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Homer, Iliad 6.181, 9th century bc (?) She was of divine race, not of men, in the fore part a lion, in the hinder a serpent, and in the middle a goat, breathing forth in terrible manner the force of blazing fire. And Bellerophon slew her, trusting the signs of the gods.
Hesiod, Theogony 319, 8th century bc . The Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great, swift footed and strong, who had three heads, one of grim-eyed lion, another of a goat, and another of a serpent. In her forepart she was a lion; in her hinderpart a dragon; and in her middle part, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay.
Plato, Phaedrus, 5th century bc. But I for my part, Phaedrus, consider such things as pretty enough, but as the province of a very curious, painstaking, and not very happy man, and for no other reason than that after this he must set us right as to the form of the Hippocentaurs, and then as to that of the Chimaera; besides, there pours upon him a crowd of similar monsters, Gorgons and Pegasuses, and other monstrous creatures, incredible in number and absurdity….
Titus
Lucretius Carus, On the Nature of Things ca. 50 B.C. Translated by William Ellery
Leonard, Book 2.
But still 'tmust not be thought that in all ways
All
things can be conjoined; for then wouldest view
Portents begot about thee
every side:
Hulks of mankind half brute astarting up,
At times big branches
sprouting from man's trunk,
Limbs of a sea-beast to a land-beast knit,
And
Nature along the all-producing earth
Feeding those dire Chimaeras breathing
flame
From hideous jaws- Of which 'tis simple fact
That none have been
begot.
Lucretius, ibid,, book 5.
..... Once again, since flame
Is
wont to scorch and burn the tawny bulks
Of the great lions as much as other
kinds
Of flesh and blood existing in the lands,
How could it be that she,
Chimaera lone,
With triple body- fore, a lion she;
And aft, a dragon;
and betwixt, a goat-
Might at the mouth from out the body belch
Infuriate
flame?
Virgil: The Aeneid, 6th book, ca. 19 B.C., translated by John Dryden Of various forms unnumber'd specters more, Centaurs, and double shapes, besiege the door. Before the passage, horrid Hydra stands, And Briareus with all his hundred hands; Gorgons, Geryon with his triple frame; And vain Chimaera vomits empty flame.
Pseudo-Apollodorus, Library 1.151, 2nd century AD. 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. And it devastated the country and harried the cattle; for it was a single creature with the power of three beasts. It is said, too, that this Chimera was bred by Amisodarus, as Homer affirms, or that it was begotten by Typhon on Echidna, as Hesiod relates. So Bellerophon mounted his winged steed Pegasus, offspring of Medusa and Poseidon, and soaring on high shot down the Chimera from above.
Anaxilas in his "Hetairai"(c. 525 BCE)developed a vision that acquired those characters of a paradigm of female evil that was to become the main view of the myth in medieval times
The man whoe'er has loved a hetaira,
Will say that no more lawless, worthless race
Can anywhere be found: for what ferocious
Unsociable she-dragon, what Chimaira
Though it breathe fire from its mouth, what Charybdis,
What three-headed Skylla, dog o' the sea,
Or hydra, sphynx, or raging lioness,
Or viper, or winged harpy (greedy race),
Could go beyond those most accursed harlots?
There is no monster greater. They alone
Surpass all other evils put together.
Further classic references to the Chimera myth can be fund at the site of the Perseus Project (Tuft University).
F. Inghirami, Monumenti Etruschi o di Etrusco
Nome (vol 2 p 379-384), 1824, (translated by Ugo Bardi). Being such the unlikelihood
of the monstrous Chimera and of the flying horse Pegasus as well, showing the
fabulous nature of the character of the narration, the ancient and the modern
wanted at the same time to retrace for which reasons and for what allusions such
a fable had been invented. Servius derives it from the Lycian story in
which there exists a volcano, that he believes representing the Chimera, while
on top of the mountain there are lions, at mid height there are pastures for goats,
and everywhere the mountain is full of snakes. Bellerophon made that mountain
practicable for which reason, according to Servius, it was said that he had killed
the Chimera
I do not deny that such
was the interpretation that could be promulgated to the people, to whom it was
the use to hide the true allegoric sense of fables, especially of astronomical
ones. I believe nevertheless that among those who made a special study of mystic
allegories, it was given to that fable a different interpretation. Indeed, if
that had had origin from the simple story of Bellerophon as a farmer of the above
mentioned Lycian mountain, what need would there have been to make it known under
a mysterious, unbelievable and strange aspect? If Bellerophon had been just an
illustrious homesteader who made a mountain habitable, before frequented only
by brutish creatures, should he just for that have temples and be adored as a
God? The whole Greece was made habitable and cultivated in ancient times, from
the savage state in which it was before. But where those primordial farmers all
deified? As far as I know, they were only those who, to such a benefit given to
humankind, added other ones of no lesser import, nor it was necessary to disguise
with strange fables their story, such as were, for instance Inachus and
Egialeus and other founders of kingdoms. [..]
