Encyclopædia Britannica, First Edition/Chimera

CHIMERA, a fabulous monster, which the poets feign to have the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a dragon; and add, that this odd beast was killed by Bellerophon. The foundation of the fable was, that in Lycia there was a burning mountain, or vulcano, of this name; that the top of this mountain was seldom without lions, nor the middle, which had very good grass, without goats; that serpents bred at the bottom, which was marshy; and that Bellerophon rendered the mountain habitable.

By a chimera, among the philosophers, is understood a mere creature of the imagination, composed of such contradictions and absurdities as cannot possibly any where exist but in thought.