To cut a long myth very short, Chimera swooped around making everyone thoroughly miserable until one day a chap named Bellerophon, riding the winged horse Pegasus, cancelled her account. Her siblings were none other than Cerebrus (the three-headed hound who eventually found work guarding the gates of Hell), Hydra (a nine-headed aquatic monster) and Orthrus ( the runt of the litter, a prosaic two-headed dog). The fearsome Chimera may, of course, have merely been a product of a substandard family environment - her father was the giant Typhon, her mother the half-serpent Echidna. The original "Chimera" of Greek mythology (pronounced kih-MEE-ra, although the adjective form "chimerical" is pronounced kih-MER-ih-cal) was no idle daydream, but a fire-breathing female monster, with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the hindquarters of a dragon. As the Oxford English Dictionary puts it, a "chimera" is "an unreal creature of the imagination a mere wild fancy an unfounded conception." If I thought that winning Lotto was a "chimera," I'd never get out of bed. Winning Lotto is a fantasy: unlikely, but not absolutely impossible.Ī "chimera," on the other hand, is by definition unrealizable. No, a "chimera" is not the same thing as a "fantasy." A fantasy always hold the promise, however unlikely, of someday coming true. Is a "chimera" the same thing as a "fantasy"? - D. Note: The columns below do not have the usual snappy headlines because I cannot possibly write them right now.ĭear Word Detective: I am hoping that you can explain what a "chimera" is and where the word came from. Personally, I think we ought to consider establishing a national park on the site, dedicated to the victims of this monstrous crime, and erecting a monument to the firefighters, police, and other rescue workers who, knowing full well the danger they faced, braved the inferno and, in more than 500 cases, gave their lives to save others. They're talking about rebuilding the World Trade Center in some form. And I have never been so proud of NYC, and my country, as I was last week. I love New York, and, despite the fact that I currently live in Ohio, I will always consider myself a New Yorker. I worked for almost twenty years in an office tower in Manhattan. Above are just a few of the heroes of a week which has, amid the tragedy and horror and grief, shown us the extraordinary heroism some human beings carry within them.
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