An autonomous tradition, one that did not rely on the written word, was represented in the visual repertory of the Greek vase-painters. ![]() The Chimera was situated in foreign Lycia, but her representation in the arts was wholly Greek. The Chimera is generally considered to have been female (see the quotation from Hesiod above) despite the mane adorning her head, the inclusion of a close mane was often depicted on lionesses, but the ears were always visible (that does not occur with depictions of male lions). ![]() Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay.' The author of the Bibliotheca concurs: descriptions agree that she breathed fire. Hesiod's Theogony follows the Homeric description: he makes the Chimera the issue of Echidna: 'She was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion in her hinderpart, a dragon and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. ![]() Homer's brief description in the Iliad is the earliest surviving literary reference: '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.' Elsewhere in the Iliad, Homer attributes the rearing of Chimera to Amisodorus.
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