So over the past week or so I've been reading the Iliad as translated into English prose by 19th century poet Samuel Butler. I spent a fair amount of time back in college with Richmond Lattimore's poetic translation, as I minored in Classic Civilizations. But I've been meaning to get around to re-reading the Iliad ever since I bought a set of the Britannica Great Books series over a decade ago. Those babies ain't gonna read themselves.
Anyway, book VI mentions in passing the three great deeds of the hero Bellerophon, who got a write-up in the original Deities & Demigods. Bellerophon's deeds include defeating the Amazons, slaying the Chimera (which Butler describes as a fire-breathing 'goddess' with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and the tail of a serpent) and fighting the "far-famed Solymi". No explanation is given for what the heck a Solymi is. A quick googling suggests 'Solymi' was the name given to a tribe of people, but I decided it needed to be a variant chimera.
SOLYMUS
# Encountered: d2 (d4)
Align: Chaos
Mv: 120' (40')
AC: 4 [15]
HD: 9
Attacks: 2 claws (d4+1/d4+1), bite (d10), gore (2d4)
Save as: Fighter 9
Morale: 9
Treasure: XVII - F
The solymus (pl. solymi) is a magical hybrid creature with the body of a lion, the head and tail of a great serpent and the horns of a wild goat or ibex. Thrice per day a solymus may vomit forth a glob of poison 5' in diameter, which may be directed at one foe or two standing side-by-side up to 50' away. Those attacked by the poison glob may save versus breath attack to dodge it, otherwise they suffer 3d6 poison damage.
That's an interesting critter.
ReplyDeleteA bit of Google-Fu brought the following to light on
http://www.Livius.org
from Tacitus Histories 5.2-5:
The Solymi are mentioned by Homer in the Iliad 6.184 and 204 and in the Odyssey 5.283. They were brave warriors from Lycia. The word Jerusalem was read as 'Hiero-Solyma' or 'holy place of the Solymi'. So... not just any people.
More on Lycia here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lycians
Word Verification: Mulamica
For the game this is what I would call the boats the Solymi or Lycians use in the Mediterranean
I'd totally let the Solymi have pet Solymus....
ReplyDelete