Information AboutBellerophon |
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| greek mythology | |
| lycia | |
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spears the Chimera , on an Attic Red-figure Epinetron — 425 – 420 BC ]] Bellerophon or '''Bellerophont''' (perhaps "bearing darts"According to Robert Graves, ''The Greek Myths'' rev. ed. 1960, but see Kerenyi, below.) was a Hero of Greek Mythology , "the greatest hero and slayer of monsters, alongside of Kadmos and Perseus , before the days of Heracles ",Kerenyi 1959, p 75. whose greatest feat was to have killed the Chimera , a monster that Homer 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".''Iliad'' vi.155–203. BELLEROPHON'S MYTH ''Iliad'' vi.155–203 contains an embedded narrative told by Bellerophon's grandson Glaucus, named for his great-grandfather, which recounts Bellerophon's myth. Bellerophon was son of the , who was with child by Poseidon, he and Pegasus both sprang at the moment of her death. "From this moment we hear no more of Chrysaor, the rest of the tale concerning the stallion only... visits the spring of Pirene perhaps also for his brother's sake, by whom in the end he let himself be caught, the immortal horse by his mortal brother."Kerenyi p 80. Bellerophon's heroic journey began in the familiar way,See . CAPTURING PEGASUS The Lycian seer Polyeidos told Bellerophon that he would have need of Pegasus . To obtain the services of the untamed winged horse, Polyeidos told Bellerophon to sleep in the temple of Athena . While Bellerophon slept, he dreamed that Athena set a golden bridle beside him, saying "Sleepest thou, prince of the house of Aiolos? Come, take this charm for the steed and show it to the Tamer Thy Father as thou makest sacrifice to him of a white bull."Kerenyi, loc. cit, quoting Apollodorus Mythographus, 2.7.4. It was there when he awoke. Bellerophon had to approach Pegasus while it drank from a well; Polyeidos told him which well — the never-failing Pirene on the citadel of Corinth, the city of Bellerophon's birth. Other accounts say that Athena brought Pegasus already tamed and bridled, or that Poseidon the horse-tamer, secretly the father of Bellerophon, brought Pegasus, as Pausanias understood.''Description of Greece''1.4.6. Bellerophon mounted his steed and flew off to where the Chimera was said to dwell. THE SLAYING OF THE CHIMERA When he arrived in Lycia, the Chimera was truly ferocious, and he could not harm the monster even while riding on Pegasus. He felt the heat of the breath the Chimera expelled, and 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 (''illustration, right''). Before he broke off his attack, he managed to lodge the block of lead inside the Chimera's throat. The beast's fire-breath melted the lead, and blocked its air passage.Some of the Red-figure Pottery painters show Bellerophon wielding Poseidon's trident instead (Kerenyi, loc. cit.). The Chimera suffocated, and Bellerophon returned victorious to King Iobates. Hesiod , '' Theogony '' 319ff; '' Bibliotheke '', ii.3.2; Pindar , ''Olympian Odes'', xiii.63ff; Pausanias , ii.4.1; Hyginus , ''Fabulae'', 157; John Tzetzes , ''On Lycophron''. Iobates, on Bellerophon's return, was unwilling to credit his story. A series of daunting further and then against the Amazons who fight like men, whom Bellerophon vanquishes by dropping boulders from his winged horse; he is sent against a Carian pirate, Cheirmarrhus; an ambush fails, when Bellerophon kills all sent to assassinate him; the palace guards are sent against him, but Bellerophon calls upon Poseidon, who floods the plain of Xanthus behind Bellerophon as he approached, but the palace women sent him and the flood in retreat by rushing from the gates with their robes lifted high, offering themselves, to which the modest hero replied by withdrawingRobert Graves, 75.d; Plutarch, ''On the Virtues of Women''. Iobates relented, produced the letter, and allowed Bellerophon to marry his daughter Philonoe , the younger sister of Anteia, and shared with him half his kingdom,The inheritance of kingship through the king's daughter, with many heroic instances, was discussed by Margalit Finkelberg, "Royal succession in heroic Greece" ''The Classical Quarterly'' New Series 41.2 (1991), pp. 303-316; compare Orion and Merope. with fine vineyards and grain fields. The lady Philonoe bore him Isander,Isander was struck down by Ares in battle with the Solymi (''Iliad'' xvi. Hippolochus and Laodamia , who lay with Zeus the Counselor and bore Sarpedon but was slain by Artemis ''Iliad'' loc. cit. However, as Bellerophon's fame grew, so did his '' Hubris ''. Bellerophon felt that because of his victory over the Chimera he deserved to fly to Mount Olympus , the realm of the gods. However, this presumption angered Zeus and he sent a fly to sting the horse causing Bellerophon to fall all the way back to EarthParallels are in the myths of Icarus and Phaeton . on the Plain of Aleion ("Wandering"), where he lived out his life in misery as a blinded cripple, grieving and shunning the haunts of men.Pindar, ''Olympian Odes'', xiii.87–90, and ''Isthmian Odes'', vii.44; ''Bibliotheke'' ii.3.2; Homer , '' Iliad '' vi.155–203 and xvi.328; Ovid , '' Metamorphoses '' ix.646. EURIPIDES' ''BELLEROPHONTES'' Enough fragments of ' imputation of " Atheism " to the tragic poet.Christoph Riedweg, "The 'atheistic' fragment from Euripides' ''Bellerophontes'' (286 N&2)''", ''ICS'' 15.1 (1990). PERSEUS ON PEGASUS The replacement of Bellerophon by the more familiar Culture Hero Perseus was a development of Classical times that was standardized during the Middle Ages and has been adopted by the European poets of the Renaissance and later.George Burke Johnston " Jonson 's 'Perseus upon Pegasus'" ''The Review of English Studies'' New Series, 6.21 (Jan., 1955), pp. 65-67. BELLEROPHON IN POPULAR CULTURE
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