Chimera
this mouse can roar,
but speaks best in
whispers and sighs.
swims deeper than you
could follow.
wants falcon’s wings
to soar.
Sees things clear
with peregrine eyes.
smiling, licks her
whiskers,
waits for canaries to
swallow.
Changes when she is
all alone;
that way she won't
need to atone.
The Cat and the Canary -- Oscar Dominguez
In modern English a "chimera" is an illusion or fabrication of the mind. But the Chimera was a monstrous fire-breathing lioness with a goat's head and a tail that ended in a snake's head. She was the offspring of Tuphon (the deadliest creature in Greek mythology, a giant serpent, the son of Gaia and Tartarus, who tried to depose Zeus) and his flesh-eating half-woman/half-snake sister Echidna. King Proetus of Argos seduced his brother Acrisius' daughter Danaë (who was later impreganted by Zeus and bore Perseus), causing Acrisius to revolt and overthrow him. Proetus fled to Amphianax in Lycia and married the daughter of its king Iobates. After Iobates failed to restore his son-in-law, the two brothers made peace and agreed to split the kingdom, with Proetus getting Tiryns. Bellerophon went to Tiryns to be purified for his murder of his brother Deliades, and Proetus' wife tried to seduce him. When Bellerophon rejected her, she told her husband that Bellerophon had tried to rape her. Proetus feared divine wrath if he slew a guest so he sent Bellerophon to Amphianax with a secret message to have him killed. Iobates induced him to rid the land of the Chimera, expecting him to be killed, but Athena presented him with Pegasus, a winged horse. They charged the monster with a spear that had a large block of lead mounted on its head, which he lodged in the beast's throat; the lead melted and blocked the Chimera's air passage, causing it to suffocate. Then Bellerophon married Iobates' daughter, who killed herself when he scorned her. Iobates' other daughter also had an affair with Bellerophon. After Proteus exiled Perseus, he too was given Pegasus, slew the serpent-haired Medusa, and then exposed her head to Proetus, causing him to turn to stone. Ashamed of becoming king of Tiryns through regicide, he exchanged realms with Proteus' son Megapenthes, who eventually avenged his father's death by killing Perseus.
ReplyDeleteIn the winter of 1954-1955 the "Saturday Evening Post" published Leonard Wibberley's 6-part political satire, "The Day New York Was Invaded." It was published as a novel (as "The Mouse That Roared" in the US and as "The Wrath of Grapes" in the UK). He also wrote a medieval prequel ("Beware of the Mouse") and three sequels ("The Mouse on the Moon," "The Mouse on Wall street," and "The Mouse that Saved the West"). Roger MacDougall and Stanley Mann adapted "The Mouse That Roared" into a Jack Arnold film starring Peter Sellers, and Richard Lester directed :The Mouse on the Moon," written by Michael Pertwee; Lester had directed Sellers in "The Running, Jumping and Standing Still Film," and Sellers recommended him for the "Mouse" sequel but did not himself appear in it. Arnold later produced a pilot starring Sid Caesar, but ABC never picked it up for production. The series of books and films all involved the pre-industrial 3 mile by 5 mile (8 km by 5 km) Duchy of Grand Fenwick, which victoriously took on the world's superpowers.