Chimera
Overview
Fire-breathing hybrid monster with lion, goat and serpent features.
Generation
Monstrous descendants
Symbols
Lion, goat, serpent, fire
Notes
Child of Typhon and Echidna.
Beyond Antiquity
Modern Legacy
Chimera still appears in the modern world through language, science, medicine, astronomy or culture.
Chimera
Today: An unrealistic idea, fantasy or impossible combination.
The word comes from the Chimera, the hybrid monster of Greek mythology. Because the creature combined parts of different animals, 'chimera' developed into a word for an improbable or fantastical combination.
Explore Chimera in modern language →Chimera and Chimerism
Today: An organism containing genetically distinct cell populations.
Scientific 'chimera' terminology takes its name from the mythological Chimera, a creature composed of parts of several different animals.
Explore Chimera in medicine →Related Myths
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Typhon and Echidna
Monstrous offspring of Typhon and Echidna -
Bellerophon and the Chimera
Monster slain by Bellerophon -
The Fall of Bellerophon
Monster whose defeat forms part of Bellerophon's earlier glory