Latin - Bellerophon and Pegasus

Bellerophon and Pegasus

By Helena and Millie

Inspired Art

Bellerophon on Pegasus

The Force of Eloquence

Artist: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Dates: 1746-1747

Style: Rococo

Genre: mythological painting

Technique: fresco

Gallery: Palazzo Labia, Venice, Italy

Background Information

Athena/Minerva

Corinth

The goddess of wisdom, arts, crafts, medicine, commerce, defense and magic, virginity

Lycia

A large and wealthy port city of Ancient Greece

The Muses

Lycia had a turbulent history, belonging to the Persian and Athenian Empires and also becoming independent

The nine Muses were the goddesses of the inspiration of literature, science and the arts

Poseidon/Neptune

Zeus/Jupiter

God of the sea, earthquakes, storms, and horses

Amazons

God of the sky, lightning, thunder, law, order, justice

A nation of all-female warriors

in Greek mythology

BELLEROPHON, PEGASOS & KHIMAIRA

Artist:Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696 - 1770)

Art style: Rococo

Title: The Force of Eloquence, Bellerophon and Pegasus (1724-25)

Techniquefresco

Location: Venice, Palazzo Sandi-Porto (Cipollato)

Bellerophon & The Chimera

Museum Collection: The J Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, Californnia, USA

Ware: Laconian Black Figure

Shape: Kylix

Painter: Attributed to the Boread Painter

Date: ca 570 - 565 BC

Period: Archaic

Roman

mosaic from Palmyra C3rd A.D.

Bellerophon Killing the Chimera

Athena, Pegasus and Bellerophon

Pebble mosaic depicting Bellerophon killing the Chimera, from Rhodes archaeological museum

Pompei – Casa dei Dioscuri, (fresco)

Pegasus

Jan Boeckhorst (around 1675-1680)

Museu Nacional de Belas Artes – Rio de Janeiro (oil on canvas)

Khimaira

Museum Collection: Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

Ware: Attic Black Figure

Shape: Cup siana

Painter: Attributed to the Heidelberg Painter

Date: ca 560 - 550 BC

Period: High Archaic

Bellerophon on Pegasus spears the Chimera, on an Attic red-figure epinetron, 425–420 BC

Morals

• Innocence and truth will come out in the end (Proteus' wife's accusations were fake and went unnoticed because of Bellerophon's virtues e.g. courage, cleverness)
• Don't try to overachieve/become self-absorbed or overly proud of yourself as this could lead to your downfall (Bellerophon thought he was good enough to visit the gods but ended up lonely and broken)

Grammar

Nouns

masculine

neuter

feminine

rex

monstrum

deae

templo

frenum

Verbs

masculine to kill

neuter he/she/it despairs

feminine he/she/it seeks

neuter he/she/it sleeps

neuter he/she/it appears

occidere

desperat

quaerit

dormit

apparet

Prepositions

N/A in

in

The Story (cont.)

Tail's End

• Iobates then sent him to fight pirates, Amazons (fierce female warriors) and his own army
• Bellerophon triumphed over all and Iobates gave him his daughter in marriage and half his kingdom
• But Bellerophon's hubris (extreme self-pride/self-confidence) led to his downfall
• Thought he was good enough to go to Olympus where the gods lived, and angered Zeus
• Zeus sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus, making Bellerophon fall to the ground and live the rest of his life a blind crippled hermit.

• Iobates received Bellerophon as his guest and his son-in-law's message about him
• Sent Bellerophon to defeat the Chimera
• Bellerophon asked the seer Polyeidos for help and he suggested Pegasus
• Bellerophon asked for Athena's help and slept in her temple
• She appeared in his sleep and gave him a golden bridle which he used to capture and ride Pegasus
• They flew to the Chimera's lair (a beast with the body of a goat, head of a lion and a snake tail that breathed fire)
• Bellerophon killed it by mounting a large block of lead on the end of his spear and holding it in front of the Chimera's mouth so that its fire melted the lead which blocked its airway and suffocated it.

