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Bellerophon and Chimaira (1)

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02 Religious and ideological symbols and iconographic motifs
04 Religious and philosophical literature and poetry
02 Religious and ideological symbols and iconographic motifs



 		Keywords
chimaera
composite beings
Period
6th century CE
Roman Empire 		Channel
Christian-Greek philosophers and scholars

Text
pseudo-Nonnus, Basil 8 (Scholia):
When the chimaera of Patara appeared … and was ravaging the land of the Lycians, and Protos was ruling in Lycia, Bellerophontes was commanded to slay the chimaira. Now this was a wild beast … of the following kind: its fron (was) a lion, but its back part a dragon, while its middle was a she-goat. From this she-goat went forth fire; and the wild beast was difficult to hunt. Bellerophontes, therefore, finding Pegasus, a horse from the gods - who is said to have had wings, and that water exuded from his nails - came, having (as) an aid the horse’s (gift) of flight, for he was, as I said, winged; and he slew the chimaera.

Source (list of abbreviations)
pseudo-Nonnus, Basil 8 (Scholia)

Bibliography

Brock 1971, 76-77Brock, Sebastian. The Syriac Version of the Pseudo-Nonnos Mythological Scholia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1971.

Amar Annus


URL for this entry: http://www.aakkl.helsinki.fi/melammu/database/gen_html/a0000467.php

Illustrations (click an image to view the full-size version in a new window)

Fig. 1: Bellerophon and Chimaira. Edge of an Attic red-figure epinetron , ca. 425-420 BCE (No 2179, National Archaeological Museum in Athens, Greece).

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