It is believed that the Greeks, not even being able to find the etymology of the
name Bellerophon, had coined the story that he had killed a young man of Corynth,
named Bellerus, from which he was given the name of Bellerophon, that is killer
of Bellerus. But it is not believable that such a famous hero was to be generally
named from the only action of his life of which he had to repent.
I find an astronomical meaning not different than the usual. To this I am guided
principally by the mount he uses, while the mythographers mean that it was Pegasus,
winged horse of the constellations. If, then, the fable is sidereal from one side,
why - I say - could it not be for all the rest? The circumstance, neglected by
Biancani, but nevertheless noted by Homer, that the Chimera sprouts fire out of
the nostrils which were of the lion, makes us realize that we have here the sidereal
lion out of which there exhales the largest heat that is given to us to feel by
the summer rays of the sun, during the summer solstice.
The
image of the goat among the sidereal signs in spring is not new in the artistic
monuments. Much less it is the sidereal snake, showing the coming autumn. I therefore
stick to the opinion of Teones, who saw imagined in Bellerophon the celestial
charioteer, who keeps besides himself a goat, as the Chimera formed of the two
solstitial lions and the two principal plates of the equinoxes, the charioteer's
goat on a side, and the snake of the Serpent tamer on the other. He rides by the
will of Minerva on winged Pegasus in order to avoid danger in fighting the Chimera.
Thomas Bulfinch, Bulfinch's Mythology: The age of fable or stories of gods and heroes, 1855. MONSTERS, in the language of mythology, were beings of unnatural proportions or parts, usually regarded with terror, as possessing immense strength and ferocity, which they employed for the injury and annoyance of men. Some of them were supposed to combine the members of different animals; such were the Sphinx and Chimaera and to these all the terrible qualities of wild beasts were attributed, together with human sagacity and faculties. [..] The Chimaera was a fearful monster, breathing fire. The fore part of its body was a compound of the lion and the goat, and the hind part a dragon's. It made great havoc in Lycia, so that the king, Iobates, sought for some hero to destroy it. At that time there arrived at his court a gallant young warrior, whose name was Bellerophon. He brought letters from Proetus, the son-in-law of Iobates, recommending Bellerophon in the warmest terms as an unconquerable hero, but added at the close a request to his father-in-law to put him to death. The reason was that Proetus was jealous of him, suspecting that his wife Antea looked with too much admiration on the young warrior. From this instance of Bellerophon being unconsciously the bearer of his own death warrant, the expression "Bellerophontic letters" arose, to describe any species of communication which a person is made the bearer of, containing matter prejudicial to himself. Iobates, on perusing the letters, was puzzled what to do, not willing to violate the claims of hospitality, yet wishing to oblige his son-in-law. A lucky thought occurred to him, to send Bellerophon to combat with the Chimaera. Bellerophon accepted the proposal, but before proceeding to the combat consulted the soothsayer Polyidus, who advised him to procure if possible the horse Pegasus for the conflict. For this purpose he directed him to pass the night in the temple of Minerva. He did so, and as he slept Minerva came to him and gave him a golden bridle. When he awoke the bridle remained in his hand. Minerva also showed him Pegasus drinking at the well of Pirene, and at sight of the bridle the winged steed came willingly and suffered himself to be taken. Bellerophon mounted him, rose with him into the air, soon found the Chimaera, and gained an easy victory over the monster.
If were to relate the whole of Bellerophon's previous adventures, they might easily grow into a very long story. It will be quite enough to say, that, in a certain country of Asia, a terrible monster, called a Chimæra, had made its appearance, and was doing more mischief than could be talked about between now and sunset. According to the best accounts which I have been able to obtain, this Chimæra was nearly, if not quite, the ugliest and most poisonous creature, and the strangest and unaccountablest, and the hardest to fight with, and the most difficult to run away from, that ever came out of the earth's inside. It had a tail like a boa-constrictor; its body was like I do not care what; and it had three separate heads, one of which was a lion's, the second a goat's, and the third an abominably great snake's. And a hot blast of fire came flaming out of each of its three mouths! Being an earthly monster, I doubt whether it had any wings; but, wings or no, it ran like a goat and a lion, and wriggled along like a serpent, and thus contrived to make about as much speed as all the three together.
Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, Complete Guide to Heraldry, 1925. Chimera. - This legendary animal happily does not figure in English heraldry, and but rarely abroad. It is described as having the head and breast of a woman, the forepaws of a lion, the body of a goat, the hind legs of a griffin, and the tail of a dragon, and would be about as ugly and misbegotten a creature as can readily be imagined.
Robert Graves, The Greek Myths, revised edition 1960. Echidne's daughter, the Chimaera, who is depicted on a Hittite building at Carchemish, was a symbol of the Great Goddess's tripartite Sacred Year - lion for spring, goat for summer, serpent for winter. A damaged glass plaque found at Dendra near Mycenae shows a hero tussling with a lion, from the back of which emerges what appears to be a goat's head; the tail is long and serpentine. Since the plaque dates from a period when the goddess was still supreme, this icon - paralleled in an Etruscan Fresco at Tarquinia, though the hero here is mounted, like Bellerophon - must be read a s a king's coronation combat against men in beast disguise who represent the different seasons of the year. After the Achaean religious revolution which subordinated the goddess Hera to Zeus, the icon became ambivalent: it could also be read as recording the suppression by Hellenic invaders, of the ancient Carian calendar.
Robert Graves The white Goddess, 1961, p. 383. The story of how Bellerophon son of Poseidon mastered Pegasus and then destroyed the triple shaped Chimaera is really the story of an Achean capture of the Goddess' shrine. Pegasus, in fact, was originally called Aganippe. Aganos is a Homeric adjective applied to the shafts of Artemis and Apollo, meaning "giving a merciful death"; so Aganippe would mean "the Mare who destroys mercifully".
Robert Graves The white Goddess, 1961, p. 409... learn
to think mythically as well as rationally, and never be surprised at the weirdly
azoölogical beasts which walk in into the circle; they come to be questioned,
not to alarm.
If the visitant is
a Chimaera ("She-Goat") for example, the poet will recognize her by the lion-head,
goat-body and serpent-tail as a Carian Calendar beast - another form of the winged
goat, on which, according to Clement of Alexandria, Zeus flew up to Heaven. The
Chimera was a daughter of Typhon, the destructive storm god, and of Echidne, a
winter Snake-goddess; the Hittites borrowed her from the Carians and carved her
likeness on a temple at Carchemish on the Euphrates.
The
"Capra Ferrata" (the iron goat). A fascinating hypothesis put
forward by the anthropologist Alessandro Fornari in his book "Cartacanta",
(Firenze 1976). Is it possible that the myth of the Chimera has survived as an
oral tradition in Tuscany all the way from Etruscan times? It may be difficult
to believe, but the story of "Luigino" describes a monster in the form
of an "iron goat" that takes resindence in a Tuscan home in a way uncanny
rensembling the Sumerian story of Inanna ad the Anzu bird. Here are Fornari's
comments (translation from Italian by Ugo Bardi).
Of the capra ferrata
we know that it enters human homes; it is a creature opposite to domesticity and
enemy of human settlements. It sprouts fire from the mouth, has a tongue sharp
as a sword, and it is "iron". The mention of iron reminds us of ages
when metals, support of weapons of new invincibility, were a source of terror.
But the description of this sui generis goat is so precise that it reminds
to us a monster of Greek mythology against whom Bellerophon fought on his winged
horse Pegasus, with the help of Athena Calinea. It is the Chimera, three-shaped
monster according to Homer (in the fore part a lion, in the hinder a serpent,
and in the middle a goat), many times reproduced in ancient art in the
act of vomiting fire out of the three heads, or only from the goat one (Italic
and Attic ceramic). Near Arezzo it was excavated the famous Chimera of Arezzo,
in bronze. Already in ancient times the Chimera was considered an incarnation
of destructive physical forces (volcanoes or storms).
The astronomical interpretation of Stephen Wilk. Stephen Wilk, physicist and scholar of mythology has worked on the hidden meaning of the Perseus myth and brings forward here some interesting parallels with the myth of the Chimera. More can be found in Wilk's book "Medusa, solving the mystery of the Gorgon".
