The original chimera from greek mythology was a fire breathing monster with a lion's head. Over time, the word has come to mean any hybrid creature made up of different animal parts. The jacalope chimera distinctly fits into the american west. And it emerged at a particular moment in the west's history. Early in the country's western colonization, frontiersmen and settlers were often seen from the east as bumpkins,. uncultured and immoral people living in a wild land.