| Bellerophon | |
|---|---|
| Member of theCorinthian Royal Family | |
.jpg) | |
| Other names | Hipponous |
| Predecessor | Iobates |
| Successor | Hippolochus |
| Abode | Potniae, laterArgos andLycia |
| Symbols | Cape,Spear |
| Genealogy | |
| Parents | Poseidon andEurynome Glaucus andEurymede |
| Siblings | Deliades andseveral paternal half-siblings |
| Consort | Philonoe Asteria |
| Offspring | Isander,Hippolochus andLaodamia Hydissos |
| Part ofa series on |
| Greek mythology |
|---|
 Theseus slays the Minotaur under the gaze of Athena |
| Deities |
| Heroes and heroism |
| Related |
| Ancient Greece portal Myths portal |
Bellerophon[1] orBellerophontes (Ancient Greek:Βελλεροφῶν;Βελλεροφόντης;lit. "slayer of Belleros") orHipponous (Ancient Greek:Ἱππόνοος;lit. "horse-knower"),[2] was adivineCorinthianhero ofGreek mythology, the son ofPoseidon andEurynome, and the foster son ofGlaukos. He was "the greatest hero and slayer of monsters, alongsideCadmus andPerseus, before the days ofHeracles".[3] Among his greatest feats was killing theChimera of theIliad, a monster thatHomer depicted with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail: "her breath came out in terrible blasts of burning flame."[4]
Bellerophon was also known for capturing and taming thewinged horsePegasus with the help ofAthena's charmed bridle, and earning the disfavour of the gods after attempting to ride Pegasus toMount Olympus.[5]
One possible etymology that has been suggested is: Βελλεροφόντης (Bellerophóntēs) from Ancient Greek βέλεμνον (bélemnon), βελόνη (belóne) or βέλος (bélos, "projectile, dart, javelin, needle, arrow") and -φόντης (-phóntēs, "slayer") from φονεύω (phoneúō, "to slay").[a]
However,Geoffrey Kirk says that "Βελλεροφόντης means 'slayer of Belleros'".[8] According to theScholia of Homer, Bellerophon was named so after having slain a Corinthian citizen of that same name by accident, while practicing hisknife throwing,[9] which caused him to be exiled toLycia; this origin hypothesis would correspond to howHermes got his epithet 'Argeiphontes' (lit. 'slayer of Argus') after slayingArgus.[10] According to some scholars, Belleros could have also been a local Lyciandaimon, as Bellerophon's name "invited all sorts of speculation".[8][b]
The only other authors to mention a Belleros killed by Bellerophon are two Byzantine scholars,John Tzetzes andEustathius of Thessalonica, who both seem to be following Bellerophon's own name-etymology.[12][AI-generated source?]
Robert Graves suggests a possible etymology viabeleēphoron, interpreted as "bearing darts".[13]Joseph T. Shipley glosses the nameBellerophon as "slayer of monsters".[14]
Bellerophon was the son of the mortalEurynome[15] (orEurymede[16]) andPoseidon; having been raised by his foster fatherGlaukos. He was the brother ofDeliades (also namedPeiren orAlcimenes).[17]
Bellerophon was the father ofIsander[18] (Peisander),[19]Hippolochus,[20] andLaodamia[21] (Deidamia[22] orHippodamia[23]) byPhilonoe,[24][AI-generated source?] daughter of KingIobates ofLycia. Philonoe was also known under several other names:Alkimedousa orCassandra,[25]Anticleia,[26] orPasandra.[27] In some accounts, Bellerophon also fatheredHydissos byAsteria, daughter ofHydeus.[28]
TheIliad vi.155–203 contained anembedded narrative told by Bellerophon's grandsonGlaucus (who was named after his great-grandfather), which recounted Bellerophon's myth. In this narrative, Bellerophon's father was Glaucus,[29] who was the King ofPotniae and son ofSisyphus; Bellerophon's grandsonsSarpedon and the younger Glaucus fought in theTrojan War.
InStephanus of Byzantium'sEthnica, a genealogy was given for a figure namedChrysaor ("of the golden sword"), which would make him a double of Bellerophon: he was called the son of Glaucus (son of Sisyphus). Chrysaor has no myth besides that of his birth: from the severed neck ofMedusa, who was with child by Poseidon, he andPegasus were both born at the moment of her death. "From this moment we hear no more of Chrysaor, the rest of the tale concerning the stallion only... [who visited the spring ofPirene] perhaps also for his brother's sake, by whom in the end he let himself be caught, the immortal horse by his mortal brother."[30]
Bellerophon's brave journey began in a familiar way,[31] with an exile: in one narrative he had murdered his brother, whose name was given as Deliades, Peiren or Alcimenes; a more precise narrative involves him slaying a Corinthian citizen or nobleman called "Belleros"[32] or "Belleron" by accident, while practicing knife-throwing with his friends, which caused the name change fromHipponous toBellerophon.
In atonement for this crime, he had to make a plea toProetus, a king inTiryns, one of theAchaean strongholds of theArgolid. Proetus, by virtue of his kingship, cleansed Bellerophon of his crime. But when the wife of king Proetus – whose name was eitherAnteia[33] orStheneboea –[34] tried to make advances on him, he rejected her, causing her to accuse Bellerophon of attempting to make advances on her instead.[35] Proetus dared not to satisfy his anger by killing a guest (who is protected byxenia), causing him to finally exile Bellerophon to King Iobates, his father-in-law from the plain of the RiverXanthus inLycia, bearing a sealed letter in a folded tablet which read: "Please remove this bearer from the world: he attempted to violate my wife, your daughter."[36]
Before opening the tablets, Iobates feasted with Bellerophon for nine days. On reading the tablet's message Iobates too feared the wrath of theErinyes if he murdered a guest; so he sent Bellerophon on a mission that he deemed impossible to survive: to kill theChimera, living in neighboringCaria. The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster consisting of the body of a goat, the head of a lion and the tail of a serpent. This monster had terrorized the nearby countryside.
