According toHesiod, the Chimera's mother was a certain ambiguous "she", which may refer toEchidna, in which case the father would presumably beTyphon, though possibly (unlikely) theHydra or evenCeto was meant instead.[4] However, the mythographersApollodorus (citing Hesiod as his source) andHyginus both make the Chimera the offspring of Echidna and Typhon.[5] Hesiod also has theSphinx and theNemean lion as the offspring ofOrthus, and another ambiguous "she", often understood as probably referring to the Chimera, although possibly instead to Echidna, or again even Ceto.[6]
Homer described the Chimera in theIliad, 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."[7] Hesiod and Apollodorus gave similar descriptions: a three-headed creature with a lion in front, afire-breathing goat in the middle, and a serpent in the rear.[8]
In a lesser known tale, theCumaean Sibyl encountered the Chimera in a vision, interpreting it as an omen. She advised her followers to establish harmony in their community to prevent the chaos and destruction that might have been brought about by the Chimera.[9][10]
According to Homer, the Chimera, who was reared by Araisodarus (the father ofAtymnius and Maris, Trojan warriors killed byNestor's sonsAntilochus and Trasymedes) was "a bane to many men".[11] As told in theIliad, the heroBellerophon was ordered by the king ofLycia to slay the Chimera (hoping the monster would kill Bellerophon). Still, the hero, "trusting in the signs of the gods", succeeded in killing the Chimera.[12]Hesiod adds that Bellerophon had help in killing the Chimera, saying, "her didPegasus and noble Bellerophon slay".[13]
Apollodorus gave a more complete account of the story.Iobates, the king ofLycia, 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".[14] But the hero mounted his winged horsePegasus (who had sprung from the blood ofMedusa)[15] "and soaring on high shot down the Chimera from the height."[16]
Although the Chimera was, according to Homer, situated in foreign Lycia,[17] her representation in the arts was wholly Greek.[18] An autonomous tradition that did not rely on the written word was represented in the visual repertory of the Greek vase painters. The Chimera first appeared early in the repertory of theproto-Corinthian pottery painters, providing some of the earliest identifiable mythological scenes that may be recognized inGreek art. After some early hesitation, the Corinthian type was fixed in the 670s BC; the variations in the pictorial representations suggest multiple origins to Marilyn Low Schmitt.[19] The fascination with the monstrous devolved by the end of the seventh century into a decorative Chimera motif in Corinth,[20] while the motif of Bellerophon on Pegasus took on a separate existence alone. A separate Attic tradition, where the goats breathe fire and the animal's rear is serpentine, begins with the confidence that Marilyn Low Schmitt is convinced that there must be unrecognized or undiscovered local precursors.[21] Two vase painters employed the motif so consistently they were given the pseudonyms the Bellerophon Painter and the Chimaera Painter.
A fire-breathing lioness was one of the earliest solar and war deities inAncient Egypt (representations from 3000 years prior to the Greeks), and influences are feasible. The lioness represented the war goddess and protector of both cultures that would unite as Ancient Egypt.Sekhmet was one of the dominant deities in upper Egypt andBast in lower Egypt. As thedivine mother, and more especially as protector, for Lower Egypt, Bast became strongly associated withWadjet, the patron goddess of Lower Egypt.[citation needed]
Although the Chimera of antiquity was forgotten in Medieval art, chimerical figures appear as embodiments of the deceptive, evensatanic, forces of raw nature. They were depicted with a human face and a scaly tail, as inDante's vision ofGeryon inInferno xvii.7–17, 25–27, hybrid monsters, more akin to theManticore ofPliny'sNatural History (viii.90), provided iconic representations of hypocrisy and fraud well into the seventeenth century through a symbolic representation inCesare Ripa'sIconological.[22]
Virgil, in theAeneid (book 5) employsChimaera for the name of a gigantic ship of Gyas in the ship-race, with possible allegorical significance in contemporary Roman politics.[23]
The eternal fires ofChimera inLycia, modern-day Turkey, where the myth takes place
Pliny the Elder citedCtesias and quotedPhotius identifying the Chimera with an area of permanent gas vents that still may be found by hikers on theLycian Way in southwestTurkey. Called in Turkish,Yanartaş (flaming rock), the area contains some two dozen vents in the ground, grouped in two patches on the hillside above the Temple ofHephaestus approximately 3 km north ofÇıralı, near ancientOlympos, inLycia. The vents emit burningmethane thought to be ofmetamorphic origin. The fires of these were landmarks in ancient times and were used for navigation by sailors.
