An imaginary fire-breathing monster of great swiftness and strength,
invented by the ancient Greek poets. Though mentioned by heraldic
authorities, it is not met with in British coat armour; it is described as
having the head, mane and legs of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail
of a dragon. From this creature the term "chimerical" is applied to all
such figures as have no other existence but in the imagination. It is
represented upon the coins of Sycion during the Achæan League.
[Illustration: Chimera, from a Greek coin.]
The origin of the story of the chimera is ascribed to a mountain in Lycia
which had a volcano on its top and nourished lions; the middle part
afforded pasture for goats, and the bottom was infested with serpents;
according to Hesiod it had three heads, that of a lion, a goat, and a
dragon. Bellerophon destroyed the monster by raising himself in the air on
his winged steed Pegasus, and shooting it with his arrows.
"Amid the troops, and like the leading god,
High o'er the rest in arms the graceful Turnus rode;
A triple pile of plumes his crest adorned,
On which with belching flames chimera burned:
The more the kindled combat rises higher,
The more with fury burns the blazing fire."
VIRGIL, _Æneid_, Book vii.
Phillip II. of Spain, after his marriage with Queen Mary of England,
assumed as a device, Bellerophon fighting with the chimera, and the motto,
"Hinc vigilo," the monster being intended by him for a type of England's
heresies which he waited his time to destroy.
The family of _Fada_ of Verona have for arms: Gules a winged chimera
argent, the head and breasts carnation (or proper), and the wings and feet
of an eagle. The illustration, however, has the head and breasts of a
woman, and eagle's wings and feet, and makes it a different creature
entirely, and should more properly be blazoned _harpy_.