Bellerophon 45354 225328887 2008-07-13T03:12:56Z Monkeyangst 1654617 /* Bellerophon in popular culture */ {{alternateuses}} [[Image:NAMA Epinetron Bellérophon.jpg|thumb|300px|'''Bellerophon''' on [[Pegasus]] spears the [[Chimera (mythology)|Chimera]], on an [[Attica|Attic]] [[Red-figure pottery|red-figure]] [[epinetron]] &mdash; [[425 BC|425]]&ndash;[[420 BC]]]] '''Bellerophon''' (βελλεροφῶν) or '''Bellerophontes''' (βελλεροφόντης) was a [[hero]] of [[Greek mythology]], "the greatest hero and slayer of monsters, alongside of [[Cadmus|Kadmos]] and [[Perseus]], before the days of [[Heracles]]",<ref>Kerenyi 1959, p 75.</ref> whose greatest feat was killing the [[Chimera (mythology)|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".<ref>''Iliad'' vi.155–203.</ref> ==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 [[Monarch|king]] [[Glaucus]] ("sea-green"<ref>Kerenyi 1959 p 78 suggests that "sea-green" Glaucus is a double for [[Poseidon]], god of the sea, who looms behind many of the elements in Bellerophon's myth, not least as the sire of Pegasus and of Chrysaor, but also as the protector of Bellerophon.</ref>) of [[Corinth, Greece|Corinth]] and the grandson of death-cheating [[Sisyphus]], who had been sent to [[Tartarus]] for his many impieties in life, though he had founded Corinth. Bellerophon's grandsons [[Sarpedon]] and the younger Glaucus fought in the [[Trojan War]]. In the ''[[Bibliotheca (Pseudo-Apollodorus)|Epitome]]'' of pseudo-[[Apollodorus]], a genealogy is given for [[Chrysaor]] ("of the golden sword") that would make him a double of Bellerophon; he too is called the son of Glaucus the son of Sisyphus. Chrysaor has no myth save that of his birth: from the severed neck of [[Medusa]], 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...[who 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."<ref>Kerenyi p 80.</ref> Bellerophon's brave journey began in the familiar way,<ref>See [[Joseph Campbell]], ''The Hero with a Thousand Faces''.</ref> with an exile: he had murdered either his brother, whose name is usually given as Deliades, or killed a shadowy "enemy", a "Belleros"<ref>The suggestion, made by Kerenyi and others, makes the name "Bellerophontes" the "killer of Belleros", just as Hermes Argeiphontes is "Hermes the killer of [[Argus]]". Rhys Carpenter, in "Argeiphontes: A Suggestion" ''American Journal of Archaeology'' '''54'''.3 (July 1950), pp. 177-183, makes a carefully-argued case for ''Bellerophontes'' as the "bane-slayer" of the "bane to mankind" in ''Iliad'' II.329, derived from a rare Greek word έλλερον, explained by the grammarians as κακόν, "evil". This έλλερον is connected by J. Katz ('How to be a Dragon in Indo-European: Hittite illuyankas and its Linguistic and Cultural Congeners in Latin, Greek, and Germanic', in: ''Mír Curad. Studies in Honor of Calvert Watkins'', ed. Jasanoff, Melchert, Oliver, Innsbruck 1998, 317–334) with a [[Hesychius]] golss ελυες "water animal", and an Indo-European word for "snake" or "dragon", cognate to English ''[[eel]]'', also found in Hittite ''[[Illuyanka]]'', which would make Bellerophon the dragon slayer of [[Indo-European myth]], represented by [[Indra]] slaying [[Vrtra]] in Indo-Aryan, and by [[Thor]] slaying the [[Midgard Serpent]] in Germanic. Robert Graves in ''[[The Greek Myths]]'' rev. ed. 1960 suggested a translation "bearing darts"</ref> (though the details are never directly told), and in expiation of his crime arrived as a suppliant to [[Proetus]], king in [[Tiryns]], one of the Mycenaean strongholds of the [[Argolid]]. Proetus, by virtue of his kingship, cleansed Bellerophon of his crime. The wife of the king, whether named [[Anteia]]<ref>In ''[[Iliad]]'' vi.