CHIMAERA
a fire-breathing monster, which, according to the Homeric poems, was of divine origin.
She was brought up by Amisodarus, king of Caria, and afterwards made great havoc in all the country around and among men. The fore part of her body was that of a lion, and the hind part that of a dragon, while the middle was that of a goat. (Metamorphoses by Ovid)
According to Hesiod she was a daughter of Typhaon and Echidna, and had three heads, one
of each of the three animals before mentioned. She was killed by
Bellerophon, and Virgil places
her together with other monsters at the entrance of Orcus. The
origin of the notion of this fire-breathing monster must probably
be sought for in the volcano of the name of Chimaera near
Phaselis, in Lycia, or in the volcanic valley near the Cragus,
which is described as the scene of the events connected with the
Chimaera. In the works of art recently discovered in Lycia, we
find several representations of the Chimaera in the simple form
of a species of lion still occurring in that country.