The myth of Perseus, Medua, and Andromeda has been asociated with the constellations of Perseus, Andromeda, Cetus, Cepheus, and Cassiopeia since at least the fifth century B.C.E. We know this because pseudo-Eratosthenes, the author of the Katasterismoi, states that the plays of Euripides and Sophocles make mention of this (in the modern world the film "Clash of the Titans" also depicts this association at the end. Screenwriter Beverley Cross was trained in the classics). I believe that the assciation goes back much farther than that.
One of the most striking features of the constellation of Perseus is its second brightest star, Algol (beta Persei). This star is an eclipsing Variable Star. Every 68 hours its intensity dims suddenly and drastically, as the darker companion moves between the brighter companion and the earth. "Suddenly" is a relative term -- the process of dimming actually takes about 6 hours. It is still very dramatic, and clearly visibe with the unaided eye. This phenomenon was first discovered by Gemiano Montanar of Florence in the 17th century, and the period measured a hundred years later by three men simultaneously -- John Goodricke, Edward Pigott, and Johann Georg Palitzsch. Goodricke -- a deaf mute in his teens -- went on to discoveer the variable star delta Cephei, the prototype of the Ceheid variable stars. These are amng the most important of variable stars. They are short period variables (their periods last from a few hours to several days). Their vaeiability is not the result of eclipsing, but of internal processes. In the case of Cepheids -- which are by far the most numerous type of variable stars -- the period is proprtional to the intrinsic brightness, which allows astronomers to use them as "cosmic yardsticks". The variation of delta Cephei is also visible to the naked eye. Shortly after discovering this, Goodricke died of pneumonia.
Algol and delta Cephei were not the first variabe stars to be discovered. That honor is usually attributed to Mira (omicron Ceti), whose disappearance was first noted by David Fabricius in 1596. Its variability was confirmed about thirty years later.Mira is also a naked-eye variable star. It is a red supergiant star that varies due to internal processes, but much more slowly (and by a different mechanism) than delta Cephei. Its period is about 11 months. Its color is a distinct reddish.
Notice the names of the constellations in which these variabe stars appear -- Perseus, Cepheus, and Cetus. It is very odd, is it not, that these stars are in three of the constellations associated with the myth of Perseus? Prompted by this, I looked at the other constellations, and found that the central star in the "W" of Cassiopeia is also a variable star, whose variation is discernable by the naked eye. Gamma Cassiopeia is an eruptive variable. Athough its variability was suspected in the 1830s, it was not confirmed until a century later. There are variable stars in Pegasus and Andromeda, but they are not particularly significant. I note that noticeable variable stars occur in constellation that represent the enemies of Perseus (taking Algol to represent the Head of Medusa -- an interpretation I defend in my book). Not only that, these variable strs are so bright and noticeable that they are the first of heir type to be discovered, and have given their names to their classes of stars -- Eclipsing variables of this type are called Algols, or Algol stars. delta Cephei has given the name to the Cepheid variables, and long period supergiant variables are called Miras. Eruptive variable stars are cacophonically called "gamma Cassiopeia stars".
There is no ancient text that explicitly talks about variable stars. There are possibilities in ancient Chinese, Babylonian, and Indian records. I have examined all of these and find them profoundly --- ambiguous. They cannot, I think, be used to establish a case for ancient knowledge of variable stars. But the gathering of all these constellations having variable stars into a single myth provides, I believe, convincing indiect evidence for that knowledge.
Furthermore, I believe that the variability itself contributes to the myths themselves -- the three-day period of Algol explains why there are three gorgons, and why two are immortal, and one mortal -- the two immortal gorgons are the two days for which Algol remains bright. The mortal gorgon Medusa is the third day, when the star "goes out". That represents Perseus cutting off her head and placing it in his magic Kibisis.The same phenomenon explains why there are three Graia, and why Perseus steals their eye -- he plucks it away as it is passed from one to another. The two myths represent, I think, sight variations in the story -- in one, Perseus originally had to kill a gorgon, in the other, his task was to obtain the Eye of the Graiae. The two versions were conflated into a single myth. This explains why the Gorgons and the Graae are two sets of monster triplets with the same parents. And who is their mother? Cetus -- represented by the constellation containing Mira! Cetus is also the name of the monster Perseus kills in rescuing Andromeda. These links between the constellations conaining two of the most dramatic variable stars in the sky are truly impressive. I note that Cetus is the constellation furthest from the others in the mythic group. It has to be "dragged across" the zodiac, and the consellation of Aries to join the others. It would take a powerful reason to cause that sort of dislocation, such as the desire to associate constellations with such impressive stars.
