The Chimaera


Aldrovandus gives us the accompanying illustration of a Chimaera, a

fabulous Classical monster, said to possess three heads, those of a

lion, a goat, and a dragon. It used so to be pictorially treated, but in

more modern times as Aldrovandus represents. The mountain Chimaera, now

called Yanar, is in ancient Lycia, in Asia Minor, and was a burning

mountain, which, according to Spratt, is caused by a stream of

inflammable gas, issuing from a crevice. This monster is easily

explained, if we can believe Servius, the Commentator of Virgil, who

says that flames issue from the top of the mountain, and that there are

lions in the vicinity; the middle part abounds in goats, and the lower

part with serpents.



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