Listed 51 sub titles with search on: Homeric world for wider area of: "CORINTHIA Prefecture PELOPONNISOS" .
FLIOUS (Ancient city) NEMEA
A contemporary of Prometheus, an aboriginal, first to dwell in Phliasia, builds Arantia, his tomb, graves of children of A, libations offered to A. and his children.
Araethyrea (Araithurea), a daughter of Aras, an autochthon who was believed to have built Arantea, the most ancient town in Phliasia. She had a brother called Aoris, and is said to have been fond of the chase and warlike pursuits. When she died, her brother called the country of Phliasia after her Araethyrea (Hom. Il. ii. 571; Strab. viii.). She was the mother of Phlias. The monuments of Araethyrea and her brother, consisting of round pillars, were still extant in the time of Pausanias; and before the mysteries of Demeter were commenced at Phlius, the people always invoked Aras and his two children with their faces 8 turned towards their monuments. (Paus. ii. 12.4-6)
ISTHMIA (Ancient sanctuary) LOUTRAKI-PERACHORA
KYLLINI (Mountain) CORINTHIA
Son of Zeus by Maia, born on Mount Cyllene, on the top of which there was a temple dedicated to Cyllenian Hermes. He is the messenger of the gods, like Iris (Il. 24.347, Od. 5.28), and the conductor of souls to Hades (Od. 24.1).
Hermes (dor. Hermas). The son of Zeus and of the Naiad Maia,
daughter of Atlas. Immediately after his birth upon the Arcadian mountain of Cyllene,
he gave proof of his chief characteristics--inventiveness and versatility, united
with fascination, trickery, and cunning. Born in the morning, by mid-day he had
invented the lyre; in the evening he stole fifty head of cattle from his brother
Apollo, which he hid so skilfully in a cave that they could not be found. After
these exploits he lay down quietly in his cradle. Apollo, by means of his prophetic
power, discovered the thief and took the offender to Zeus, who ordered the cattle
to be given up. Hermes, however, so delighted his brother by his playing on the
lyre that, in exchange for it, he allowed him to keep the cattle, resigned to
him the golden staff of fortune and of riches, with the gift of prophecy in its
humbler forms, and from that time forth became his best friend. Zeus made his
son herald to the gods and the guide of the dead in Hades. In this myth are contained
allusions to several attributes of the god.
In many districts of Greece, and especially in Arcadia, the
old seat of his worship, Hermes was regarded as a god who bestowed the blessing
of fertility on the pastures and herds, and who was happiest when spending his
time among shepherds and dallying with Nymphs, by whom he had numberless children,
including Pan and Daphnis. In many places he was considered the god of crops,
and also as the god of mining and of digging for buried treasure. His kindliness
to man is also shown in his being the god of roads. At cross-roads in particular,
there were raised in his honour, and called by his name, not only heaps of stones,
to which every passer-by added a stone, but also the quadrangular pillars known
as Hermae. At Athens these last were set up in the streets and open spaces, and
also before the doors. Every unexpected find on the road was called a gift of
Hermes (hermaion). Together with Athene, he escorted and protected heroes in perilous
enterprises, and gave them prudent counsels. He took special delight in men's
dealings with one another, in exchange and barter, in buying and selling; and
in all that is won by craft or by theft. Thus he was the patron of tradespeople
and thieves, and was himself the father of Autolycus, the greatest of all thieves.
He, too, it was who endowed Pandora, the first woman, with the faculty of lying,
and with flattering discourse and a crafty spirit. On account of his nimbleness
and activity he was the messenger of Zeus, and knew how to carry out his father's
commands with adroitness and cunning, as in the slaying of Argos (the guard of
Io), from which he derived his epithet of Argos-slayer (Argeiphontes). Again,
as Hermes was the sacrificial herald of the gods, it was an important part of
the duty of heralds to assist at sacrifices. It was on this account that the priestly
race of the Kerukes claimed him as the head of their family. Strength of voice
and excellence of memory were supposed to be derived from him in his capacity
of herald. Owing to his vigour, dexterity, and personal charm, he was deemed the
god of gymnastic skill, which makes men strong and handsome, and the especial
patron of boxing, running, and throwing the discus; in this capacity the palaestrae
and gymnasia were sacred to him, and particular feasts called Hermaea were dedicated
to him. He was the discoverer of music (for besides the lyre he invented the shepherd's
pipe), and he was also the god of wise and clever discourse. A later age made
him even the inventor of letters, figures, mathematics, and astronomy. He was,
besides, the god of sleep and of dreams; with one touch of his staff he could
close or open the eyes of mortals; hence the custom, before going to sleep, of
offering him the last libation. As he was the guide of the living on their way,
so he was also the conductor of the souls of the dead in the nether-world (psuchopompos),
and was as much loved by the gods of those regions as by those above. For this
reason sacrifices were offered to him in the event of deaths, Hermae were placed
on the graves, and, at oracles and incantations of the dead, he was honoured as
belonging to the lower world; in general, he was accounted the intermediary between
the upper and lower worlds. His worship early spread throughout the whole of Greece.
