Chimera (mythology)
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2008-07-15T15:32:09Z
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Reverted edits by [[Special:Contributions/Time for action|Time for action]] to last version by Matthew R Dunn (using [[WP:HG|Huggle]])
[[Image:Chimera Apulia Louvre K362.jpg|thumb|Chimera on a red-figure [[Apulia]]n plate, ca 350-340 BCE ([[Musée du Louvre]])]]
In [[Greek mythology]], '''Chimera''' ([[Greek language|Greek]] ''[[:el:Χίμαιρα (μυθολογία)|Χίμαιρα]]'' (Chímaira); [[Latin]] ''Chimaera'') is a monstrous creature of [[Lycia]] in [[Asia Minor]], which was made of the parts of multiple animals. Chimera was one of the offspring of [[Typhon]] and [[Echidna (mythology)|Echidna]] and a sibling of such monsters as [[Cerberus]] and the [[Lernaean Hydra]].
==Description==
[[Homer]]'s brief description in the ''[[Iliad]]''<ref>''Iliad'' VI. 179-182</ref> is the earliest surviving literary reference: "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle,<ref> ''Chimaira'' designated a young goat that had seen but one winter. (Kerenyi 1959:82.</ref> and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire".<ref>In [[Richmond Lattimore]]'s translation.</ref> [[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Theogony]]'' follows the Homeric description: he makes Chimera the issue of [[Echidna (mythology)|Echidna]]: ''"She<!--she consistently in Evelyn-White's translation--> was the mother of Chimaera who breathed raging fire, a creature fearful, great, swift-footed and strong, who had three heads, one of a grim-eyed lion; in her hinderpart, a dragon; and in her middle, a goat, breathing forth a fearful blast of blazing fire. Her did Pegasus and noble Bellerophon slay"''<ref>Hesiod ''Theogony'' 319ff in [[Hugh Evelyn-White]]'s translation.</ref> The author of ''[[Bibliotheke]]'' concurs:<ref>Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheke''ii.3.2: "it had the fore part of a lion, the tail of a dragon, and its third head, the middle one, was that of a goat, through which it belched fire. And it devastated the country and harried the cattle; for it was a single creature with the power of three beasts. It is said, too, that this Chimera was bred by Amisodarus, as Homer also affirms,3 and that it was begotten by Typhon on Echidna, as Hesiod relates"</ref> descriptions agree that it breathed [[fire]]. Chimera is generally considered to have been female (see the quotation from Hesiod above) despite the mane adorning its lion's head. Sighting Chimera{{Fact|date=February 2007}} was an omen of [[storms]], [[shipwrecks]], and [[natural disasters]] (particularly [[volcano]]es).
While there are different [[genealogies]], in one version Chimera mated with her brother [[Orthrus]] and mothered the [[Sphinx]] and the [[Nemean Lion]] (others have Orthrus and their mother, Echidna, mating; most attribute all to Typhon and Echidna).
Chimera was finally defeated by [[Bellerophon]], with the help of [[Pegasus]], at the command of [[Iobates|King Iobates]] of [[Lycia]]. Since Pegasus could fly, Bellerophon shot Chimera from the air, safe from her heads and breath.<ref>So Pindar: ''Olympian odes'', 13,87; pseudo-[[Apollodorus]] 2, 3,2; [[Hesiod]], [[Theogony]] 319 ff.</ref> A [[scholiast]] to Homer adds that he finished her off by equipping his spear with a lump of lead that melted when exposed to Chimera's fiery breath and consequently killed her, an image drawn from metalworking.<ref>Graves, section 75, note </ref>
==The Chimera motif==
[[Image:Pegasus reel Louvre Bj1887.jpg|thumb|left|Gold reel, possibly an ear-stud, with [[Pegasus|winged Pegasus]] (outer band) and the Chimera (inner band), [[Magna Graecia]] or [[Etruria]], 4th century BCE ([[Louvre Museum|Louvre]])]]
Chimera was placed in foreign Lycia,<ref>Homer, ''Iliad'' xvi.328, links its breeding to the Trojan ally Amisodarus of Lycia, as a plague for men.</ref> but its representation in the arts was wholly Greek.<ref>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.</ref> An autonomous tradition, one that did not rely on the written word, was represented in the visual repertory of the Greek vase-painters. 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 [[Art of Ancient Greece|Greek art]]. The Corinthian type is fixed, after some early hesitation, in the 670s BCE; the variations in the pictorial representations suggest to Marilyn Low Schmitt<ref>This outline of 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.</ref>a multiple origin. The fascination with the monstrous devolved by the end of the seventh century into a decorative Chimera-motif in Corinth,<ref>Later coins struck at [[Sicyon]], near Corinth, bear the chimera-motif. (Schmitt 1966:344 note.</ref> 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 BCE.
