Difference between revisions of "Chimera (mythology)" - New World Encyclopedia
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==Description== | ==Description== | ||
| − | The most commonly description of the chimera comes from Homer's ''[[Illiad]]'', in which the creature is said to have the head of a lion, the body of goat and tail of a snake. | + | The most commonly description of the chimera comes from Homer's ''[[Illiad]]'', in which the creature is said to have the head of a [[lion]], the body of [[goat]] and tail of a [[snake]]. It is also believed to breath fire and be [[female]] despite the mane adorning the lions head.<ref>''Iliad'' VI. 179-182</ref> It was said to be incredibly vicious and powerful, especially since as one creature, it possessed the abilities of three seperate animals. |
| + | ==Origin== | ||
| − | [[ | + | [[Image:Chimaera-Yanartas,_SW_Turkey,_8_Aug_2005.JPG|thumb|200px|right|Some say this [[geothermic]]ally active region was the inspiration for the myth]] |
| − | [[ | + | The chimera is only one of several famous mythological hybrids: [[Pegasus]], [[Gorgon|Medusa]], the [[Minotaur]] and the [[Griffin]] are all examples of creatures that are conglomerates of real animals. The combination of attributes often represented something to the people who created such myths. Author [[Harry Thurston Peck]] believes that the chimera could actually be a representation of the land the creature is attributed to as living in [[Lycia]], [[Asia Minor]].<ref>Peck, Harry Thurston, 1898. ''Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities'': "Chimaera" ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aid%3Dchimaera On-line text])</ref> [[Ctesias]] identified the Chimaera with an area of permanent gas vents which can still be found today by hikers on the [[Lycian Way]] in southwest [[Turkey]]. Called in Turkish ''Yanartaş'' (flaming rock), it consists of some two dozen vents in the ground, grouped in two patches on the hillside above the Temple of [[Hephaestus]] about 3 km north of [[Çıralı]], near ancient [[Olympos]], in [[Lycia]]. The vents emit burning [[methane]] thought to be of [[Metamorphic rock|metamorphic]] origin, which in ancient times sailors could navigate by, and which today the custodian uses to brew [[tea]]. |
| − | + | Chimera was one of the offspring of [[Typhon]] and [[Echidna (mythology)|Echidna]] and sister of such monsters as [[Cerberus]] and the [[Lernaean Hydra]]. While there are different [[genealogies]], in one version it mated with its brother [[Orthrus]] and mothered the [[Sphinx]] and the [[Nemean Lion]]. | |
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| + | ==Chimera and Bellerophon== | ||
| − | The Chimera was finally defeated by [[Bellerophon]] with the help of [[Pegasus]] at the command of [[Iobates|King Iobates]] of [[Lycia]]. He shot the Chimera from the air, safe from her heads and breath, since Pegasus could fly; | + | The Chimera was finally defeated by [[Bellerophon]] with the help of [[Pegasus]] at the command of [[Iobates|King Iobates]] of [[Lycia]]. He shot the Chimera from the air, safe from her heads and breath, since Pegasus could fly; a [[scholiast]] to Homer adds that he finished her off putting a lump of lead on his spear that melted when exposed to Chimera's fiery breath and consequently killed it, an image drawn from metalworking. |
==Artistic Representations== | ==Artistic Representations== | ||
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[[Image:Museo archeologico di Firenze, La chimera d'arezzo 08.JPG|thumb|left|280px|"[[Chimera of Arezzo]]:" an [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] bronze]] | [[Image:Museo archeologico di Firenze, La chimera d'arezzo 08.JPG|thumb|left|280px|"[[Chimera of Arezzo]]:" an [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] bronze]] | ||
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==Notes== | ==Notes== | ||
Revision as of 20:16, 7 June 2007
In Greek mythology, the Chimera is a monstrous creature that was composed of several different animals. While minor in literature, the chimera was nonetheless exceeding popular in ancient art, and features in many depictions of epic scale.
In pop culture, a chimera sometimes refers to any creation that is a hybrid, or a single entity composed of two or more distinct entities.
Etymology
The word chimera comes from the Greek Χίμαιρα, which translates as "she-goat or monster"[1] Through the Latin Chimaera comes the English version, which has a second defintion, according the Oxford English Dictionary, as being "An unreal creature of the imagination, a mere fancy; an unfound conception".[2] Along with these two meanings are a host of variants on the root word: Chmieric is something that is "fanciful or imaginary"; Chimerical is something "of the nature of the chimera; vainly or fantastically concieved"; and Chimerize is the act of indulging "in chimeras, indulge and foster wild and unfounded fancies".[3]
Description
The most commonly description of the chimera comes from Homer's Illiad, in which the creature is said to have the head of a lion, the body of goat and tail of a snake. It is also believed to breath fire and be female despite the mane adorning the lions head.[4] It was said to be incredibly vicious and powerful, especially since as one creature, it possessed the abilities of three seperate animals.