As he was born in the fourth month, the number four was sacred to him. In Argos
the fourth month was named after him, and in Athens he was honoured with sacrifices
on the fourth of every month. His altars and images (mostly simple Hermae) were
in all the streets, thoroughfares, and open spaces, and also at the entrance of
the palaestra.
In art he is represented in the widely varying characters which
he assumed, as a shepherd with a single animal from his flock, as a mischievous
little thief, as the god of gain with a purse in his hand, with a strigil as patron
of the gymnasia, at other times with a lyre, but oftenest of all as the messenger
of the gods. He was portrayed by the greatest sculptors, such as Phidias, Polyclitus,
Scopas, and Praxiteles, whose Hermes with the infant Dionysus was discovered in
1877, in the temple of Here, at Olympia. It is mentioned by Pausanias, and is
described by Treu in his Hermes mit dem Dionysosknaben (Berlin, 1878). In the
older works of art he appears as a bearded man; in the later ones, he is found
in a graceful and charming attitude, as a slim youth with tranquil features, indicative
of intellect and good-will. His usual attributes are wings on his golden sandals
(pedila), and a flat, broad-brimmed hat, which in later times was ornamented with
wings, as was also his staff. This last (rhabdos, kerukeion, caduceus) was originally
an enchanter's wand, a symbol of power that produces wealth and prosperity, and
also an emblem of influence over the living and the dead, yet even in early times
it was regarded as a herald's staff and an emblem of peaceful intercourse. It
consisted of three shoots, one of which formed the handle, the other two being
intertwined at the top in a knot. The place of the latter was afterwards taken
by serpents; and thus arose our ordinary type of herald's staff. By the Romans,
Hermes was identified with Mercurius. For examples of the myths of Hermes in English
literature, see Shelley's Homeric Hymn to Mercury, and Keats's Ode to Maia, with
some fine passages in the Prometheus Bound of the former poet.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Hermes (Hermeias, Dor. Hermas), a son of Zeus and Maia, the daughter of Atlas,
was born in a cave of Mount Cyllene in Arcadia (Hom. Od. viii. 335, xiv. 435,
xxiv. 1; Hymn. in Merc. 1; Ov. Met. i. 682, xiv. 291), whence he is called Atlantiades
or Cyllenius; but Philostratus (Icon. i. 26) places his birth in Olympus. In the
first hours after his birth, he escaped from his cradle, went to Pieria, and carried
off some of the oxen of Apollo (Hom. Hymn. in Merc. 17). In the Iliad and Odyssey
this tradition is not mentioned, though Hermes is characterised as a cunning thief
(Il. v. 390, xxiv. 24). Other accounts, again, refer the theft of the oxen to
a more advanced period of the life of the god (Apollod. iii.10.2; Anton. Lib.
23). In order not to be discovered by the traces of his footsteps, Hermes put
on sandals, and drove the oxen to Pylos, where he killed two, and concealed the
rest in a cave (Comp. the different stratagems by which he escaped in Horn. Hymn.
in Merc. 75, and Anton. Lib. l. c.). The skins of the slaughtered animals were
nailed to a rock, and part of their flesh was prepared and consumed, and the rest
burnt; at the same time he offered scrifices to the twelve gods, whence he is
probably called the inventor of divine worship and sacrifices (Hom. Hymn. in Merc.