Not only do we get to see Perseus steal the Eye of the Graiae, we aso get to see him throw it away (as Apollodorus tells us). Every August the most impressive meteor display in the sky occurs. The Perseid meteorite shower is so called because the Radiant of the display is in the constellation of Perseus. Furthermore, it moves through the sky. At the peak of the meteor shower the radiant is in or near the region designated by Claudius Ptolemy as the hand of Perseus. That doesn't seem to be a coincidence, either.
What does this have to do with the Chimaera? Well, I note that the myth of Perseus and Andromeda has a parallel in Greek Myth -- the story of Hercules and Hesione. The similarity of the myths is so close that it is almost plagiarism -- Hercules rescues the maiden Hesione, who has been chained to the rocks as a sacrifice to the sea monster Cetus, just as Perseus rescues Andromeda from Cetus. The rest of their myths are extemely similar, as well. I believe that both myths were inspired by the constellations, with their variable stars. I note that Perseus was the hero of Argos, while Hercules (Perseus' descendant, by the way) was the hero of nearby Tiryns.
There is one other parallel -- the myth of Bellerophon. Bellerophon, too, was sent on an impossble mission -- to kill the Chimaera. He rides the winged steed Pegasus, receiving magical aid (as Perseus and Hercules received in their battles with Cetus) from Athena. He, too, eventually rescues and marries a princess, and, like Perseus and Hercules, meets resistance from her parents. In this interpretation, the constellation Perseus is Bellerophon, and the constellation Cetus is the Chimaera. How did Bellerophon kill the Chimaera? Riding on Pegasus, he peppered the monster with arrows ("darts"), then finally thrust a lump of lead into its mouth, which melted from the fiery breath, killing it. The arrows are, I contend, the Perseid meteorites. One interpretation of the named Bellerophon" is that it derives from Greek for "dart thrower", which would be very appropriate (far more so than "killer of Bellerus", especially since Bellerus is nowhere else mentioned). The lump of molten lead is the star Mira, which turns bright red in the belly of the beast once a year.
Finally, I note that the constellation of Aries, the ram, is right above that of Cetus. Here, I suspect, is here that outre image of a monster with a goat's head on its back comes from. There is much more an this to my astronomical nterpretation (and a great deal more to my theory of the myth of Medusa -- this barely scratches the surface), but this is the essence of my speculation about the theory of Bellerophon and the Chimaera. Bellerophon is, I note, the hero of Corinth. Corinth, Argos, and Tiryns are not far from each other. In fact, all are connected in the myths of Perseus, Hercules, and Bellerophon. I suspect an original myth became associated with each city's hero, and acquired ts unique monsters and characteristics in each city. When the myths were gathered together by Apollodorus, Ovid, and others, it had long been forgotten that they sprang from a single root.
Jeorge Luis Borges in "El aleph" (1946). In his short story "El immortal" (the immortal) Borges writes this passage in his usual splendid prose. It is not written as related to the Chimera, but it may apply to the myth nevertheless (translation by Ugo Bardi). I don't want to describe it: a chaos of heterogeneous words, a body of tiger of of bull in which teeth, organs, and heads monstruosly swarm, joining and hating each other, can (at times) be approximate images of it.
Jorge Luis Borges with Margarita Guerro, The
Book of Imaginary Beings, revised, enlarged, and translated by Norman Thomas di
Giovanni and Ryan Stansifer. E. P. Button, New York, 1969, pages 62-63. The
first mention we have of the Chimera is in Book VI of the Iliad. There Homer writes
that it came of divine stock and was a lion in its foreparts, a goat in the middle,
and a serpent in its hindparts, and that from its mouth it vomited flames, and
finally was killed by the handsome Bellerophon, the son of Glaucus, following
the signs of the gods. A lion's head, goat's belly, and serpent's tail is the
most obvious image conveyed by Homer's words, but Hersiod's Theogony describes
the Chimera as having three heads, and this is the way it is depicted in the famous
Arezzo bronze that dates from the fifth century. Springing from the middle of
the animal's back is the head of a goat, while at one end it has a snake's head
and at the other a lion's.
The Chimera reappears in the sixth book of the Aeneid, "armed with flame"; Virgil's
commentator Servius Honoratus observed that, according to all authorities, the
monster was native to Lycia, where there was a volcano bearing its name. The base
of this mountain was infested with serpents, higher up on its flanks were meadows
and goats, and toward its desolate top, which belched out flames, a pride of lions
had its resort. The Chimera would seem to be a metaphor of this strange elevation.
