood of Medusa) "and soaring on high shot down the Chimera from the height.

* Source: Wikipedia
** Source: Mythopedia