[[Robert Graves]] suggests<ref>Graves 1960:sect.34.2.</ref> 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 [[Satan|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''.<ref>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]].</ref>
In more recent times, the term "chimera" has been used to describe real-life entities created as amalgams of previously separate entities in fields such as botany (see [[chimera (plant)]]), genetics (see [[chimera (genetics)]]), and molecular biology (see [[chimera (protein)]]). Chimeras also surface in the [[Harry Potter]] books, and the [[manga]] and [[anime]] versions of [[Fullmetal Alchemist]].
==Classical sources==
[[Image:Museo archeologico di Firenze, La chimera d'arezzo 08.JPG|thumb|"[[Chimera of Arezzo]]": an [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan]] bronze]]
The myths of Chimera can be found in [[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Apollodorus' Library]] (book 1), [[Homer]]'s ''[[Iliad]]'' (book 6); Hyginus ''[[Fabulae]]'' 57; [[Ovid]]'s ''[[Metamorphoses (poem)|Metamorphoses]]'' (book VI 339; IX 648) and [[Hesiod]]'s ''[[Theogony]]'' 319ff.
[[Virgil]], in the ''[[Aeneid]]'' (book 5) employs ''Chimaera'' for the name of [[Gyas]]' gigantic ship in the ship-race, with possible allegorical significance in contemporary Roman politics.<ref>W.S.M. Nicoll, "Chasing Chimaeras" ''The Classical Quarterly'' New Series, '''35'''.1 (1985), pp. 134-139.</ref>
== Theory about origin ==
{{see main|Chimaera (geography)}}
"Even in antiquity the Chimaera was regarded as a symbol of the volcanic character of the Lycian soil," Harry Thurston Peck noted. (Peck 1898). [[Ctesias]] (as cited by [[Pliny the Elder]] and quoted by [[Photius]]) identified 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]]. ([[Strabo]] held Chimaera to be a ravine on a ''different'' mountain in Lycia.) [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0064&layout=&loc=chimaera-geo]
== In Mathematics ==
Canadian mathematician George Elliott likens the classification of [[C*-algebras]] to Chimera. His famous lecture at the Fields Institute spoke of the serpent tail of Chimera passing through to the lion head of Chimera as a metaphor for inner automorphisms of C*-algebras passing through homomorphisms of C*-algebras.
== See also ==
{{Commonscat|Chimera}}
* [[Zahhak|Azhi Dahaka]], a three-headed [[Persian mythology|Persian]] [[dragon]] associated with deceit and mendacity.
* [[Nue]], a creature from [[Japanese folklore]] that is similar in appearance to Chimera.
* [[Manticore]], another mythological beast that had the head of either a man or a lion (or a mix of the two), the body of a lion and usually the tail of a dragon/snake or a scorpion.
* [[Qilin]], a [[China|Chinese]] [[Chinese mythology|mythical]] creature, thought to bring good luck
* [[Yali (Hindu Mythology)|Yali]], a [[Hindu]] [[Hindu mythology|mythological]] beast.
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
==References==
*[[Robert Graves|Graves, Robert]], (1955) 1960. ''The Greek Myths'' (Baltimore: Penguin), section 75.b, pp 252-56
*[[Karl Kerenyi|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" ([http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0062%3Aid%3Dchimaera On-line text])
[[Category:Greek mythology]]
[[Category:Mythological hybrids]]
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