The exhibition (animalistic! Animals and hybrid creatures in Antiquity) delves into the world of wild animals and ferocious hybrid creatures that have always fired the imagination.
The show presents the status of animals in ancient civilisations and encounters monstrous creatures such as centaurs, griffins, the sphinx and the Chimera.
Many of these hybrid creatures originated in the Middle East and Egypt. In Greek culture, they were a symbol of a strange, dangerous and chaotic world, against which the Greek heroes on their adventures in foreign lands had to prevail.
The exhibition is a Cooperation between four Basel museums: Museum der Kulturen Basel, Antikenmuseum Basel, Pharmaziemuseum der Universität Basel and Historisches Museum Basel (see also Swiss Spectator, Animalistic! One Theme-Four Exhibitions, Events, 20 October 2021, and www.tierischbasel.ch).