Earlier, Plutarch suggested that Chimera was the name of a pirate captain who
adorned his ship with the images of a lion, a goat, and a snake.
The absurd hypotheses are proof that the Chimera was beginning to bore people.
Easier than imagining it was to translate it into something else. As a beast it
was too heterogeneous; the lion, goat, and snake (in some texts, dragon) did not
readily make up a single animal. With time the Chimera tended to become "chimerical";
a celebrated joke of Rabalais' ("Can a chimera, swinging in the void, swallow
second intentions?") clearly marks the transition. The patchwork image disappeared
by the word remained, signifying the impossible. A vain or foolish fancy is the
definition of Chimera that we now find in dictionaries.
Gary
Gygax, Monster Manual for D&D, ed. 1978. The chimera combines features
of three creatures in a monstrous manner. Its hind quarters are those of a huge
goat, its foreparts are those of a lion, its body sports dragon wings, and it
has three large heads. It can claw with its fore legs, its goat head is armed
with two long horns, its lion head has powerful jaws and sharp teeth, and its
dragon head is likewise equipped.If a chimera desires (50% chance) its dragon
head can breathe fire with a range of 5" and causing 3-24 points damage (saving
throw applicable). Chimerae speak a very limited form of red dragon language.
Description: The goatish body part
are black with amber eyes and yellowish horns. The lion-like parts are tawny yellow
with a dark brown mane, green eyes. and red maw. The dragon wings are brownish-black,
the dragon head orange, and the eyes and the mouth black.
John Barth "Chimera", New York 1972. A modern revisitation of ancient myths and stories by novelist John Barth. It includes a section on Sheherazade's story, one on Perseus, and one on Bellerophon, and his nemesis: the Chimera. Thus Begins, so help me Muse, the tidewater tale of twin Bellerophon, mythic hero, cousin to constellated Perseus: how he flew and reflew Pegasus the winged horse, dealt double death to the three part freak Chimera; twice loved, twice lost, twice aspired to, reached and died to immortality - in short how he rode the heroic cycle and was recyled.
Evan Morris "The word detective"1996. The original "Chimera" of Greek mythology (pronounced "kih-MEE-ra," by the way, although the adjective form is pronounced "kih-MER-ih-cal") was no dainty daydream, but a fire-breathing female monster, with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the hindquarters of a dragon. The fearsome Chimera may, of course, have merely been a product of a substandard family environment -- her father was the giant Typhon, her mother the half-serpent Echidna. Her siblings were none other than Cerebrus (the three- headed hound who eventually found work guarding the gates of Hell), Hydra (a nine-headed aquatic monster) and Orthrus (the runt of the litter, a prosaic two-headed dog). To cut a long myth very short, Chimera swooped around making everyone thoroughly miserable until one day a chap named Bellerophon, riding the winged horse Pegasus, cancelled her account.
Bernard Evslin "The Chimaera", New York and Philadelphia 1988. There, hanging before him, was a grinning lion larger than an elephant - sulfur yellow, snarling, with claws poised. A winged lion with the body of a goat, but, most horrible, the tail of a serpent. When the beast curled its tail, a serpent's head appeared beside the lion head, both glaring at the tiny foolish midget of a mortal who dared to mount a horsefly and come monster hunting.
Barry D. Kahan; From the Presindent's Columns of the first issue of "The Chimera, a journal dedicated to transplant surgery , August 1989, p. 1 (this piece was contributed by Richard Mason). There are many interpretations of the symbolism of the Chimera. One interesting interpretation pits Bellerophon, the father of the line of Lycian princes, agaisnt a thoroughly non-Greek oriental style monster.Not only does this show racial xenophobia, but also conquest of the supernatural. In the language of mythology, monsters were beings of unnatural proportion or parts possessing immense strength and ferocity employed for the injury and annoyance of man, particularly as executioners or infernal judges. Freudians claim the swoop of Bellerophon upon the Chimera denotes sexual conquest. The Chimera is the calendar symbol of the tripartite year: lion for spring, goat for summer, and serpent for winter. Probably the best known use of the word Chimera is to denote a figment of the imagination or a fantastic idea. And what is a more fantastic idea than clinical transplantation, particularly in its multiple manifestations of our present armamentarium? Thus, the Chimera as the logo of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons not only embodies the substance (multiple diverse body parts) but also the spirit of our specialty. This newsletter seeks to embody this substance and spirit
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