Background Information

Athena/Minerva

Goddess of wisdom, arts, crafts, medicine, commerce, defense and magic, virginity

Corinth

A large and rich port city of Ancient Greece

Lycia

Poseidon/Neptune

Amazons

Lycia had a turbulent history

Muses

Chimera

Zeus/Jupiter

An Introduction

i

Background Information

Athena/Minerva

The goddess of wisdom, arts, crafts, medicine, commerce, defense and magic, virginity

Corinth

A large and wealthy port city of Ancient Greece

Lycia

Lycia had a turbulent history, belonging to the Persian and Athenian Empires and also becoming independent

The Muses

The nine Muses were the goddesses of the inspiration of literature, science and the arts

Poseidon/Neptune

God of the sea, earthquakes, storms, and horses

Zeus/Jupiter

God of the sky, lightning, thunder, law, order, justice

Amazons

A nation of all-female warriors

in Greek mythology

Translation

• Pegasus was a winged horse.
• Born from the blood of Medusa.
• Given by the goddess Athena to the Muses of the Helicon to be looked after.
• Bellerophon/Bellerophontes of Corinth was a great equestrian.
• Bellerophon's biggest dream was to have Pegasus all to himself.
• By legend, Bellerophon was the son of Poseidon, the god of the sea.
• That would mean that Pegasus and Bellerophon were brothers through their father.
• While Pegasus was still with Muses, Bellerophon was dreaming about his adventures.
• When he was looking for them he met Proteus the son-in-law of King Iobates of Lycia.
• Proteus' wife fancied Bellerophon, but he rejected her
• She pretended he was seducing her
• Proteus therefore became angry and sent him to Iobates with a letter telling all.

This is the introduction to the myth of Bellerophon and Pegasus:

Bellerophon is the bravest hero. The king of Lycia, Iobates, ordered him to kill the Chimera. The Chimera is a horrible monster: it has the body of a goat, the head of a lion and the tail of a snake.

Bellerophon despairs. He asks Athena for help and sleeps in her temple. The goddess appears in his dream and gives him a golden bridle. “Go now,” the goddess says. “And find the Pegasus. The Pegasus is a magic horse, it can fly. He will help.”

Grammar

Bibliography (cont.)

Unfinished

http://www.wikiart.org/en/giovanni-battista-tiepolo/bellerophon-on-pegasus-1747

http://www.myartprints.com/a/giovanni-battista-tiepolo/the-force-of-eloquence-be.html

http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/M14.1.html

http://www.theoi.com/Heros/Bellerophontes.html

http://worksofchivalry.com/en/the-bit-that-tamed-the-flying-horse-pegasus-and-bellerophon/

http://www.theoi.com/Gallery/P29.3.html

http://www.answers.com/topic/bellerophon

The End.

Bibliography

'Bellerophon'.

Wikipedia.

Accessed: 7 September 2014.

Wikimedia Foundation. 6 September 2014.

Bellerophontes.

Author unkown. (2014). Greek Myths & Greek Mythology.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bellerophon

Accessed: 7 September 2014.

Pegasus and

http://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/myth-pegasus-bellerophontes/

Accessed: 7 September 2014.

Author unkown. (Date unkown). Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology.

Hunt, J. (1996).

http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/bellerophon.html

Bellerophon.

(on line). Available:

7/9/14

http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/bdodge/scaffold/gg/bellerophon.html

Author unkown. (2014). Greek Mythology.

Accessed: 7 September 2014.

Bellerophon.

http://www.greekmythology.com/

Myths/Heroes/Bellerophon/bellerophon.html

Mythic Warriors - Bellerophon and Pegasus. (2013). [Online video]. Accessed: 7 September 2014.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6lEaJyq_NY

Video

Please note that this video may be inaccurate.