Chimera in popular culture

Chimeras were featured in various popular cultures with each one having a different description:

Television

  • In Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Goatan was a Chimera monster with a lion head and torso, a goat head on the chest and goat legs, and a snake-like tail.
  • Chimeras were featured in the manga and anime versions of Fullmetal Alchemist as the result of a specific alchemy spell. Though some of them are a fusion of two animals, there are some that are a fusion of a human and an animal.
  • In Power Rangers: Mystic Force, Imperious CREATES a Chimera by fusing the spirits of the monsters that Leanbow had slain. It has three heads (a normal head with a bat face on the top, a chameleon woman head, and a bull head), a lobster-like face on the neck, a lion-like face On It's chest, a moustached-crocodile head for a right hand, the left arm of the monster from "Broken Spell," the feathers of Screamer, and the feet of Clawbster.
  • CSI has also used a Chimera in one of the story lines for the show.

Video Games

  • In the video game series Golden Sun, the Chimera appears numerous times. First as a pair of bosses on Crossbone Isle, then as a normal enemy under the names Chimera Mage. In Golden Sun: The Lost Age, the stronger Grand Chimera was a boss. All forms are Mars(Fire) creatures, and have a goat's body, a snake for a tail, and the head of a lion and an eagle instead of knees on their forelegs.
  • Chimeras appear as random creatures in the Final Fantasy series with various descriptions for each one:
    • In the original Final Fantasy, up to four could be encountered at once. It is shown to have three heads (a lion head, a goat head, a dragon head), the wings of a dragon, and the body of a goat.
    • In Final Fantasy II, a Chimera serves as a boss and later appears as a random creature encounter. It is shown to have three heads (a lion head, a goat head, and a dragon head), the wings of a dragon, and the body of a lion.
    • In Final Fantasy III, a Chimera appears as a random encounter in the skies of the surface world.
    • In the game Final Fantasy IV, Chimera are also random creature encounters in the Tower of Babil. They have three heads (a lion head, a goat head, and a dragon head) and the body of a goat. It attacks with Blaze.
    • In Final Fantasy V, the Dhorme Chimera is a randomly-encountered enemy. Not only does it have the heads of a lion, goat, and dragon, it has the front legs of a lion, the wings of a dragon, the back legs of a goat, and a snake-headed tail.
    • In Final Fantasy VI, the Chimera is shown to have 5 heads (a lion head, a goat head, a dragon head, an eagle head, a boar head), the wings of a dragon, the front legs of a lion, the back legs of a goat, and a snake-headed tail.
    • In Final Fantasy VII, the Maximum Chimera is a randomly-encountered enemy.
    • In Final Fantasy VIII, the Chimera is a randomly-encountered enemy with four heads (a lion head, a goat head, a hawk head, a lizard head), the body of a lion, the wings of a dragon, and a cobra-headed tail.
    • In Final Fantasy IX, it is a three-headed demon that is tough to beat.
    • In Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, there are random creature encounters that are Chimera. They have a bull head, a wolf head, a griffin head, a snake-headed tail, and have what appears to be somewhat like a bull's upright body. To attack, they use a combination of elements (fire, water, lightning).
  • In Tekken 3, the final boss, True Ogre, takes on the form of a Chimera-like demon, with the horns of a ram, the head of a lion, and his right arm is a snake.
  • In Age of Mythology, the chimera is a trainable myth unit under the worship of Artemis.
  • Chimeras will be an enemy of Kratos in the upcoming game God of War III.

Role-Playing

  • In the roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons, the chimera is an evil-aligned creature which looks like a lion with leathery wings on its back. To either side of its lion's head is the head of a goat and the head of a dragon.

Books

  • Chimeras were mentioned in the Harry Potter books. In the "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them," it is described to have a lion head, a goat body, and dragon tail. The Ministry of Magic classifies them as XXXXX (very dangerous). Also in the Harry Potter world, Bellerophon (not mentioned by name) failed to kill it and was stated as "falling off his winged horse trying"
  • In Alan Dean Foster's Mad Amos short story, "Witchen Woes," Amos Malone defeats a "kitchen witch" in a cooking contest by making "chimera chili." He later commented that the hardest part of the recipe was finding chimera meat.
  • In James Patterson's novel part of the Women's [...] Club series 2nd Chance, the [...] uses a chimera symbol.
  • In Laurell K. Hamilton's novel Narcissus in Chains, part of the Anita Blake series, the antagonist is known as Chimera, a panware capable of shifting into several were-animals. Those animals included lion, cobra, leopard, wolf and bear.