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BELLEROPHON, or BELLEROPHONTES

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 699 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BELLEROPHON, or BELLEROPHONTES , in See also:Greek See also:legend, son of See also:Glaucus or See also:Poseidon, See also:grandson of See also:Sisyphus and See also:local See also:hero of See also:Corinth. Having slain by See also:accident the Corinthian hero Bellerus (or, according to others, his own See also:brother) he fled to See also:Tiryns, where his kinsman Proetus, See also:king of See also:Argos, received him hospitably and purged him of his See also:guilt. But Anteia (or Stheneboea), wife of Proetus, became enamoured of Bellerophon, and, when he refused her advances, charged him with an See also:attempt upon her virtue. Proetus thereupon sent him to Iobates, his wife's See also:father, king of See also:Lycia, with a See also:letter or sealed tablet, in which were instructions, apparently given by means of signs, to take the See also:life of the See also:bearer. Arriving in Lycia, he was received as a See also:guest and entertained for nine days. On the tenth, being asked the See also:object of his visit, he handed the letter to the king, whose first See also:plan for complying with it was to send him to slay the See also:Chimaera, a See also:monster which was devastating the See also:country. Bellerophon,mounted on See also:Pegasus (q.v.) ,kept up in the See also:air out of the way of the Chimaera, but yet near enough to kill it with his See also:spear, or, as he is at other times represented,with his See also:sword or with a See also:bow. He was next ordered out against the Solymi, a hostile tribe, and afterwards against the See also:Amazons, from both of which expeditions he not only returned victorious, but also on his way back slew an See also:ambush of chosen warriors whom Iobates had placed to intercept hirn. His divine origin was now proved; the king gave him his daughter in See also:marriage; and the Lycians presented him with a large and fertile See also:estate on which he lived (See also:Apollodorus, ii. 3; See also:Homer, Iliad, vi. 155). Bellerophon is said to have returned to Tiryns and avenged himself on Anteia: he persuaded her to See also:fly with him on his winged See also:horse, and then flung her into the See also:sea near the See also:island of Melos (Schol.

Aristoph., See also:

Pax, 140). His ambitious attempt to ascend to the heavens on Pegasus brought upon him the wrath of the gods. His son was smitten by See also:Ares in See also:battle; his daughter Laodameia was slain by See also:Artemis; he himself, flung from his horse, lamed or blinded, became a wanderer over the See also:face of the See also:earth until his See also:death (See also:Pindar, Isthmia, vi. [vii.], 44; See also:Horace, Odes, iv. 11, 26). Bellerophon was honoured as a hero at Corinth and in Lycia. His See also:story formed the subject of the Iobates of See also:Sophocles, and of the Bellerophonies and Stheneboea of See also:Euripides. It has been suggested that See also:Perseus, the local hero of Argos, and Bellerophon were originally one and the same, the difference in their exploits being the result of the rivalry of Argos and Corinth. Both are connected with the See also:sun-See also:god Helios and with the sea-god Poseidon, the See also:symbol of the See also:union being the winged horse Pegasus. Bellerophon has been explained as a hero of the See also:storm, of which his conflict with the Chimaera is symbolical. The most frequent representations of Bellerophon in See also:ancient See also:art are (1) slaying the Chimaera, (2) departing from Argos with the letter, (3) leading Pegasus to drink. Among the first is to be noted a terra-See also:cotta See also:relief from Melos in the See also:British Museum, where also, on a See also:vase of See also:black See also:ware, is what seems to be a See also:representation of his See also:escape from Stheneboea.

See H. A. See also:

Fischer, Bellerophon (1851); R. Engelmann, Annali of the Archaeological See also:Institute at See also:Rome (1874); O. Treuber, Geschichte der Lykier (1887) ; articles in Pauly-Wissowa's Real-Encyclopddie, W. H. See also:Roscher's Lexikon der Mythologie, Daremberg and Saglio's Dictionnaire See also:des anliguites; L. See also:Preller, Griechische Mythologie. BELLES-LETTRES (Fr. for " See also:fine literature "), a See also:term used to designate the more See also:artistic and imaginative forms of literature, as See also:poetry or See also:romance, as opposed to more pedestrian and exact studies. The term appears to have been first used in See also:English by See also:Swift (1710).

End of Article: BELLEROPHON, or BELLEROPHONTES

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