What we learned about this week: The Chimera!

© Holly DeWolf- Chimera with flair! 

What do you get when you cross a lion with a goat and a snake? 


This week, the girls chose to learn about a Greek fused mythological animal called a Chimera. I should have remembered this from art history class. I'll blame it on the early 8:45 am class and not having enough coffee in my system.

Moving on...

The Chimera is a combination of a lion, goat and a snake. According to Homer's description in the Iliad,  "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire." The term chimera has now come to mean any mythical or fictional animal with parts taken from various animals, or to describe anything composed of many parts, or seen as wildly imaginative or implausible. So does that make a platypus one as well? Interesting! 

Chimera's in popular culture:

• Chimeras were mentioned in the Harry Potter books. In "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," and in the Deathly Hallows," the  Elphias Doge is said to have encountered Chimeras in Greece.

• The Chimera was featured as a story element in "Tomb Of Dracula"

• In the roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons, the chimera is an creature which looks like a lion with leathery wings on its back. 

•  In the RPG World of Warcraft,  The Chimaera is seen as a creature with a winged lion body, two dragon heads with goat horns and two tails that seem to have scorpion type stingers on them.

•  The Godzilla Power Hour, Godzilla fought a chimera.

• In The X-Files, there is an episode titled 'Chimera', which takes place in Vermont.

• Since Chimera seem to be a mix of a bunch of animals,  here is Hollywood Hybrids: The Best Chimeras on the Big (and Small) Screens. 

Top: Reagen's Chimera. Bottom: Hannah's Chimera.