asdfgasfga you're the best at making my dreams reality

As a Sphinx, this character doesn't really work,
Mythology dictates that Sphinxes, the "mystical" creature, are always made up of one part human, 3 parts different animals.
Usually, the head of a man, the wings of an eagle, the front legs of a lion and the back legs and tail of an ox.

It can be any animals really, but it is always 3 different ones and one part human.
The 4 parts can symbolize the union of mind and body or intellectual, spiritual, and physical strengths, or the 4 elements, earth, wind, water and fire.

Although, The greek sphinx had the bust and head of a lady, the wings of an eagle, the body and legs of a lioness, and the tail of a snake or dragon
and the Assyrian sphinx had a human head, bird wings, and the parts of a bull and a lion. Sometimes it had five legs instead of four.

So basically, what you have here, is not a sphinx.
It's a winged cat.

Or, if it's a cross between a cat and a bird, it could be considered a chimera.


I'm just a stickler for accuracy when it comes to mythology and supernatural animals.
No offence. :)

-Raises hand- Question?

Is there any qualification for a creature to classified as a chimera besides being a simple combination between two or more animals? After all, if I recall correctly, the chimera that... I believe Perseus fought? (It was with Pegasus i think so that sounds right). Was a combination of a lion, goat, snake, and eagle I believe. If that's the case, could a sphinx also not be considered, perhaps, a form of chimera? Just that there are many chimerae that are simply composed of different combinations of animals?

I'm taking a mythology course next semester btw! Go interesting classes!

The scientific definition of a chimera is; an organism containing a mixture of genetically different tissues, formed by processes such as fusion of early embryos, grafting, or mutation.
So I guess a mixture of 4 animals like a sphinx could be considered a chimera, however, the sphinx was born how it was with the 4 different animals parts, it wasn't formed by a fusion of different embryos and as far as I can tell, it wasn't a mutation of any sort.

Chimeras are created with the different animals parts at the embryonic stage , they're a scientific thing, whereas the sphinx aren't created in the womb or a testube or anything and so I would say, they aren't considered to be chimeras, just plain old monsters. :)

This is exactly why I love talking to you :D. Intellectual discussion is the best. :D.

But anyways, what you're saying is that a sphinx is basically a monster, and not a fusion of different animals per se, so therefore it would be improper to refer to it as such. So, in your mind, calling the sphinx a chimera would be akin to referring to, say, a duck billed platypus as a chimera? Even though it seems to have characteristics of several different animals, because it wasn't a true fusion of different animals it therefore is not a chimera? It simply mimics or retains characteristics of a multitude of animals?

It was simply born and by happenstance has the features of several animals, but nonetheless is a complete, "pure" animal in and of itself?

Now, call me curious, but would you consider Aldreck to be a chimera or a... "monster" i suppose, for want of a better term?

In mythology, the Sphinx falls into the monster category as it isn't a god, demi-god, demon or anel.
And exactly, a duck-billed platypus is a lot of different animals put together but that's how it's evolved, someone hasn't gotten the genes of a duck, a beaver and w/e else, shoved them into a test tube and created it, although the Sphinx never existed as far as we know it was the same born with those animal's genes already mushed together to make something.

Aldreck is a mix of different animals, I think I read the %...5% something?
Was he created in a lab by scientific methods or did he have parents that we're made up of all the different creatures that he's supposed to be?
That would define whether he was a chimera or just some kind of hybrid.

*angel

my G button is slowly dying ;n;

That makes perfect sense actually. I have a question however, what of the Greek Chimera? I cannot recall, but do you think that was a product of animal amalgamation, perhaps by a god or some such thing? Or was it like a monster in the same vein as the sphinx? I honestly cannot remember haha. In fact, I don't even know if it was ever discussed in the mythos how the chimera came to be.

And I suppose it would be his parents, though i've never really gotten around to writing a backstory for him haha.

But, to recap, we have basically three types of mixture creatures:

Singular creatures (need a better name, working title hah): that being a sphinx or platypus, where it appears that they have a mixture of different characteristics but nonetheless are whole, unique animals genetically (insofar as we can tell from a mythological creature lol)

Chimerae: creatures formed by combining unique animals and amalgamating them into one being, whether it be a product of intellegence (as in a created in a lab, or in mythos, a god), or naturally (being the case of embryonic absorbtion)

Hybrids: A creature containing features of different organisms, however, this being brought about by natural reproduction, where the hybrid retains specieal characteristics of each parent. (Eg, a mule, various forms of flower and plants, Aldreck)

Sound about right or anything else you'd add or correct?

The story behind the Greek Chimera was that it roamed around the Temple of Hephaestus, the god's blacksmith, the area it's said to have lived in is still actually there now, and legend has it that the clouds of gas that are emitted from the vents in that area were said to be a gas that was of metamorphic origin, so it wasn't created by a god. BUT to actually through a spanner in the works here, legend does say that the chimera mated with...someone to create the sphinx and also the nemean lion, but that is just me thinking that's correct, I'm sure i read that somewhere and it might be worth reading into some more.

These vents were also used by sailors to navigate, it's also said that the chimera from the greek stories was female and was also a seriously bad omen if seen, iirc it was an omen of either shipwreck or a volcano erupting, it's been a long time since I read Greek mythology so I might be wrong there.

And that does sound about right! :)

Huh. I never read any of that, so this is new to me :D. That's really cool. But nevertheless, that still kind of fits in with our classifications. Even if it was a sort of mutagen, nevertheless that means that there was something that dramatically altered the physiology of the creature into something entirely new. It wasnt born naturally that way. So that would still make it a "natural" process, as the gas caused the shifts.

But that makes things interesting, because if the sphinx was offspring of the chimera, would it then be at some level a hybrid as well?

Thats the problem with making clean classifications. They don't actually exist, XD

As I said previously, I'm taking a mythology class next semester. So I'm sure we'll be able to have awesome discussions about all this.