Before we get too far into this discussion, we should probably get an idea about this word chimera. According to one definition, a Chimera chi·me·ra (in Greek mythology) is a fire-breathing female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail, although Merriam Webster tells us that is also means “a hybrid created through fusion of a sperm and an egg from different species.”
Do we find a record of such things in the archeology? Sure, we do. Let’s take a look at some Egyptian artwork:
We have some interesting hybrids here – a little man with bird for a head; man, with crocodile for a head; man with hyena for a head, woman, etc. So, the Egyptian record is not shy.
How about the Greek record? Well, there is the minotaur (half man, half bull), the centaur (half man, half horse), Pan (half man, half goat) and so on.
Is there a reference to such beings in Scripture? There is in the Cepher Yashar (Book of Jasher):
Yashar (Jasher) 36:28-32
And the sons of Shoval were Alyan, Manachath, Eyval, Shephiy, and Onam, and the sons of Tsiv`on were Ayah, and Anah, this was that Anah who found the Yemim in the wilderness when he fed the asses of Tsiv`on his father. 29 And while he was feeding his father's asses he led them to the wilderness at different times to feed them. 30 And there was a day that he brought them to one of the deserts on the sea shore, opposite the wilderness of the people, and while he was feeding them, behold a very heavy storm came from the other side of the sea and rested upon the asses that were feeding there, and they all stood still. 31 And afterward about one hundred and twenty great and terrible animals came out from the wilderness at the other side of the sea, and they all came to the place where the asses were, and they placed themselves there. 32 And those animals, from their middle downward, were in the shape of the children of men, and from their middle upward, some had the likeness of bears, and some the likeness of the keephas, with tails behind them from between their shoulders reaching down to the earth, like the tails of the ducheephath, and these animals came and mounted and rode upon these asses, and led them away, and they went away to this day.
What does the Babylonian historical record show? Take a look and see if someone in the ancient world sculpted a keepha (on the left) and the ducheephath (on the right):
Who knows? Maybe this sculptor had read Yashar. Then again, maybe there was an additional record, or even an eyewitness account.
Is there any other record of such things in the redacted (abridged) version of Scripture? Yes, there is:
Shemu’el Sheniy (2 Samuel) 23:20
And Benayahu the son of Yahuyada, the son of a valiant man, of Qavtse’el, who had done many acts, he slew את eth two lion-like men of Mo’av: he went down also and slew את eth-a lion in the midst of a pit in time of snow.
Some sculptor picked up on this:
And what is the Sphinx? Maybe, just personification.
Take a look at the Babylonian record of the man with the heads of birds:
