Mythological Creatures: Chimeras

Magical creatures are some of my favorite things, probably because I love animals and creativity, and mythological beasts are the perfect blend of those two things.

Speaking of blends, the animal I’ll be introducing you to today is the Chimera.

Chimera is from Greek Mythology and is described as having the head and forelegs of a lion, the hind legs of a dragon or goat, and a snake for a tail. Chimera has three heads, the lion head, the snake head, and coming right up from the middle of Chimera’s back is the head of a goat.

So sharp teeth on the lion end and a venomous bite on the other end. But if you think the goat head is nothing to be worried about, let me stop that train of thought. This goat head breathes fire. Yep. Fire-breathing goat. Just stop and think about that for a second.

As you can imagine, Chimera was notoriously hard to kill because with three heads, it can see its enemies coming from every direction. And there’s the teeth and the snake and fire, yeah, really hard to get the jump on an animal like that.

It was said that Chimera was killed by Bellerophon who mounted Pegasus, who could fly, and attacked Chimera from the air. His lead spear impaled the goat’s throat and the fire melted the metal. Poor Chimera choked to death. But her legend lives on, of course.

So I thought it would be fun, for all of you out there who are now convinced that Chimera is your favorite mythological beast of all time, to see how one would stack up as, oh, say a pet.

Shall we?

Protection Ability: Chimera has a first rate alarm system. No need for cameras, it can watch everything all at once. And it’s bark—er roar, hiss and … bleat?—is far less scary than its multiple bites.

I’ll rate that 5 out of 5 claws.

 

Cuddling: Well, there are horns and scales and so many teeth, not to mention the fire. I imagine the snake is good to curl up … around you. And I figure Chimera is good at warming you up if you can get close enough to cuddle, but no one can.

1 out of 5 claws.

 

Good with children: It finds them tasty. So left in a room with children, it would be fairly happy. The children, however, would not be.

0 claws.

 

Exercise needs: Well, dragons like to lie around a lot and so do lions, so Chimera only expends energy when needed. But when they feel threatened (which is basically all the time) they expend more energy. I’d say as long as they’re in a well-populated area, they can pretty much exercise themselves.

3 claws.

 

Trainability: If you’re a lion tamer and a snake charmer, you might stand a chance. But seriously, do goats take direction from anyone?

2 out of 5 claws.

 

Nutrition Needs: With the appetite of a goat, and three mouths to feed, Chimera is going to want to eat all the time. And will pretty much demolish everything.

1 claw.

 

If Chimera isn’t for you, maybe stick to a goat, a snake, or a cat with a lion heart. Or, hey, one of each.

Books in which Chimera may be found:

~Homer’s Iliad

~Dante’s Inferno

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S.D. Grimm loves reading and writing all types of speculative fiction, especially YA fantasy. Scarlet Moon, the first book in her YA fantasy series Children of the Blood Moon will be released in October 2016 from Enclave Publishing. She’s an editor at heart and does freelance work in addition to editing for Splickety Publishing Group. When she’s not reading, writing, or editing, she enjoys making clay creatures for her Etsy shop, Grimmlies, listening to loud music, Netflix binging, and anything outdoorsy. Her office is anywhere she can curl up with her laptop and at least one large-sized dog.