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| Subject: | | Re: What chimaera is this? |
| From: | |
Loreweaver
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posted
Fri, Apr 3 2009, 3:57am
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Chimera is the umbrella term for any creature composed of distinctive properties of different species. the name being derived from Homer of a lioness with a goat's head on her back and a serpent for a tail.
In Greek myth the chimera went on to birth the sphynx which had a human's upper torso, a lion's body, eagle's wings and a serpent tail. Since most of our knowledge of the time is derived from Greek through Roman writings the Great Sphinx at Giza is named for its resemblance to the creature in myth. Subsequently, all other forms of this style were called as such. ie. ram headed lion was a criosphynx.
The thing is that the Egyptians had a very old practice of combining animals they thought were cool. And, by that i mean depicting the likenesses of their gods and kings into earthly forms. It's also quite evident that this practice carried far from Egypt and possibly even had its influence in the mythology of the chimera.
But since we don't know what the Egyptians called them, we're left using the Greek and sphinx becomes the blanket term for any creature of that type from Egypt and chimera becomes the blanket term for any creature of that type already called something else elsewhere.
I hope that clears up some of the ethnic/geographic origins. I'm right there on wishing there was more specific information on these ancient cultures. |
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