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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
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.
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.
3 Eurip., Electra 474Google Scholar.
4 Malten, , Bellerophontes, in JdI., 1925, pp. 121 sqq.Google Scholar
5 Milchhöfer, , Anfänge der Kunst, p. 82Google Scholar.
6 Furtwängler, , Gemmen, II, p. 19Google Scholar; III, p. 72; Evans, , Scripta Minoa, p. 124Google Scholar; Morin-Jean, , Le Dessin des Animaux, p. 49Google Scholar.
7 Poulsen, , Orient, p. 107Google Scholar; cf. BSA., 1906–7, p. 114.
8 JdI., 1925, p. 133, Abb. 12.
9 AJA. 1900, pl. V; Fairbanks, Boston Cat. 397Google Scholar.
10 Poulsen, , Orient, p. 107Google Scholar; JdI., 1925, p. 134.
11 Randall-MacIver, , Villanovans, p. 216Google Scholar.
12 Brussels, Musée du Cinquantenaire, A 816.
13 B.M. Jewellery, pl. XIX, 1390.
14 Payne, Necrocorinthia, pl. 4, 1.
15 British Museum: invent. 118767; by courtesy of the Trustees.
16 Godard, , Les Bronzes du Luristan, pl. XLI, 167Google Scholar.
17 Op. cit. pl. XXXII, 115.
18 Dalton, , The Treasure of the Oxus, pl. XI, 26Google Scholar.
19 Cat. of the Southesk Coll. II, pl. VIII, Q.c 28Google Scholar.
20 Martin, L'art roman en France, pls. XLIII, XLVI. For an Islamic example see Sarre, Kunst d. a. Persien, pl. 140.
21 See for inst. Dalton, Treasure of the Oxus, pl. XXII; Smirnov, , Argent. orient. pl. IV, 15Google Scholar.
22 Dalton, op. cit., p. 43: It (the rhyton) was popular within the limits influenced by Greek and Hellenistic culture; Syria, 1931, p. 292: La forme des rhytons passa de l'Égéide en Perse.
23 Ill. London News, June 1, p. 915, figs. 22, 23.
24 Contenau, , Manuel d'arch. orient. II, p. 807, fig. 565Google Scholar.
25 Persson, , The Royal Tombs at Dendra, 1931, pp. 64 f.Google Scholar
26 Wilamowitz, , Der Glaube der Hellenen, I, pp. 121 f.Google Scholar
27 Nilsson, , The Mycenean Origin of Greek Mythology, p. 33Google Scholar.
28 Persson, op. cit. p. 65, fig. 44, and pl. XXVI.
29 Furtwängler, , Gemmen, III, 7Google Scholar; Bossert, Alt Kreta, fig. 216.
