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CHIMERA GREEK MYTHOLOGY LICENSE

The most famous sphinx, however, is the one that blocked Oedipus’s way and demanded an answer to the following riddle: “What creature walks upon four feet in the morning, upon two feet at noon and upon three in the evening?” The creature threatened Oedipus with death unless he was able to provide the correct answer. Sphinxes in the ancient Greek tradition were gatekeepers and often depicted above tombs. The sphinx is a monster that was said to have the head of a woman, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle.

CHIMERA GREEK MYTHOLOGY LICENSE

As with Myths and Folklore Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported).Although the Sphinx is most closely associated with ancient Egypt, this mythical beast was also famous in the ancient Greek world. The original article was at Chimera ( view authors).

" Chimera" is also the term used to refer to a creature or being with both physical and mental characteristics or traits from various other creatures.

In genetics, a " chimera" is an organism with genetically distinct cells originating from two zygotes.

A vain, foolish, or incongruous fancy, or creature of the imagination, as in: "The chimera of an author.".

The origin of the notion of this fire-breathing nature of the Chimera must probably come from the volcano named Chimera near Phaselis, in Lycia, or it may have originated on the volcanic valley near the Cragus, which is mentioned as the scene of the events connected with the Chimera. It is possible that the myth could have been inspired by permanent gas vents along the Lycian Way in southwest Turkey. However, there are a myriad of other hybrid beasts that are not considered chimeras. Western scholars of Chinese art use the word "chimera" to refer to winged quadrupeds such as the Bixie, Tianlu and the Qilin. According to Homeric poems, the Chimera was of divine origin. Other legends attribute the Nemean Lion to be the offspring of the Chimera rather than her brother. As such, it is the sister of Cerberus, Orthrus, the Nemean Lion, the Lernaean Hydra, Scylla, and many other monsters. It was was one of the offspring of the monster Typhon and his niece, the Drakaina Echidna. She does not typically have the power of flight, a weakness which is exploited by Bellerophon on his flying steed, Pegasus.

Typically, the Chimera is portrayed with the body and head of a male lion, the head and body of a lion, with the head of a goat arising from its back, and a tail that might end with a snake head.

The fire-breathing monster melted the lead with its breath and the molten lead flowed down its throat and eventually killed it. He rode into battle on the back of the winged horse, Pegasus.īellerophon fought defeated the Chimera by placing a lump of lead on his spear and holding it in front of its mouth. The Chimera was rampaging in the area, and so King Iobates commanded the Greek hero Bellerophon to slay the Chimera.