The Chimaera

Book excerpt: The ancient Greeks believed monsters lurked on land, underwater, in the sky, and below Earth’s surface in the Underworld. Many tales tell of the Greek heroes who faced them. Plays, poems, paintings, and sculptures commemorating these tales have survived for centuries—and artists in all genres include them in their works. One of ancient mythology’s most horrible monsters was a fire-breathing lion with a snake for a tail and a goat’s head rising from the middle of her back. The Chimaera wreaked havoc in her native land by snatching up and eating livestock and people. It wasn’t until a young warrior named Bellerophon tamed another creature born from a monster—a huge flying horse—that this three-headed beast could be stopped. Read a version of the Chimaera myth, and learn a little about how this wild and unlikely story might have come to be.