</ref> or [[Stheneboea]],<ref>[[Euripides]]' tragedies ''Stheneboia'' and ''Bellerophontes'' are lost.</ref> took a fancy to him, but when he rejected her, she accused Bellerophon of attempting to ravish her.<ref>This [[mytheme]] is most familiar in the narrative of Joseph and [[Potiphar]]'s wife. Robert Graves also notes the parallel in the Egyptian ''Tale of Two Brothers'' and in the desire of [[Athamas]]' wife for [[Phrixus]] (Graves 1960, 70.2, 75.1).</ref> Proetus dared not satisfy his anger by killing a guest, so he sent Bellerophon to king [[Iobates]] his father-in-law, in the plain of the [[Xanthus|River Xanthus]] in [[Lycia]], bearing a sealed message in a folded tablet: "Pray remove the bearer from this world: he attempted to violate my wife, your daughter."<ref>The tablets "on which he had traced a number of devices with a deadly meaning" constitute the only apparent reference to writing in the ''Iliad''. Such a letter is termed a "bellerophontic" letter; one such figures in a subplot of Shakespeare's ''[[Hamlet]]'', bringing offstage death to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Such a letter figures in the earlier story of [[Sargon of Akkad]].</ref> Before opening the tablets, Iobates feasted with Bellerophon for nine days. On reading the tablet's message Iobates too feared the wrath of the [[Erinyes]] if he murdered a guest; so he sent Bellerophon on a mission that he deemed impossible: to kill the fire-breathing monster the [[Chimera (mythology)|Chimera]], living in neighboring [[Caria]]. The chimera was a fire-breathing monster whose make-up comprised the body of a goat, the head of a lion and the tail being a serpent which had terrorised the nearby countryside. == Capturing Pegasus == [[Image:The-Winged-Horse.jpg|thumb|Bellerophon riding Pegasus (1914)]] 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 [[Poseidon|Tamer thy father]] as thou makest sacrifice to him of a white bull."<ref>Kerenyi, loc. cit, quoting Apollodorus Mythographus, 2.7.4.</ref> 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 (geographer)|Pausanias]] understood.<ref>''Description of Greece''1.4.6.</ref> 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 (mythology)|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 did so, and 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.<ref>Some of the [[red-figure pottery]] painters show Bellerophon wielding Poseidon's trident instead (Kerenyi, loc. cit.).</ref> The Chimera suffocated, and Bellerophon returned victorious to King Iobates.<ref>[[Hesiod]], ''[[Theogony]]'' 319ff; ''[[Bibliotheke]]'', ii.3.2; [[Pindar]], ''Olympian Odes'', xiii.63ff; [[Pausanias (geographer)|Pausanias]], ii.4.1; [[Gaius Julius Hyginus|Hyginus]], ''Fabulae'', 157; [[John Tzetzes]], ''On Lycophron''.</ref> Iobates, on Bellerophon's return, was unwilling to credit his story. A series of daunting further [[quest]]s ensued: he was sent against the warlike [[Solymi]] and then against the [[Amazons]] who fight like men, whom Bellerophon vanquished by dropping boulders from his winged horse; when he was sent against a Carian pirate, Cheirmarrhus, an ambush failed, when Bellerophon kills all sent to assassinate him; the palace guards were sent against him, but Bellerophon called upon Poseidon, who flooded the plain of [[Xanthus]] behind Bellerophon as he approached. In defense 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 withdrawing<ref>Robert Graves, 75.d; Plutarch, ''On the Virtues of Women''.</ref> 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,<ref>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 (mythology)|Orion]] and Merope.