Bismillah: chimera part 1

THE KHIMAIRA (or Chimera) was a monstrous beast which ravaged the countryside of Lykia in Anatolia. It was a composite creature, with the body and maned head of a lion, a goat's head rising from its back, a set of goat-udders, and a serpentine tail.
The hero Bellerophon was commanded to slay it by King Iobates. He rode into battle against the beast on the back of the winged horse Pegasos and, driving a lead-tipped lance down the Khimaira's flaming throat, suffocated it.
The Khimaira may have once been identified with the winter-rising Constellation Capricorn (the serpent-tailed goat). The constellation Pegasos appears to drive her from the heavens in spring.
Late classical writers represent the beast as a metaphor for a Lycian volcano.

PARENTS

TYPHOEUS & EKHIDNA (Hesiod Theogony 319, Homeric Hymn 3.356, Apollodorus 2.32 & Hyginus Pref & Fabulae 151)

OFFSPRING

SPHINX, NEMEIAN LION (by Orthos) (Hesiod Theogony 327)

ENCYCLOPEDIA

CHIMAERA (Chimaira), 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. (Hom. Il. vi. 180, xvi. 328 ; comp. Ov. Met. ix. 646.) According to Hesiod (Theog. 319, &c.), she was a daughter of Typhaon and Echidna, and had three heads, one of each of the three animals before mentioned, whence she is called trikephalos or trisômatos. (Eustath. ad Hom. p. 634; Eurip. Ion, 203, &c.; Apollod. i. 9. § 3, ii. 3. § 1.) She was killed by Bellerophon, and Virgil (Aen. vi. 288) 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 (Plin. H. N. ii. 106, v. 27; Mela. i. 15), or in the volcanic valley near the Cragus (Strab. xiv. p. 665, &c.), 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.
Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

Homer, Iliad 6. 179 ff (trans. Lattimore) (Greek epic C8th B.C.) :
"First he [Iobates] sent him [Bellerophon] away with orders to kill the Khimaira (Chimera) none might approach; a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire. He killed the Khimaira, obeying the portents of the immortals."
Homer, Iliad 16. 328 ff :
"Amisodaros, the one who had nourished the furious Khimaira (Chimera) to be an evil to many."
Hesiod, Theogony 319 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"She [Ekhidna] bore the Khimaira (Chimera), who snorted raging fire, a beast great and terrible, and strong and swift-footed. Her heads were three: one was that of a glare-eyed lion, one of a goat, and the third of a snake, a powerful drakon. But Khimaira (Chimera) was killed by Pegasos and gallant Bellerophon. But she also, in love with Orthos, mothered the deadly Sphinx . . . and the Nemeian Lion."
Hesiod, Catalogues of Women Fragment 7 (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C8th or C7th B.C.) :
"With him [Pegasos] Bellerophon caught and slew the fire-breathing Khimaira (Chimera)."
Homeric Hymn 3 to Apollo 356 ff (trans. Evelyn-White) (Greek epic C7th - 4th B.C.) :
"Phoibos Apollon boasted over her [the Drakaina Python]: ‘. . . Against cruel death neither Typhoeus [i.e. her consort] shall avail you nor ill-famed Khimaira (Chimera) [.e. her child], but here, shall the Earth and shining Hyperion [the Sun] make you rot (pytho).’"
Pindar, Olympian Ode 13 ep 4 (trans. Conway) (Greek lyric C5th B.C.) :
"And [Bellerophon] felled Khimaira (Chimera) breathing fire."
Plato, Republic 588c (trans. Shorey) (Greek philosopher C4th B.C.) :
"One of those natures that the ancient fables tell of, as that of the Khimaira (Chimera) or Skylla or Kerberos (Cerberus), and the numerous other examples that are told of many forms grown together in one."