125; Diod. i. 16). Hereupon he returned to Cyllene, where he found a tortoise
at the entrance of his native cave. He took the animal's shell, drew strings across
it, and thus invented the lyre and plectrum. The number of strings of his new
invention is said by some to have been three and by others seven, and they were
made of the guts either of oxen or of sheep (Hom. l. c. 51; Diod. i. 16, v. 75;
Orph. Argon. 381; Horat. Carm. i. 10. 6). Apollo, by his prophetic power, had
in the meantime discovered the thief, and went to Cyllene to charge him with it
before his mother Maia. She showed to the god the child in its cradle; but Apollo
took the boy before Zeus, and demanded back his oxen. Zeus commanded him to comply
with the demand of Apollo, but Hermes denied that he had stolen the cattle. As,
however, he saw that his assertions were not believed, he conducted Apollo to
Pylos, and restored to him his oxen; but when Apollo heard the sounds of the lyre,
he was so charmed that he allowed Hermes to keep the animals. Hermes now invented
the syrinx, and after having disclosed his inventions to Apollo, the two gods
concluded an intimate friendship with each other (Hom. l.c. 514). Apollo presented
his young friend with his own golden shepherd's staff, taught him the art of prophesying
by means of dice, and Zeus made him his own herald, and also of the gods of the
lower world. According to the Homeric hymn (533), Apollo refused to teach Hermes
the art of prophecy, and referred him for it to the three sisters dwelling on
Parnassus; but he conferred upon him the office of protecting flocks and pastures
(568; comp. Lucian, Dial. Deor. 7; Ov. Met. ii. 683).
The principal feature in the traditions about Hermes consists in his
being the herald of the gods, and in this capacity he appears even in the Homeric
poems; his original character of an ancient Pelasgian, or Arcadian divinity of
nature, gradually disappeared in the legends. As the herald of the gods, he is
the god of skill in the use of speech and of eloquence in general, for the heralds
are the public speakers in the assemblies and on other occasions (Il. i. 333,
iv. 193, vii. 279, 385, viii. 517, xi. 684; comp. Orph. Hymn. 27. 4; Aelian, H.
A. x. 29; Hor. Carm. i. 10. 1). As an adroit speaker, he was especially employed
as messenger, when eloquence was required to attain the desired object (Od. i.
38, Il. xxiv. 390; Hom. Hymn. in Cer. 335). Hence the tongues of sacrificial animals
were offered to him (Aristoph. Pax, 1062; Athen. i). As heralds and messengers
are usually men of prudence and circumspection, Hermes was also the god of prudence
and skill in all the relations of social intercourse (Il. xx. 35, xxiv. 282, Od.
ii. 38). These qualities were combined with similar ones, such as cunning both
in words and actions, and even fraud, perjury, and the inclination to steal; but
acts of this kind were committed by Hermes always with a certain skill, dexterity,
and even gracefulness. Examples occur in the Homeric hymn on Hermes (66, 260,
383; comp. Eustath. ad Hom.; Hom. Il. v. 390, xxiv. 24; Apollod. i. 6.3).
Being endowed with this shrewdness and sagacity, he was regarded as
the author of a variety of inventions, and, besides the lyre and syrinx, he is
said to have invented the alphabet, numbers, astronomy, music, the art of fighting,
gymnastics, the cultivation of the olive tree, measures, weights, and many other
things (Plut. Sympos. ix. 3; Diod. l.c. and v. 75; Hygin. Fab. 277). The powers
which he possessed himself he conferred upon those mortals and heroes who enjoyed
his favour, and all who had them were under his especial protection, or are called
his sons (Od. x. 277, xv. 318, xix. 397; Soph. Philoct. 133; Hes. Op. 67; Eustath.
ad Hom.). He was employed by the gods and more especially by Zeus on a variety
of occasions which are recorded in ancient story. Thus he conducted Priam to Achilles
to fetch the body of Hector (Il. xxiv. 336), tied Ixion to the wheel (Hygin. Fab.
62), conducted Hera, Aphrodite, and Athena to Paris (Hygin. Fab. 92; Paus. v.
