Chimera (mythology) the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay." The author of the "Bibliotheca" concurs: descriptions agree that she breathed fire. The Chimera is generally considered to have been female (see the quotation from Hesiod above) despite the mane adorning her head, the inclusion of a close mane often was depicted on lionesses, but the ears always were visible
Chimera (mythology) in "Inferno" xvii.7–17, 25–27, hybrid monsters, more akin to the Manticore of Pliny's Natural History (viii.90), provided iconic representations of hypocrisy and fraud well into the seventeenth century, through an emblematic representation in Cesare Ripa's "Iconologia". The myths of the Chimera may be found in the "Bibliotheca" of Pseudo-Apollodorus (book 1), the "Iliad" (book 16) by Homer, the "Fabulae" 57 and 151 by Hyginus, the "Metamorphoses" (book VI 339 by Ovid; IX 648), and the "Theogony" 319ff by Hesiod. Virgil, in the "Aeneid" (book 5) employs "Chimaera" for the name of gigantic ship of Gyas in the ship-race, with possible