Chimera
A chimera is what you get when you graft separate entities together and make them one, and yet still semi-autonomous. When confronted with a beast that has the head of a lion, the wings of an eagle and the body of a two-legged dragon, you might be tempted to think of it as a chimera, but you would be wrong. Such a beast is merely a wyvern; that is, a winged dragon with only two legs.
A chimera, on the other hand, has a head in front, a head in the middle, and a head at the end. This leads to interesting conflicts, with the three heads corresponding roughly to Freud's ego, id and superego.
The front end has a lion's head, and most of the body is a lion's body too; this is courageous and bold, but not very bright. It breathes fire, according to Homer, "A terrible flame of bright fire." It sometimes thinks it is the only head, and is somewhat irked when the others hijack its agenda.
The middle head is that of a goat, with a brain of typical mortal lusts and hungers, mainly for food and sex. It is only interested in whatever makes it feel better, which isn't much, considering it feeds straight into the reflexes and guts of the overall animal, and wants everything all of the time.
The tail turns into a snake's head. The snake is crafty and devious, always trying to look forward and make clever plans for the long term. Unfortunately, it's facing the wrong way, and sometimes dares not venture in the other direction in case it gets eaten by the goat. It thinks it can control the others.
The chimera is altogether an unfortunate creature. Divided in all its ways, it is a fearsome enemy, but a silly one. The goat eats almost anything, the lion's flame burns almost anything, the snake's venom kills almost anything — and yet, it is always at war with itself.
The best strategy for dealing with it is to bait the individual heads into arguing with each other, or to slay it from a distance using arrows of lead, as Bellerophon did — the expression 'eat lead and die' is an old one. It was hot lead too; apparently the lion's breath melted the lead and the goat ate the hot lead while lead vapour poisoned the snake.
And as I look back at the wyvern, and the chimera, I laugh a lot. The world was ever a complex place. The classics have much to teach us. Homer's wine-dark sea long pre-dates the red ocean/blue ocean dichotomy of modern folly, and his chimera long pre-dates various gryphon/wyvern hybrids of dubious long-term viability.
A chimera, on the other hand, has a head in front, a head in the middle, and a head at the end. This leads to interesting conflicts, with the three heads corresponding roughly to Freud's ego, id and superego.
The front end has a lion's head, and most of the body is a lion's body too; this is courageous and bold, but not very bright. It breathes fire, according to Homer, "A terrible flame of bright fire." It sometimes thinks it is the only head, and is somewhat irked when the others hijack its agenda.
The middle head is that of a goat, with a brain of typical mortal lusts and hungers, mainly for food and sex. It is only interested in whatever makes it feel better, which isn't much, considering it feeds straight into the reflexes and guts of the overall animal, and wants everything all of the time.
The tail turns into a snake's head. The snake is crafty and devious, always trying to look forward and make clever plans for the long term. Unfortunately, it's facing the wrong way, and sometimes dares not venture in the other direction in case it gets eaten by the goat. It thinks it can control the others.
The chimera is altogether an unfortunate creature. Divided in all its ways, it is a fearsome enemy, but a silly one. The goat eats almost anything, the lion's flame burns almost anything, the snake's venom kills almost anything — and yet, it is always at war with itself.
The best strategy for dealing with it is to bait the individual heads into arguing with each other, or to slay it from a distance using arrows of lead, as Bellerophon did — the expression 'eat lead and die' is an old one. It was hot lead too; apparently the lion's breath melted the lead and the goat ate the hot lead while lead vapour poisoned the snake.
And as I look back at the wyvern, and the chimera, I laugh a lot. The world was ever a complex place. The classics have much to teach us. Homer's wine-dark sea long pre-dates the red ocean/blue ocean dichotomy of modern folly, and his chimera long pre-dates various gryphon/wyvern hybrids of dubious long-term viability.
Labels: Mythology, Odd Thoughts
etched with acid at 8:51:00 am
1 Comments:
"Dubious long term viability"?
Let's hope not, for the best is yet to be.
On another note, for most of my time in the institution I had believed the animal to be the chimera. And I'm quite certain I read that from literature deconstructing "The Crest"
-AS
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