19.1), fastened Prometheus to Mount Caucasus (Serv. ad Virg. Eclog. vi. 42), rescued
Dionysus after his birth from the flames, or received him from the hands of Zeus
to carry him to Athamas (Apollod. iii. 4.3; Apollon. Rhod. iv. 1137), sold Heracles
to Omphale (Apollod. ii. 6.3), and was ordered by Zeus to carry off Io, who was
metamorphosed into a cow, and guarded by Argus; but being betrayed by Hierax,
he slew Argus (Apollod. ii. 1.3.) From this murder he is very commonly called
Argeiphontes (Il. xxiv. 182; comp. Schol. ad Aeschyl. Prom. 563; Ov. Met. i. 670).
In the Trojan war Hermes was on the side of the Greeks (Il. xx. 72). His ministry
to Zeus is not confined to the offices of herald and messenger, but he is also
the charioteer and cupbearer (Hom. Od. i. 143, Il. xxiv. 178, 440, Hymn. in Cer.
380; Eustath. ad Hom.). As dreams are sent by Zeus, Hermes, the hegetor oneiron,
conducts them to man, and hence he is also described as the god who had it in
his power to send refreshing sleep or to take it away (Hom. Hymn. in Merc. 14,
Il. ii. 26, xxiv. 343). Another important function of Hermes was to conduct the
shades of the dead from the upper into the lower world, whence he is called psuchopompos,
nekropomtos, psuchagogos, &c. (Hom. Od. xxiv. 1, 9, Hymn. in Cer. 379; Eustath.
ad Hom.; Diog. Laert. viii. 31; Hygin. Fab. 251).
The idea of his being the herald and messenger of the gods, of his
travelling from place to place and concluding treaties, necessarily implied the
notion that he was the promoter of social intercourse and of commerce among men,
and that he was friendly towards man (Od. xix. 135, Il. xxiv. 333). In this capacity
he was regarded as the maintainer of peace, and as the god of roads, who protected
travellers, and punished those who refused to assist travellers who had mistaken
their way (Il. vii. 277; Theocrit. xxv. 5; Aristoph. Plut. 1159). Hence the Athenian
generals, on setting out on an expedition, offered sacrifices to Hermas, surnamed
Hegemonius, or Agetor; and numerous statues of the god were erected on roads,
at doors and gates, from which circumstance he derived a variety of surnames and
epithets. As the god of commerce, he was called diemporos, empolaios, palinkapelos,
kerdemporos, agoraios, &c. (Aristoph. Plut. 1155; Pollux, vii. 15; Orph. Hymn.
xxvii. 6; Paus. i. 15.1, ii. 9.7, iii. 11.8, &c.); and as commerce is the source
of wealth, Hermes is also the god of gain and riches, especially of sudden and
unexpected riches, such as are acquired by commerce. As the giver of wealth and
good luck (ploutodotes), he also presided over the game of dice, and those who
played it threw an olive leaf upon the dice, and first drew this leaf (Hom. Il.
vii. 183; Aristoph. Pax, 365; Eustath. ad Hom.). We have already observed that
Hermes was considered as the inventor of sacrifices, and hence he not only acts
the part of a herald at sacrifices (Aristoph. Pax, 433), but is also the protector
of sacrificial animals, and was believed in particular to increase the fertility
of sheep (Hom. Hymn. in Merc. 567, Il. xiv. 490, xvi. 180; Hes. Theog. 444). For
this reason he was especially worshipped by shepherds, and is mentioned in connection
with Pan and the Nymphs (Hom. Od. xiv. 435; Eustath. ad Hom.; Aristoph. Thesm.
977; Paus. viii. 16.1; ix. 34.2; Schol. ad Soph. Philoct. 14, 59). This feature
in the character of Hermes is a remnant of the ancient Arcadian religion, in which
he was the fertilising god of the earth, who conferred his blessings on man; and
some other traces of this character occur in the Homeric poems. (Il. xxiv. 360,
Od. viii. 335, xvi. 185, Hymn. in Merc. 27)
Another important function of Hermes was his being the patron of all
the gymnastic games of the Greeks. This idea seems to be of late origin, for in
the Homeric poems no trace of it is found; and the appearance of the god, such
as it is there described, is very different from that which we might expect in
the god of the gymnastic art. But as his images were erected in so many places,
and among them, at the entrance of the gymnasia, the natural result was, that
he, like Heracles and the Dioscuri, was regarded as the protector of youths and
gymnastic exercises and contests (Pind. Nem. x. 53), and that at a later time
the Greek artists derived their ideal of the god from the gymnasium, and represented
him as a youth whose limbs were beautifully and harmoniously developed by gymnastic
exercises. Athens seems to have been the first place in which he was worshipped
in this capacity (Pind. Pyth. ii. 10, Isthm. i. 60; Aristoph. Plut. 1161). The
numerous descendants of Hermes are treated of in separate articles. It should
be observed that the various functions of the god led some of the ancients to
assume a plurality of gods of this name. Cicero (de Nat. Deor. iii. 22) distinguishes
five, and Servius (ad Aen. i. 301, iv. 577) four; but these numbers also include
foreign divinities, which were identified by the Greeks with their own Hermes.
