CHIMÆRA, a port town of Turkey in Europe, situated at the entrance of the gulf of Venice, in the province of Epirus, about 32 miles north of the city of Corfu, near which are the mountains of Chimæra, which divide Epirus from Thessaly. E. Long. 20° 40'. N. Lat. 40° 20'.

CHIMÆRA, in fabulous history, a celebrated monster, sprung from Echidna and Typhon. It had three heads; that of a lion, a goat, and a dragon; and continually vomited flames. The forc parts of its body were those of a lion, the middle was that of a goat, and the hinder parts were those of a dragon. It generally lived in Lycia, about the reign of Jobates, by whose orders Bellerophon, mounted on the horse Pegasus, overcame it. This fabulous tradition is explained by the recollection that there was a burning mountain in Lycia, whose top was the resort of lions on account of its defoliate wilderness; the middle which was fruitful, was covered with goats; and at the bottom the marshy ground abounded with serpents. Bellerophon is said to have conquered the Chimæra, because he destroyed the wild beasts on that mountain, and rendered it habitable. Plutarch says that it was the captain of some pirates who adorned their ships with the images of a lion, a goat, and a dragon.

By a chimæra among the philosophers, is understood