Chimera of Arezzo studying Ancient Greek and Roman coins, such as a silver "stater" featuring an image of the Chimera, thus accurately identifying it. Eventually, it was officially identified as being a part of a larger piece illustrating a fight between the Chimera and the Greek hero Bellerophon. The sculpture was found among other small pieces that served as votive offerings to the God Tinia. This sculpture may also have served as an Etruscan religious dedication. After discovery, it began its residence in Florence where it remained until its transportation in 1718 to the Uffizi Palace. Since 1870, the Chimaera of Arezzo has
Chimera (mythology) parts taken from various animals, or to describe anything composed of very disparate parts, or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling. The sight of a Chimera was an omen for disaster. Homer's brief description in the "Iliad" is the earliest surviving literary reference: "a thing of immortal make, not human, lion-fronted and snake behind, a goat in the middle, and snorting out the breath of the terrible flame of bright fire." Elsewhere in the "Iliad", Homer attributes the rearing of Chimera to Amisodorus. Hesiod's "Theogony" follows the Homeric description: he makes the Chimera the issue of Echidna: "She was