Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Chimæra

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CHIMÆRA, in Grecian fable, a monster resembling a lion in the fore part, a goat in the middle, and a dragon behind, and having three heads corresponding to the three parts of her body. Each mouth breathed forth fire, and she committed great ravages throughout Caria and Lycia, till she was overthrown by Bellerophon, mounted on the winged horse Pegasus. Some have supposed that the myth owed its origin to the volcanic mountain Chimæra, in Lycia, where works have been found containing representations of the lion. In modern art, the Chimæra is usually represented as a lion, out of the back of which grow the neck and head of a goat. As a general term chimæra signifies any fiction of the imagination made up of incongruous elements, or, generally, any fantastic idea or impracticable scheme of action.