Fire Breathing Coral Monster Who Eats His Tail Bangle.
The She-Goat stands on a hill and vomits fire. She stomps her hooves
in rage. She glares at the world with reddened eyes and awaits her
final battle. She is Chimera…with breath of unquenchable flame.
She is the fabulous beast of Greek myth with a lion’s head…a
goat’s body…and a serpent’s tail. She awaits Bellepheron …envoy
of Zeus…astride the great Pegasus. They will duel to the death.
She blasts a plume of fire to the skies. Come Bellepheron. Come…if
you dare.
It was when traveling though India that Jacques Cartier first
thought of producing the Chimera bangle. India’s variant of the
creature predates the Greek version by first appearing on the scene
as Makara…a crocodile…and then slowly evolving …through the
elongation of its snout…to the elephant. This one bangle I am about
to show you is one of a set of two which took over three hundred
hours to produce.
Poor poor Belepheron–off to slay the Chimera–chosen by Zeus not
because of his bravery…but because the wife of a king’s son named
Proetus hankered after Belepheron …as lusty wives are often wont to
do strange and muscled warriors…and so jealous Proetus found a way
to rid himself of this intrusive warrior. You see folks…the
chastity belt had not yet been invented and the surest way to keep
one’s lust-filled wife from straying was to slay the competition.
There are today…in our modern society …folks who like to adhere
to old world thinking…and who subscribe to the methodology of days
of yore. They are often placed…after exercising their rights as
husbands of wanton wives…in a quaint place called jail where they
can ponder in peace the differences between the old and the new.
Cartier was not the first to create jewelry modeled under the
influence of Greek Mythology. He was not the first…but he was
easily the most famous. Our bangle was made of a single section of
coral thick enough to carve Cartier’s creation in one piece. It is
larger than most bangles and has a rotating head at its collar which
allows it to be slipped on to the wrist. It was created circa 1965
and was worth somewhere in the vicinity of $50,000 US.
Upon his mighty steed he sat…and he and Pegasus lifted to the
skies to do battle with the unconquerable beast spewing flames. Above
the mighty monster where conflagration could not reach…Belepheron
hailed arrows…piercing the creature’s hide till he expired and was
no more. Hail Belepheron…killer of Chimera. Come home,
Belepheron…and lie down with the wife of Proetus…for you–over
all men–have earned this tasty morsel. Alas…the end of Belepheron
was rather ignoble…which just goes to show…one should not covet
one’s neighbor’s wife…unless of course she’s an irresistible dish
worth the risk. But that’s for another time.
Cartier went on to use the Chimera motif in other
creations…boxes…clocks…etc. However…nothing surpassed the
coral bangles…one of which you are all about to see.
For those of you who are new to this thing called Tidbits…may I
direct you to my home page at www.tyler-adam.com where you will
scroll down the left side menu till you get to the area that says
Tidbits…and then click on the link that says: Chimera…where you
will see a graphic of our Coral Bangle by Cartier.
And there ya have it. That’s it for this week folks. Catch you all
next week. Benjamin Mark http://www.tyler-adam.com