</ref> with fine vineyards and grain fields. The lady Philonoe bore him Isander,<ref>Isander was struck down by Ares in battle with the Solymi (''Iliad'' xvi.</ref> Hippolochus and [[Laodamia]], who lay with Zeus the Counselor and bore [[Sarpedon]] but was slain by [[Artemis]]<ref>''Iliad'' loc. cit.</ref> 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 (Mountain)|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 Earth<ref>Parallels are in the myths of [[Icarus (mythology)|Icarus]] and [[Phaeton]].</ref> 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.<ref>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.</ref> ==Euripides' ''Bellerophontes''== Enough fragments of [[Euripides]]' lost tragedy ''Bellerophontes'' remain embedded as some 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 from the contrast between the wicked and impious, who live lives of ease with the privations suffered by the good— is apparently the basis for [[Aristophanes]]' imputation of "[[atheism]]" to the tragic poet.<ref>Christoph Riedweg, "The 'atheistic' fragment from Euripides' ''Bellerophontes'' (286 N²)''", ''ICS'' '''15'''.1 (1990).</ref> ==Perseus on Pegasus== {{details|Perseus}} 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.<ref>George Burke Johnston "[[Ben Jonson|Jonson]]'s 'Perseus upon Pegasus'" ''The Review of English Studies'' New Series, '''6'''.21 (Jan., 1955), pp. 65-67.</ref> ==Bellerophon in popular culture== * Bellerophon is the central character of ''Bellerophoniad'', one of the three novellas that make up the novel [[Chimera (John Barth novel)|Chimera]] by [[John Barth]]. * In [[The Concept of Anxiety]], [[Søren Kierkegaard]] wrote that Bellerophon ''"sat calmly on his Pegasus in the service of the idea but fell when he wanted to misuse Pegasus by riding the horse to a rendezvous with a mortal woman."''<ref>[[The Concept of Anxiety]], [[Princeton University Press]], 1980, ISBN 0-691-02011-6, p.150.</ref> * In the [[little magazine]] ''[[The Savoy (periodical)|The Savoy]]'' from the 1890s, an [[Aubrey Beardsley]] drawing was often printed on the back cover featuring a mischievous [[pierrot]] riding Pegasus in place of the traditional hero. * The [[Baroque]] [[opera seria]] ''[[Il Bellerofonte]]'' of the Czech composer [[Josef Mysliveček]], premiered in Naples, 1767; its libretto by Giuseppe Bonecchi focused on the passion of the queen Antea. * A large [[statue]] of Bellerophon taming Pegasus graces the facade of the [[Columbia Law School]], in [[Manhattan]]. * A [[List of fictional medicines and drugs|fictional drug]] in ''[[Mission: Impossible II]]'' is named Bellerophon and is the only cure for the [[chimera (virus)|chimera]] virus. * It is mentioned as the name of a colonist spacecraft in the classic [[1956]] science fiction movie, ''[[Forbidden Planet]]'', a spacecraft on the TV series ''[[Andromeda (TV series)|Andromeda]]'', a character on the TV series ''[[Xena: Warrior Princess]]'', and the name of a planet in [[Joss Whedon]]'s TV series ''[[Firefly (TV series)|Firefly]]''. The real first name of Captain "Tornado" Shanks on the animated TV series ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' is Bellerophon. * This mythical character's name is also used by the Japanese game/anime ''[[Fate/Stay Night]]''. Bellerophon is the name of one of the character [[Rider (Fate/stay night)|Rider]]'s [[special attack]]s, which takes form of a bridle (Bellerophon) she uses on a pegasus. Rider's true identity is Medusa and according to legend, a pegasus springs to life from her neck upon her death, hence explaining her stabbing her neck in one episode and