The most ancient seat of his worship is Arcadia, the land of his birth,
where Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus, is said to have built to him the first temple
(Hygin. Fab. 225). From thence his worship was carried to Athens, and ultimately
spread through all Greece. The festivals celebrated in his honour were called
Hermaia. His temples and statues (Dict. of Ant. s.v. Hermae) were extremely
numerous in Greece. The Romans identified him with Mercury. Among the things sacred
to him we may mention the palm tree, the tortoise, the number four, and several
kinds of fish; and the sacrifices offered to him consisted of incense, honey,
cakes, pigs, and especially lambs and young goats (Paus. vii. 22.2; Aristoph.
Plut. 1121, 1144; Hom. Od. xiv. 435, xix. 397; Athen. i. p. 16).
The principal attributes of Hermes are:
1. A travelling hat, with a broad brim, which in later times was adorned with
two little wings; the latter, however, are sometimes seen arising from his locks,
his head not being covered with the hat.
2. The staff (rhabdos or skeptron): it is frequently mentioned in the Homeric
poems as the magic staff by means of which he closes and opens the eyes of mortals,
but no mention is made of the person or god from whom he received it, nor of the
entwining serpents which appear in late works of art. According to the Homeric
hymn and Apollodorus, he received it from Apollo; and it appears that we must
distinguish two staves, which were afterwards united into one: first, the ordinary
herald's staff (Il. vii. 277, xviii. 505), and secondly, a magic staff, such as
other divinities also possessed (Lucian, Dial. Deor. vii. 5; Virg. Aen. iv. 242).
The white ribbons with which the herald's staff was originally surrounded were
changed by later artists into two serpents (Schol. ad Thuc. i. 53; Macrob. Sat.
i. 19; comp. Hygin. Poet. Astr. ii. 7; Serv. ad Aen. iv. 242, viii. 138), though
the ancients themselves accounted for them either by tracing them to some feat
of the god, or by regarding them as symbolical representations of prudence, life,
health, and the like. The staff, in later times, is further adorned with a pair
of wings, expressing the rapidity with which the messenger of the gods moved from
place to place.
3. The sandals (pedila.) They were beautiful and golden, and carried the god across
land and sea with the rapidity of wind; but Homer no where says or suggests that
they were provided with wings. The plastic art, on the other hand, required some
outward sign to express this quality of the god's sandals, and therefore formed
wings at his ancles, whence he is called ptenopedilos, or alipes (Orph. Hymn.
xxvii. 4; Ov. Met. xi. 312). In addition to these attributes, Hermes sometimes
holds a purse in his hands. Several representations of the god at different periods
of his life, as well as in the discharge of his different functions, have come
down to us.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Agonius (Agonios), a surname or epithet of several gods. Aeschylus (Agam. 513) and Sophocles (Trach. 26) use it of Apollo and Zeus, and apparently in the sense of helpers in struggles and contests (Comp. Eustath. ad Il.). But Agonius is more especially used as a surname of Hermes, who presides over all kinds of solemn contests (Agones, Paus. v. 14.7; Pind. Olymp. vi. 133, with the Schol.)
Arcas. A surname of Hermes. (Lucan, Phars. ix. 661; Martial, ix. 34. 6)
Eriunius (Eriounios) or Erinnes, the giver of good fortune, occurs as a surname of Hermes, but is also used as a proper name instead of Hermes. (Hom. Il. xxiv. 440, 457, Od. viii. 322 ; Aristoph. Ran. 1143)
Imbrasus (Imbrasos) is, according to Eustathius (ad Hom.), identical with Imbramus, the surname of Hermes; but it occurs also as the name of three mythical personages. (Hom. Il. iv. 520; Virg. Aen. x. 123, xii. 343; Athen. vii.)
