The Chimera by Jorge Luis Borges

The first mention we have of the Chimera is in Book VI of the Iliad. There Homer writes that it came of divine stock and was a lion in its foreparts, a goat in the middle, and a serpent in its hindparts, and that from its mouth it vomited flames, and finally was killed by the handsome Bellerophon, the son of Glaucus, following the signs of the gods. A lion's head, goat's belly, and serpent's tail is the most obvious image conveyed by Homer's words, but Hesiod's Theogony describes the Chimera as having three heads, and this is the way it is depicted in the famous Arezzo bronze that dates from the fifth century. Springing from the middle of the animal's back is the head of a goat, while at one end it has a snake's head and at the other a lion's.

The Chimera reappears in the sixth book of the Aeneid, ‘armed with flame'; Virgil's commentator Servius Honoratus observed that, according to all authorities, the monster was native to Lycia, where there was a volcano bearing its name. The base of this mountain was infested with serpents, higher up on its flanks were meadows and goats, and towards its desolate top, which belched out flames, a pride of lions had its resort. The Chimera would seem to be a metaphor of this strange elevation. Earlier, Plutarch suggested that Chimera was the name of a pirate captain who adorned his ships with the images of a lion, a goat, and a snake.