chimera (noun) –
1 a capitalized : a fire-breathing she-monster in Greek mythology having a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a serpent’s tail
b : an imaginary monster compounded of incongruous parts
2 : an illusion or fabrication of the mind
3 : an individual, organ, or part consisting of tissues of diverse genetic constitution – a hybrid created through fusion of a sperm and an egg from different species is a chimera.
Source : Merriam -Webster
Etymology : In Greek mythology, the Chimera was a fearsome, fire-breathing monster with a lion’s head, a goat’s body, and a dragon’s tail. She terrorized the people of Lycia until their king, Lobates, asked the hero Bellerophon to slay her. Lobates had an ulterior motive; his son-in-law wanted Bellerophon killed and the king was sure the Chimera would do the job. But Bellerophon called in Pegasus, the winged horse, and brought the Chimera down from above. The beast lived on in people’s imaginations, and English speakers adopted her name for any similarly grotesque monster, or, later, for anything fanciful.
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