Chimera: myth and curiosity of the monster Arezzo

The Chimera is a mythological monster characteristic; secondo il mito greco fa parte della progenie di Tifone ed Echidna.

Suo padre, Typhoon, whose gigantic body culminating in a hundred dragon heads, relegated lies beneath one of the volcanic islands of our land (Ischia and Sicily), still quivering anger that led him away one day to defy the gods, to drive them from Olympus and injure none other than Zeus.

His Mother, Echidna, the Vipera, per metà bellissima donna e per metà orribile serpente maculato, lived in a cave of the lands of Lydia, feeding on the flesh of the unfortunate travelers.

But Chimera is just one of the monsters generated by Typhon and Echidna.

His brothers were Cerberus, the three-headed dog from hell, IDRA the famous uccisa the Eracle, e Ortro, ferocious two-headed dog guardian of the herds of giant Geryon.

The Chimera is the personification of the Storm, In fact, his voice is the thunder.

Many and varied are the iconographic representations of the legendary monster.

Probably to Hesiod (Teogonia) was inspired by the artist who depicted with three heads in Cerveteri front, the two sides of a lion and a dragon, and the central goat.

Iliad instead seems inspired by the architect of the Chimera of Arezzo: lion in front, goat's body and serpent behind. "Lion the test, chest goat, and I coda drago; and flames spewed from the mouth of horrendous fire " (Iliad, VI, 223-225).

According to the myth of the Chimera, it was raised by King Amissodore and for many years terrorized the coasts of Turkey, wreaking destruction and pestilence.

Fu Bellerofonte, hero by many as the son of the god Poseidon, to stop the raids of the mythical monster.

With the help of Pegasus, Bellerophon succeeded in defeating the Chimera with his own terrible weapons; In fact, "there was no arrow or spear that he would soon have killed her".

Bellerophon then dipped the tip of the spear into the jaws of the beast, the fire that broke out the lead that killed the animal.

As he had done Perseus with Medusa, Bellerophon also skillfully knew how to defeat the creature causing his strength against her ritorcesse.

The Chimera of Arezzo, bronze masterpiece of Etruscan sculpture (V-IV sec.a.C.) was discovered in 1553 in the countryside of Arezzo and restored by Benvenuto Cellini, was maintained for a period in the Palazzo Vecchio where Cosimo I dei Medici wanted it next to your throne, then come in the Medici villa of Castello because its presence in the Palazzo Vecchio was considered fatal.

The original is kept at the Archaeological Museum of Florence, while there are two copies of bronze slightly larger, placed in the first half of this century to adorn the two fountains in Piazza della Stazione Arezzo.

The name Chimera, in greco Khimaira, means goat.

The three meanings are symbolized by Chimera: the lion represents strength, the heat, and then the summer; the serpent indicates that the land, l’oscurità, the winter and old age; the goat that represents the transition, transition, then the fall and spring.

Also in this context it reads the dedication to Tinia, changing the Etruscan Jupiter, inscribed on the right front paw of the Chimera: "It is no wonder then that the supreme god of the Etruscans, principle of changing everything, was dedicated to the multiaspetto fast Chimera "

Michael Lattanzi

By the number 34 – The Year of 8/10/2014