“The Chi­maera – some­times called Chimera -​ is one of the most an­cient myths of Mediter­ranean lore. Its ori­gins go back to a re­mote age when the pow­er of thun­der and light­ning was seen as a liv­ing crea­ture, the storm beast. It was de­pict­ed as winged li­on; its roar was the ori­gin of thun­der, its mouth gen­er­at­ed light­ning, by spray­ing out fire and the fer­til­iz­ing pow­er of wa­ter. This storm li­on was strict­ly as­so­ci­at­ed with the moth­er god­dess, called Inan­na, both sym­bols of fer­til­i­ty. We don't know ex­act­ly how the beast was called in these an­cient times, al­though it maybe that the world “Chimera” comes from a term mean­ing “the wrath of the God­dess” in the Ac­ca­di­an lan­guage.
With time, the myth evolved and changed in name and mean­ing. The an­cient moth­er god­dess ceased to be the Queen of all Gods, and her place was tak­en by male deities. Her sa­cred beast wasn't seen any more as a giv­er of fer­til­iz­ing rain, but its fiery, ig­neous char­ac­ter was em­pha­sized. It was at that time that the Chimera lost her wings; her abil­i­ty to fly and her link to the sky. In place of the wings, there ap­peared the head of a low­ly “young she-​goat” (ki­maira in clas­sic Greek). The Chimera be­came an evil mon­ster, to be slain by a shin­ing hero: Bellerophon, who used his winged steed, Pe­ga­sus, to fly safe­ly above the beast, killing her from above.
In this form, the myth has been trans­mit­ted to us. The un­can­ny shape of the crea­ture, the mys­tery about her ori­gin, the puz­zling as­pects of her sto­ry, all have cre­at­ed the widespread con­cept that “Chimera” stands for some­thing im­pos­si­ble, un­re­al, and non-​ex­ist­ing. But the myth is still alive and chang­ing in the minds of men. The storm beast is not dead; she is the thun­der of hur­ri­canes, the fire of vol­ca­noes, the breath and the roar of a whole liv­ing plan­et.”