Both Uses of
chimera
in
Don Quixote
- And there was Don Quixote observing all these strange proceedings attentively without uttering a word, and attributing the whole to chimeras of knight-errantry.†
Chpt 1.41-42 *chimeras = imagined things that are not possible in the real world
- I have never yet seen any book of chivalry that puts together a connected plot complete in all its numbers, so that the middle agrees with the beginning, and the end with the beginning and middle; on the contrary, they construct them with such a multitude of members that it seems as though they meant to produce a chimera or monster rather than a well-proportioned figure.†
Chpt 1.47-48
Definitions:
-
(1)
(chimera) a wild, unrealistic idea or hope; or a mythical creature made from parts of different animals
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) meaning too rare to warrant focus:
As a proper noun Chimera refers to a fire-breathing monster in Greek mythology. It is a female monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail.
More rarely, in biology, a chimera is an organism that contains cells or tissues with a different genotype.
Chimaera is also an acceptable spelling and the name of a type of fish.