Chimaera

The Chimaera was a fire-breathing monster of Lycia in Greek mythology, with the parts of a lion, a goat and a serpent. She was the offspring of Typhon and Echidna, and was killed by the hero Bellerophon, who attacked her from the air on the winged horse Pegasus. Homer, Hesiod and Apollodorus describe her.

Appearance

Homer says the Chimaera was of divine stock and not of men: a lion in front, a serpent (drakon) behind and a goat in the middle, breathing out the terrible force of blazing fire (Homer, Iliad 6.179–182). Hesiod gives her three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion, one of a goat and one of a snake, and says she breathed unquenchable fire (Hesiod, Theogony 319–323). Apollodorus describes her with the front of a lion and the tail of a dragon, with a goat’s head in the middle through which she belched fire; he adds that she devastated the country and harried the cattle, because she was one creature with the power of three beasts (Apollodorus, Library 2.3.1).

Parents and Home

Apollodorus gives two traditions: that she was begotten by Typhon on Echidna, as Hesiod relates, and that she was bred by Amisodarus, as Homer affirms (Library 2.3.1). In Hesiod, Echidna bore to Typhaon first Orthus, then Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra, and the Chimaera is named next (Theogony 306–319); on this tradition she is their sister. Homer does say in the Iliad that Amisodarus “reared” the Chimaera, to the harm of many men, and that his two sons fought for Sarpedon at Troy and were killed by the sons of Nestor (Iliad 16.328–329). The Chimaera belonged to Lycia, the land where Iobates was king, and Strabo says the neighbourhood of Mount Cragus was the scene of the fable, with a place called Chimaera, a sort of ravine, not far away (Strabo 14.3.5).

Bellerophon and the Chimaera

Bellerophon came to Lycia from the court of Proetus, carrying a sealed message from his host which asked King Iobates to kill the bearer. Iobates entertained him for nine days, then, after reading the message, commanded him first to kill the Chimaera. Homer says that he killed her by trusting in the portents of the gods (Iliad 6.155–183). Iobates then sent him against the Solymi and the Amazons and set an ambush of the best men of Lycia for him, all of whom Bellerophon killed (Iliad 6.184–190). Recognising that he was of divine stock, Iobates kept him in Lycia and gave him his daughter and half of his kingdom (Iliad 6.191–195).

Apollodorus says that Bellerophon mounted his winged steed Pegasus, offspring of Medusa and Poseidon, and soaring on high shot down the Chimaera from the height (Library 2.3.2). Hesiod says that Pegasus and the noble Bellerophon killed her (Theogony 325). In Pindar, Athena brought Bellerophon the golden bridle with which he tamed Pegasus, and afterwards he flew on the horse out of the cold, empty air to strike down the Amazons, kill the Solymi and slay the fire-breathing Chimaera (Pindar, Olympian 13.63–90).

After the Chimaera

Bellerophon later became hateful to all the gods and wandered alone over the Aleian plain, eating his heart out and avoiding the paths of men (Homer, Iliad 6.200–202). Pindar says that Pegasus threw Bellerophon when he wanted to enter the dwellings of heaven and join the company of Zeus (Pindar, Isthmian 7.44–47).

The Chimaera appears in later poetry as one of the monsters at the entrance of the underworld: Virgil lists “the Chimaera armed with flames” among the shapes that Aeneas sees there (Virgil, Aeneid 6.288).

Chimaera Sources

Homer, Iliad 6.155–202, 16.328–329; Hesiod, Theogony 306–325; Apollodorus, Library 2.3.1–2; Pindar, Olympian 13.63–90, Isthmian 7.44–47; Strabo 14.3.5; Virgil, Aeneid 6.288.

See Also: Typhoeus, Echidna, Cerberus, Lernaean Hydra, Bellerophon, Pegasus, Iobates, Lycia