The Neo-Hittite Chimera fromCarchemish, dated 850–750 BC, which is now housed in theMuseum of Anatolian Civilizations, is believed to be a basis for the Greek legend. It differs, however, from the Greek version in that a winged body of a lioness also has a human head rising from her shoulders.
Some western scholars of Chinese art, starting withVictor Segalen, use the word "chimera" generically to refer to winged leonine or mixed species quadrupeds, such asbixie,tianlu, and evenqilin.[24]
The term, and often the general concept, has been adopted by various works of popular culture, andchimeras of differing description can be found in contemporary works of fantasy and science fiction.[25]
In Heraldry, the Chimera is shown to have the head and front legs of lion, the head of a goat emerging from its back with parts of its center body being a goat as well, the hindquarters of a dragon, and a snake-headed tail.
^The referent of "she" inTheogony319 is uncertain, see Clay,p. 159, with n. 34; Gantz, p. 22 ("Echidna ... the Hydra ... or even less probably Keto"); Most,p. 29 n. 18 ("probably Echidna"); Caldwell, p. 47 lines 319-325 ("probably Echidna, not Hydra"); West, pp. 254–255 line 319ἡ δὲ ("Echidna or Hydra?").
^The referent of "she" atHesiod,Theogony326 is uncertain, see Clay,pp. 159–160, with n. 34; Most,p. 29 n. 20 ("Probably Chimaera"); Hard,p. 63 ("Chimaira (or conceivably with his mother Echidna)"); Gantz, p. 23 ("[Chimera] ... or just possibly Echidna"); Caldwell, p. 47 lines 326 ("either Echidna or Chimaira"); West 1966, p. 356 line 326ἡ δ' ἄρα ("much more likely ... Chimaera" than Echidna).
^HesiodTheogony319–324 (Evelyn-White): "a creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyedlion; in her hinderpart, adragon; and in her middle, agoat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire.";Apollodorus,2.3.1: it had the fore part of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and its third head, the middle one, was that of a goat, through which it belched fire ... a single creature with the power of three beasts".
^Homer,Iliad16.328–329, links her breeding to the non-Trojan ally Amisodarus of Lycia, as a plague for humans.
^Anne Roes "The Representation of the Chimaera"The Journal of Hellenic Studies54.1 (1934), pp. 21–25, adduces Ancient Near Eastern conventions of winged animals whose wings end in animal heads.
^This outline of Chimera motifs follows Marilyn Low Schmitt, "Bellerophon and the Chimaera in Archaic Greek Art"American Journal of Archaeology70.4 (October 1966), pp. 341–347.
^Later coins struck atSicyon, near Corinth, bear the chimera-motif. (Schmitt 1966:344 note.
^John F. Moffitt, "An Exemplary Humanist Hybrid: Vasari's 'Fraude' with Reference to Bronzino's 'Sphinx'"Renaissance Quarterly49.2 (Summer 1996), pp. 303–333, traces the chimeric image of Fraud backward fromBronzino.
^W.S.M. Nicoll, "Chasing Chimaeras"The Classical Quarterly New Series,35.1 (1985), pp. 134–139.
^Barry Till (1980), "Some Observations on Stone Winged Chimeras at Ancient Chinese Tomb Sites",Artibus Asiae,42 (4):261–281,doi:10.2307/3250032,JSTOR3250032
^Jendza, Craig (2016). "Chimera". In Weinstock, Jeffrey Andrew (ed.).The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters.Routledge. pp. 90–93.ISBN9781317044260.
Hard, Robin,The Routledge Handbook of Greek Mythology: Based on H.J. Rose's "Handbook of Greek Mythology", Psychology Press, 2004,ISBN9780415186360.Google Books.
Hyginus, Gaius Julius,Fabulae inApollodorus'Library and Hyginus'Fabulae: Two Handbooks of Greek Mythology, Translated, with Introductions by R. Scott Smith and Stephen M. Trzaskoma, Hackett Publishing Company, 2007.ISBN978-0-87220-821-6.
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