KORINTHOS (Ancient city) PELOPONNISOS
He was the son of the seer Polyidous from Corinth, who was slain by Paris (Il. 13.663).
SIKYON (Ancient city) CORINTHIA
He was the son of Anchises from Sicyon (Il. 23.296).
ORNIES (Ancient city) NEMEA
Menestheus. The son of Peteos, who seized the government of Attica, while Theseus pined away in the nether world, and commanded the Athenians before Troy, where he fell.
FENEOS (Ancient city) FENEOS
Pheneos participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.605).
FLIOUS (Ancient city) NEMEA
Araethyrea paricipated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships. Homer calls it "lovely" (Il. 2.571).
GONOESSA (Ancient city) XYLOKASTRO
Gonoessa participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships. The poet calls it "steep" (Il. 2.573).
KLEONES (Ancient city) NEMEA
The city of Cleonae participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships. The poet calls it "well-built" (Il. 2.570).
KORINTHOS (Ancient city) PELOPONNISOS
Corinth participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships. The poet calls the city "wealthy" (Il. 2.570), because it was one of the wealthiest cities of the Argives.
ORNIES (Ancient city) NEMEA
The city of Orneiae participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.571).
PELLANA (Ancient city) XYLOKASTRO
Pellene participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.574).
In the time of Strabo, it was a strong fortress (Strab. 8,7,4-5).
SIKYON (Ancient city) CORINTHIA
Sicyon participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.570). The poet calls it "spacious" (IL. 23.299).
STYMFALOS (Ancient city) CORINTHIA
Stymphalus participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.608).
KORINTHOS (Ancient city) PELOPONNISOS
He was the son of Sisyphus and father of Bellerephon, who was killed by his horses (Il. 6.154).
Glaucus (Glaukos). A son of Sisyphus, king of Corinth, by Merope, the daughter of Atlas, born at Potniae, a village of Boeotia. According to one account, he restrained his mares from having intercourse with the stallions; upon which Aphrodite inspired the former with such fury that they tore his body to pieces as he returned from the games which Adrastus had celebrated in honour of his father. Another version of the story makes them to have run mad after eating a certain plant at Potniae.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities
Cited Sept 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
He was the son of Glaucus (Il. 6.155), king and local hero of Corinth and master of the winged Pegasus. His original name was Hipponous. Pausanias mentions that he did not have the absolute power, but he was subject to Proetus (Paus. 2,4,2) and was banished from Corinth before he got married to Aethra from Troezen (Paus. 2,31, 9).
Bellerophon. Ambiguous hero and son of king Glaucus of Corinth. Bellerophon had
sought protection with the king of Argos,
Proetus, and his wife Antea or Stheneboea.
The queen fell in love with the young man, but when he refused her,
she told Proetus that he had tried to seduce her and that he must die for this.
Proetus did not want to kill his protegee so he sent Bellerophon to his father-in-law
Iobates In Lycia with a letter
to kill the messenger. Iobates did not do it, though, because he was afraid that
breaking the sacred institution of hospitality would upset Zeus.
Instead, he sent the hero away to kill the fire-breathing monster
Chimera, which Bellerophon did. He also defeated the Amazons and the Solymi, and
with the help of Athena he managed to tame Pegasus. and Iobates gave him his daughter
as prize.
