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Chimaera in antiquity, in addition to being the name of a
- Chimaera as a geographical reference point. (English)
- "Cape" is a gloss of the translator.
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- "In fact, there is a Mount Chimaera..."
"a certain ravine, Chimaera, stretching up from the coast." (English)
Near Adratchan, not far from the ruins of Olympus, a number of rounded serpentine hills rise among the limestone, and some of them bear up masses of that rock. At the junction of one of these masses of scaglia with the serpentine, is the Yanar, famous as the Chimæra of the ancients, rediscovered in modern times by Captain Beaufort. It is nothing more than a stream of inflammable gas issuing from a cavern, such as is seen in several places among the Appenines. The serpentine immediately around the flame is burnt and ashy, but this is only for a foot or two, the immediate neighborhood of the Yanar presenting the same aspect as it wore in the days of Seneca, who writes "Laeta itaque regio est et herbida, nil flammis adurentibus" Letters 79,3 Such is the Chimæra—
...flammis que armata chimæra*—
deprived of all its terrors. It is still, however, visited as a lion by both Greeks and Turks, who make use of its classic flames to cook kebobs for their dinners. [Footnote: *Virgil, Æ, vi. 288] Spratt, op. cit. (London, 1847) Vol. II, p.181-2
In Lycia regio notissima est (Hephaestion incolae vocant), foratum pluribus locis solum, quod sine ullo nascentium damno ignis innoxius circumit. Laeta itaque regio est et herbida, nihil flammis adurentibus sed tantum vi remissa ac languida refulgentibus. Seneca Epistles 79, 3
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