also calling the name Bellerophon. * "Bellerophon" is the name of a computer program used by geneticists and molecular biologists to detect invalid "chimera" genetic sequences. * ''Bellerophon'' was also the name of three [[Royal Navy]] warships, the first of which fought many naval battles against [[Napoleon]]. It was made in [[1782]] and dismantled in [[1836]]. [[Napoleon]] surrendered and was taken aboard the ''[[HMS Bellerophon (1786)|Bellerophon]]'' after his defeat at [[Battle of Waterloo|Waterloo]]. Known as "Billy Ruffian" by its crew, it fought at the [[Battle of the Nile]] ([[1798]]) and [[Battle of Trafalgar]] ([[1805]]). The rise of the [[British Empire]] at this period could be reflected in the Greek myths surrounding the original Bellerophon and his egotistical rise and fall from power. The second [[HMS Bellerophon (1865)|HMS ''Bellerophon'']] was an early [[battleship]], renamed ''Indus III'' in 1904 and used for training, then sold in 1922. The third [[HMS Bellerophon (1907)|HMS ''Bellerophon'']] was the lead ship of a three-ship class, which were a follow up to [[HMS Dreadnought (1906)|HMS ''Dreadnought'']]; she fought at the [[Battle of Jutland]]. * The [[USS Bellerophon (ARL-31)|USS ''Bellerophon'' (ARL-31)]] was one of 41 [[USS Achelous (ARL-1)|''Achelous''-class]] [[landing craft]] repair ships built for the [[United States Navy]] during [[World War II]]. She was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name. * In the ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' episode "[[Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges (DS9 episode)|Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges]]", the USS ''Bellerophon'' is an ''Intrepid''-class starship that transports Dr. [[Julian Bashir]] and Vice Admiral William Ross to [[Romulus and Remus (Star Trek)|Romulus]] for a medical conference during the [[Dominion War]]. A previous ''Nebula''-class USS ''Bellerophon'' was destroyed by the [[Borg]] at the [[Battle of Wolf 359]] in 2367. * The band Beirut, led by multi-instrumentalist and singer Zach Condon, released a song on their two-track ep Pompeii called "Napoleon on the Bellerophon." * The first planet discovered orbiting a Sun-like star, [[51 Pegasi]], has been nicknamed Bellerophon, as the star is in the constellation Pegasus. *In the 2007 Star Trek fan film "Star Trek New Voyages: World Enough and Time" Lt. Sulu (John Lim) and Lisa Chandris (Christina Moses) use the shuttle Bellerophon to investigate the wreckage of three Romulan warbirds. *In the SciFi Hit Andromeda Ascendant the Bellerophon was the fastest sub light ship created, due to the time dialation affect her crew only experienced 30 odd years out of the 3000 that had passed. ==Notes== {{reflist|2}} ==References== *[[Robert Graves|Graves, Robert]], 1960. ''The Greek Myths'', revised edition (Harmondsworth:Penguin) *[[Homer]], ''[[Iliad]]'', book vi.155–203 *[[Karl Kerenyi|Kerenyi, Karl]], 1959. ''The Heroes of the Greeks'' (London: Thames and Hudson) [[Category:Greek mythology]] [[Category:Lycia]] [[Category:Mythological kings]] [[Category:Corinthian mythology]] [[br:Bellerofon]] [[bg:Белерофонт]] [[ca:Bel·lerofont]] [[cs:Bellerofontés]] [[da:Bellerofon]] [[de:Bellerophon]] [[el:Βελλεροφόντης]] [[es:Belerofonte]] [[fa:بلروفون]] [[fr:Bellérophon]] [[ko:벨레로폰]] [[it:Bellerofonte]] [[he:בלרופון]] [[lv:Bellerofons]] [[lb:Bellerophon]] [[lt:Belerofonas]] [[nl:Bellerophon]] [[ja:ベレロポン]] [[no:Bellerofon]] [[pl:Bellerofont]] [[pt:Belerofonte]] [[ro:Belerofon]] [[ru:Беллерофонт]] [[sk:Bellerofontes]] [[sl:Belerofont]] [[sr:Белерофонт]] [[fi:Bellerofon]] [[sv:Bellerofon]] [[uk:Беллерофонт]] [[zh:柏勒洛丰]]