Origin
The chimera is only one of several famous mythological hybrids: Pegasus, Medusa, the Minotaur and the Griffin are all examples of creatures that are conglomerates of real animals. The combination of attributes often represented something to the people who created such myths. Author Harry Thurston Peck believes that the chimera could actually be a representation of the land the creature is attributed to as living in Lycia, Asia Minor.[5] Ctesias identified the Chimaera with an area of permanent gas vents which can still be found today by hikers on the Lycian Way in southwest Turkey. Called in Turkish Yanartaş (flaming rock), it consists of some two dozen vents in the ground, grouped in two patches on the hillside above the Temple of Hephaestus about 3 km north of Çıralı, near ancient Olympos, in Lycia. The vents emit burning methane thought to be of metamorphic origin, which in ancient times sailors could navigate by, and which today the custodian uses to brew tea.
Chimera was one of the offspring of Typhon and Echidna and sister of such monsters as Cerberus and the Lernaean Hydra. While there are different genealogies, in one version it mated with its brother Orthrus and mothered the Sphinx and the Nemean Lion.
Chimera and Bellerophon
The Chimera was finally defeated by Bellerophon with the help of Pegasus at the command of King Iobates of Lycia. He shot the Chimera from the air, safe from her heads and breath, since Pegasus could fly; a scholiast to Homer adds that he finished her off putting a lump of lead on his spear that melted when exposed to Chimera's fiery breath and consequently killed it, an image drawn from metalworking.
Artistic Representations
The Chimera was placed in foreign Lycia,[6] but its representations in the arts was wholly Greek.[7] An autonomous tradition, one that did not rely on the written word, was represented in the visual repertory of the Greek vase-painters. The Chimera first appears at an early stage in the proto-Corinthian pottery-painters' repertory, providing some of the earliest identifiable mythological scenes that can be recognized in Greek art. The Corinthian type is fixed, after some early hesitation, in the 670s B.C.E.; the variations in the pictorial representations suggest to Marilyn Low Schmitt[8]a multiple origin. The fascination with the monstrous devolved by the end of the seventh century into a decorative Chimera-motif in Corinth,[9] while the motif of Bellerophon on Pegasus took on a separate existence alone. A separate Attic tradition, where the goats breathe fire and the animal's rear is serpent-like, begins with such confidence that Marilyn Low Schmitt is convinced there must be unrecognized earlier local prototypes. Two vase-painters employed the motif so consistently they are given the pseudonyms the Bellerophon Painter and the Chimaera Painter.
In Etruscan civilization, the Chimera appears in the "Orientalizing" period that precedes Etruscan Archaic art; that is to say, very early indeed. The Chimera appears in Etruscan wall-paintings of the fourth century B.C.E.
Robert Graves suggests[10] that "the Chimaera was, apparently, a calendar-symbol of the tripartite year, of which the seasonal emblems were lion, goat and serpent."
In Medieval art, though the chimera of Antiquity was forgotten, chimerical figures appear as embodiments of the deceptive, even Satanic forces of raw nature. Provided with a human face and a scaly tail, as in Dante's vision of Geryon in Inferno xvii.7-17, 25-27, hybrid monsters, actually more akin to the Manticore of Pliny's Natural History (viii.90), provided iconic representations of hypocrisy and fraud well into the seventeenth century, through an emblemmatic representation in Cesare Ripa's Iconologia.[11]
Over time, the Chimera has also been lifted from mythology to represent not only the fantastic, but that which cannot be—a concept originating from the quixotic physical representations of the Chimera as impossible amalgam. In this way its usage was extended by classically-educated botanists (see Chimera (plant), Chimera (genetics)).
Notes
- ↑ (1971)"Oxford English Dictionary" Oxford Press. ISBN:76-188038
- ↑ (1971)"Oxford English Dictionary" Oxford Press. ISBN:76-188038
- ↑ (1971)"Oxford English Dictionary" Oxford Press. ISBN:76-188038
- ↑ Iliad VI. 179-182
- ↑ Peck, Harry Thurston, 1898. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities: "Chimaera" (On-line text)
- ↑ Homer, Iliad xvi.328, links its breeding to the Trojan ally Amisodarus of Lycia, as a plague for men.
- ↑ Anne Roes "The Representation of the Chimaera" The Journal of Hellenic Studies 54.1 (1934), pp. 21-25, adduces Ancient Near Eastern conventions of winged animals who wings end in animal heads.
- ↑ This outline of the Chimera motif follows Marilyn Low Schmitt, "Bellerophon and the Chimaera in Archaic Greek Art" American Journal of Archaeology 70.4 (October 1966), pp. 341-347.
- ↑ Later coins struck at Sicyon, near Corinth, bear the chimera-motif. (Schmitt 1966:344 note.
- ↑ Graves 1960:sect.34.2.
- ↑ John F. Moffitt, "An Exemplary Humanist Hybrid: Vasari's "Fraude" with Reference to Bronzino's 'Sphinx'" Renaissance Quarterly 49.2 (Summer 1996), pp. 303-333, traces the chimeric image of Fraud backwards from Bronzino.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Graves, Robert, (1955) 1960. The Greek Myths (Baltimore: Penguin), section 75.b, pp 252-56
- Kerenyi, Karl, 1959. The Heroes of the Greeks. (London and New York:Thames and Hudson)
- Peck, Harry Thurston, 1898. Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities: "Chimaera" (On-line text)
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