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) in "Inferno" xvii.7–17, 25–27, hybrid monsters, more akin to the Manticore of Pliny's Natural History (viii.90), provided iconic representations of hypocrisy and fraud well into the seventeenth century, through an emblematic representation in Cesare Ripa's "Iconologia". The myths of the Chimera may be found in the "Bibliotheca" of Pseudo-Apollodorus (book 1), the "Iliad" (book 16) by Homer, the "Fabulae" 57 and 151 by Hyginus, the "Metamorphoses" (book VI 339 by Ovid; IX 648), and the "Theogony" 319ff by Hesiod. Virgil, in the "Aeneid" (book 5) employs "Chimaera" for the name of gigantic ship of Gyas in the ship-race, with possible