The New Student's Reference Work/Chimera

Chimera (kĭ-mē′ rȧ). A chimera is a monstrous or vain fancy. The chimera of mythology was a monster, its front like to a lion, behind a serpent, and in the midst of it a goat. This fire-breathing monster was slain by Bellerophon. It is thought to have stood for a volcano, on whose crags were lions and on its rocky sides goats; while at its foot would dwell the serpents of the marshes. Bellerophon, then, would have subdued it by making his home upon its forbidding slopes. Hesiod gave the chimera the heads of a serpent, a lion and a goat. There is a family of shark-like fishes now known to scientists as Chimœra.