Bellerophon finally met his destiny trying to ride Pegasus to Mount
Olympus. The horse threw him off and he ended his days gloomily wandering
the earth.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
Bellerophon or Bellerophontes, properly called Hipponous, was a son of the Corinthian king, Glaucus and Eurymede, and a grandson of Sisyphus. (Apollod. i. 9.3; Hom. il. vi. 155.) According to Hyginus (Fab. 157; comp. Pind. Ol. xiii. 66), he was a son of Poseidon and Eurymede. He is said to have received the name Bellerophon or Bellerophontes from having slain the noble Corinthian, Bellerus. (Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 17; Eustath. Hom.) Others related, that he had slain his own brother, Deliades, Peiren, or Alcimenes. (Apollod. ii. 3., &c.) In order to be purified from the murder, whichever it may have been, he fled to Proetus, whose wife Anteia fell in love with the young hero; but her offers being rejected by him, she accused him to her husband of having made improper proposals to her, and insisted upon his being put to death. Proetus, unwilling to kill him with his own hands, sent him to his father-in-law, Iobates, king in Lycia, with a sealed letter in which the latter was requested to put the young man to death. Iobates accordingly sent him to kill the monster Chimaera, thinking that he was sure to perish in the contest. Bellerophon mounted the winged horse, Pegasus, and rising up with him into the air, killed the Chimaera from on high with his arrows. Iobates, being thus disappointed, sent Bellerophon out again, first against the Solymi and next against the Amazons. In these contests too he was victorious; and when, on his return to Lycia, he was attacked by the bravest Lycians, whom Iobates had placed in ambush for the purpose, Bellerophon slew them all. Iobates, now seeing that it was hopeless to attempt to kill the hero, shewed him the letter he had received from Proetus, gave him his daughter (Philonoe, Anticleia, or Cassandra) for his wife, and made him his successor on the throne. Bellerophon became the father of Isander, Hippolochus, and Laodameia. Here Apollodorus breaks off the story; and Homer, whose account (vi. 155-202) differs in some points from that of Apollodorus, describes the later period of Bellerophon's life only by saying, that he drew upon himself the hatred of the gods, and, consumed by grief, wandered lonely through the Aleian field, avoiding the paths of men. We must here remark with Eustathius, that Homer knows nothing of Bellerophon killing the Chimaera with the help of Pegasus, which must therefore be regarded in all probability as a later embellishment of the story. The manner in which he destroyed the Chimaera is thus described by Tzetzes (l. c.): he fixed lead to the point of his lance, and thrust it into the fire-breathing mouth of the Chimaera, who was accordingly killed by the molten lead. According to others, Bellerophon was assisted by Athena Chalinitis or Hippia. (Paus. ii. 1.4; Pind. l. c.; Strab. viii.) Some traditions stated, that he attempted to rise with Pegasus into heaven, but that Zeus sent a gad-fly, which stung Pegasus so, that he threw off the rider upon the earth, who became lame or blind in consequence. (Pind. Isth. vii. 44; Schol. ad Pind. Ol. xiii. 130; Horat. Carm. iv. 11. 26.) A peculiar story about Bellerophon is related by Plutarch. (De Virt. Mul.) Bellerophon was worshipped as a hero at Corinth, and had a sanctuary near the town in the cypress grove, Craneion. (Paus. ii. 2.4.) Scenes of the story of Bellerophon were frequently represented in ancient works of art. His contest with the Chimaera was seen on the throne of Amyclae (ii. 18.7), and in the vestibule of the Delphic temple. (Eurip. Ion, 203.) On coins, gems, and vases he is often seen fighting against the Chimaera, taking leave of Proetus, taming Pegasus or giving him to drink, or falling from him. But, until the recent discoveries in Lycia by Mr. Fellows, no representation of Bellerophon in any important work of art was known; in Lycian sculptures, however, he is seen riding on Pegasus and conquering the Chimaera.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Bellerophon or Bellerophontes. Son of Glaucus of Corinth (or, according to another account, of Poseidon), and grandson of Sisyphus. His proper name is said to have been Hipponous; the name Bellerophontes implies that he was the slayer of some now unknown monster. In later times his name was wrongly explained as the slayer of a certain Corinthian, Bellerus, on account of which he was supposed to have fled to Proetus at Tiryns or Corinth. The wife of Proetus, Anteia (or Stheneboea), fell in love with the beautiful youth; he was deaf to her entreaties; she slandered him to her husband, who resolved on his destruction. He sent Bellerophon to Lycia, to his father-in-law Iobates, with a tablet in cipher, begging him to put the bearer to death. Iobates first commissioned Bellerophon to destroy the fire-breathing monster Chimaera, a task which he executed with the help of his winged horse Pegasus.
