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The Representation of the Chimaera

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

Anne Roes
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Extract

Of the children Echidna bore to Typhon the Chimaera was certainly the most illogical. She might even be considered as the very strangest among all the fantastical beings orientalising art in Greece liked to represent. For though she was called the goat, yet she stands before us as a lion, and the only thing there is of a goat about her is a head, that grows like a parasite out of the lion's back, and, in most cases, looks piteous rather than terrific. Even the later addition of a pair of forefeet cannot contribute to making her look formidable. We are told that she has a mighty weapon: the fiery flames she can eject from her mouth. Yet perched as she is, it is not easy for her to make use of this weapon; she will have to manœuvre very skilfully in order not to harm the lion, whose head will always come between her and the enemy they are confronting.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , 1934 , pp. 21 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1934

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References

1 This difficulty was already felt in antiquity; vide Scholia Twl.B. on Ilias, Z 181.

2 As, for instance, on the coins of Sicyon.

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