Chimera

The Terrifying Three-Part Fire-Breather

The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster made from several animals joined together. Homer described it as lion at the front, goat in the middle and serpent behind. Later artists often showed a lion’s body with a goat’s head growing from its back and a snake forming the tail. It was a child of Typhon and Echidna, the same frightening parents connected with Cerberus and the Hydra. The Chimera lived in Lycia and destroyed animals and terrified the countryside. It is such a strange design that you might expect it to be easy to recognise, and ancient artists certainly thought so. The lion, goat and curling snake made a brilliant monster silhouette.

The hero sent to defeat it was Bellerophon. He had become caught in a complicated argument between kings and was given dangerous tasks that were secretly meant to get him killed. Facing the Chimera was the first. Fighting a fire-breathing lion-goat-snake from the ground would obviously be a terrible plan, so Bellerophon needed help. Athena helped him obtain a golden bridle in many versions, allowing him to tame Pegasus, the famous winged horse. Bellerophon could then fly above the Chimera’s claws and flames while attacking from the air. Later stories say he attached lead to his spear. The Chimera’s own fiery breath melted the lead inside its throat and helped kill it.

The exact lead trick does not appear in every ancient version, but Bellerophon’s victory became one of the most famous monster battles in Greek art. Pegasus and the Chimera appeared on pottery and coins, especially around Corinth. The creature’s strange body also gave us a word that survived long after people stopped believing a fire-breathing monster lived in Lycia. A ‘chimera’ can now mean an impossible mixture or something imagined that is unlikely to happen. Scientists even use the word for organisms containing cells with different genetic origins. I think the original monster is still the best version, though. A lion is dangerous. A snake is dangerous. A fire-breathing lion with a goat sticking out of it and a snake for a tail is just showing off.

⬅   Back