Thereupon, after a fierce battle, he conquered the Solymi and the Amazons, on his return slew in ambush all the boldest among the Lycians, and Iobates now recognized his divine origin, kept him with him, and gave him half of his kingdom and his daughter to wife. The children of this marriage were Isander, Hippolochus, the father of Glaucus and Laodamia, and the mother of Sarpedon by Zeus. Afterwards Bellerophon was hated by all the gods, and wandered about alone, devouring his heart in sorrow. His son Isander was killed by Ares in battle against the Solymi, while Laodamia was sacrificed to the wrath of Artemis. This is the Homeric version; but, according to Pindar, Bellerophon's high fortune made him so overweening that he wished to mount to heaven on Pegasus. Zeus, however, drove the horse wild with a gadfly, and Bellerophon fell and came to a miserable end. He was honoured as a hero in Corinth, an enclosure being consecrated to him in the cypress grove of Craneion.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities
Cited Sept 2002 from Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Hipponous. The original name of Bellerophon, who changed it on slaying the Corinthian Bellerus.
Bellerophon: Various WebPages
ORNIES (Ancient city) NEMEA
Peteos, a son of Orneus, and father of Menestheus, was expelled from Athens by
Aegeus, and is said to have gone to Phocis, where he founded the town of Stiris.
(Hom. Il. ii. 552, iv. 338; Apollod. iii. 10.8; Paus. ii. 25.5, x. 35. 5; Plut.
Thes. 32.)
SIKYON (Ancient city) CORINTHIA
Father of Echepolus (Il. 23.295).
KORINTHOS (Ancient city) PELOPONNISOS
He was the son of Aeolus by Enarete, husband of Merope, father of Glaucus (Il. 6.153 etc.), Ornytion, Thersander and Almus (Paus. 3,4,3). Medea handed over the kingdom of Corinth to Sisyphus, when she left to Athens (Paus. 2,3,11). He was punished and was sent to Hades, where he was condamned to thrust a big stone on a a hill, which never reached to the top but rolled back (Od. 11.593). His wife Merope, was one of the Pleiades, daughter of Atlas.
Sisyphus, (Sisuphos). The son of Aeolus and Enarete, whence he is called Aeolides. He was married to Merope, a daughter of Atlas or a Pleiad, and became by her the father of Glaucus, Ornytion (or Porphyrion), Thersander, and Halmus. In later accounts he is also called a son of Autolycus, and the father of Odysseus by Anticlea; whence we find Odysseus sometimes called Sisyphides. He is said to have built the town of Ephyra, afterwards Corinth. As king of Corinth he promoted navigation and commerce, but he was fraudulent, avaricious, and deceitful. His wickedness during life was severely punished in the lower world, where he had to roll up hill a huge marble block, which as soon as it reached the top always rolled down again. The special reasons for this punishment are not the same in all authors: some relate that it was because he had betrayed the designs of the gods; others because he attacked travellers, and killed them with a huge block of stone; and others again because he had betrayed to Asopus that Zeus had carried off Aegina, the daughter of the latter. The more usual tradition related that Sisyphus requested his wife not to bury him, and that, when she complied with his request, Sisyphus in the lower world complained of this seeming neglect, and obtained from Pluto or Persephone permission to return to the upper world to punish his wife. He then refused to return to the lower world, until Hermes carried him off by force; and this piece of treachery is said to have been the cause of his punishment.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Merope. Daughter of Atlas, one of the Pleiades, wife of Sisyphus of Corinth and mother of Glaucus. In the constellation of the Pleiades she is the seventh and the least visible star, because she is ashamed of having had intercourse with a mortal man.
Sisyphus, Sisyphos & Merope: Perseus Project
SIKYON (Ancient city) CORINTHIA
Adrastus, son of Talaus and husband of Amphithea, left Argos and took refuge in Sicyon, where he succeeded Polybus to the throne. He gave one of his daughters as wife to Tydeus, father of Diomedes (Il. 2.572, 14.121).
Perseus Project
AKROKORINTHOS (Castle) KORINTHOS
He was a hundredhanded giant of the sea, whom men called Aegaeon. He personified the storm of the sea (Il. 1.404).
Pausanias mentions that he arbitrated between Poseidon and the Sun for the land of the Corinthians and assigned Isthmus to the former and Acrocorinth to the latter (Paus. 2,1,6).
Perseus Project
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