On his way to Caria, he encountered the famousCorinthianfortune tellerPolyeidos, who gave him advice on his upcoming battle, telling Bellerophon that in order to emerge victorious, he would be in need of the mythicalPegasus.
_-_13.JPG)
To obtain the services of the untamed winged horse, Polyeidos told Bellerophon to sleep in the temple ofAthena. While Bellerophon slept, he dreamed that Athena set a golden bridle beside him, saying "Sleepest thou, prince of the house ofAiolos? Come, take this charm for the steed and show it to theTamer thy father as thou makest sacrifice to him of a white bull."[37] It was there when he awoke and understood that he had to approach Pegasus while it drank from a well. When asked, Polyeidos told him which well: the never-failingPirene on the citadel of Corinth, the city of Bellerophon's birth. Bellerophon mounted his steed and flew off, back to Lycia where the Chimera was said to dwell.
Other accounts say that Athena brought Pegasus already tamed and bridled, or that Poseidon the horse-tamer, secretly the father of Bellerophon, brought Pegasus, asPausanias understood.[38]
When Bellerophon arrived in Lycia to face the ferociousChimera, he could not harm the monster even while riding Pegasus. But when he felt the Chimera's hot breath, he was struck with an idea. He got a large block of lead and mounted it on his spear. He then flew head-on towards the Chimera, holding out the spear as far as he could. Before breaking off his attack, he lodged the block of lead inside the Chimera's throat. The beast's fire-breath melted the lead, which blocked its air passage, suffocating it.[39][AI-generated source?] Somered-figure pottery painters show Bellerophon wielding Poseidon's trident instead.[40]
When Bellerophon returned victorious to King Iobates,[41] the king was unwilling to believe his story. A series of dauntingquests ensued: Bellerophon was sent against the warlikeAmazons, who fought like men, but he vanquished them by dropping boulders from his winged horse; in some narratives, this is preceded by Bellerophon facing off theSolymi.
When he was sent against a Carian pirate,Cheirmarrhus, Iobates’s men tried to ambush him, but failed when Bellerophon killed everyone sent to assassinate him. The palace guards then were sent against him, but Bellerophon called upon his father Poseidon, who flooded the plain ofXanthus behind Bellerophon as he approached. To defend themselves, the palace women rushed from the gates with their robes lifted high to expose themselves. Unwilling to confront them while they were undressed, Bellerophon withdrew.[42]
Iobates relented, produced the letter, and allowed Bellerophon to marry his daughter Philonoe, the younger sister ofAnteia, and shared with him half his kingdom,[43] with its fine vineyards and grain fields. The lady Philonoe bore him Isander (Peisander),[19][44] Hippolochus and Laodamia, who slept with Zeus the Counselor and boreSarpedon, but was slain byArtemis.[45][46][47]
Bellerophon took his vengeance on Stheneboea and Proetus as well. After returning to the royal couple following the Chimera's death, he pretended to reciprocate Stheneboea's love.[48] He promised to take her away toCaria, and she enthusiastically followed him on Pegasus. But while they were flying overMelos, Bellerophon threw her off the horse and she drowned in the waves below; fishermen found and returned her body, and Bellerophon confessed his actions to Proetus, claiming that he had exacted appropriate justice from them both in the form of death for her and grief for him.[49]
As Bellerophon's fame grew, so did hishubris. Bellerophon felt that because of his victory over the Chimera, he deserved to fly toMount Olympus, the home of the gods. This act angeredZeus and he sent agadfly to sting Pegasus, causing Bellerophon to fall back to Earth and die. Pegasus completed the flight to Olympus, where Zeus used him as a pack horse for his thunderbolts.[50]
According to other narratives, on the Plain of Aleion ("Wandering") inCilicia, Bellerophon, who had been blinded after falling into a thorn bush, lived out his life in misery, "devouring his own soul", until he died.[51][52]
Enough fragments ofEuripides' lost tragedyBellerophon remain (as about thirty quotations in surviving texts) to give scholars a basis for assessing its theme: the tragic outcome of his attempt to storm Olympus on Pegasus. An outspoken passage in which Bellerophon seems to doubt the gods' existence, due to the contrast between the wicked and impious, who live lives of ease, with the suffering of the good is apparently the basis forAristophanes' imputation of "atheism" to the poet.[53]
The replacement of Bellerophon by the more familiarculture heroPerseus was a development of Classical times that was standardized during theMiddle Ages and has been adopted by the European poets of theRenaissance and later.[54]
%2c_piatto_con_chimera_e_bellerofonte_su_pegaso%2c_350-300_ac_ca._(depositi_M._Naz._romano).JPG)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Bellerophon, name given to Hipponous, son of Glaucus, king or Ephyre, as 'slayer of monsters'; he had killed the Chimaera.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) with aHesychius gloss ελυες "water animal", and an Indo-European word for "snake", or "dragon", cognate to Englisheel, also found in HittiteIlluyanka, which would make Bellerophon the dragon slayer ofIndo-European myth, represented byIndra slayingVrtra in Indo-Aryan, and byThor slaying theMidgard Serpent in Germanic. Robert Graves inThe Greek Myths rev. ed. 1960 suggested a translation "bearing darts".
