Perseus & Bellerophon

(Argos and Corinth)

October 29

Perseus
Perseus (Destroyer? Persian?)
City of Argos
Son of Dana and Zeus
Acrisius
ill-omened prophesy
Punishment of Dana

The girls tragedy

1. Prohibition
2. Seclusion
3. Violation
4. Threat
5. Liberation

Dana in art

Danas punishment
Seriphos
Dictys and evil

Polydectes
Perseus challenge
head of a gorgon

The Graeae
Find the daughters

of Phorcys
Perseus aided by
Hermes and Athena
Special items
Cap of Invisibility
Winged Sandles
A wallet (kibisis)
scimitar

The Gorgons
Medusa
Only mortal

Gorgon
Pegasus
Chryasor
father of

Geryon

Greek Depictions of Perseus

The Messenger of Xerxes, King of

Persia, to Argos (481 BC)
Men of Argos, this is the message to you

from King Xerxes. Perses our forefather had,

as we believe, Perseus son of Danae for his
father, and Andromeda daughter of Cepheus
for his mother; if that is so, then we are
descended from your nation. In all right and
reason we should therefore neither march
against the land of our forefathers, nor should
you become our enemies by aiding others or
do anything but abide by yourselves in peace.
If all goes as I desire, I will hold none in higher
esteem than you.
- Herodotus

Andromeda (Side Quest)

Daughter of

Cepheus and
Cassiopeia
Ethiopia? Lebanon?

Cassiopeias boast
Sacrifice to sea

monster
Perses

Return to Argos
Perseus and

Andromeda return
first to Seriphos
Dictys made king
Perses

Medusas head to

Athena
Athletic Contest in
Thessaly
Acrisius

Perseus as Hero
Founds Mycenae
Descendants include

Heracles
Relation to the East
happy ending!

Heroic Motifs
partly divine
extraordinary

conception, exile
labours
marriage and kingdom

Bellerophon
Corinth
Grandson of

Sisyphus
To whom heaven
endowed with the
most surpassing
manliness and
beauty.
Glaucus and

Diomedes
(CP 23-5)

Bellerophons Exile
Leaves Corinth
unintentionally killed brother

Arrives at Tiryns
King Proetus and Queen Stheneboea

Proetus sends Bellerophon to his father-in-law:

Iobates
Lycia (Southwestern Turkey)
Sends with him a letter of execution
Please remove the bearer of this letter from this

world: he attempted to violate my wife, your

daughter.

The Chimaera (CP 24)

When he reached the river Xanthus, which is in

Lycia, the king received him with all good will,

feasted him nine days, and sacrificed nine cattle in
his honour, but when rosy-fingered Dawn appeared
upon the tenth day, he questioned him and desired
to see the letter from his son-in-law Proetus. When
he had received the wicked letter he first
commanded Bellerophon to kill that savage
monster, the Chimaera, who was not a human
being, but a goddess, for she had the head of a lion
and the tail of a serpent, while her body was that of
a goat, and she breathed forth flames of fire

Chimaera

Pegasus
Sprung from

Medusas corpse
Poseidon gives it to
Bellerophon
Masters it with

Athenas help

Bellerophon defeats
the Chimera
Help from Pegasus

and Athena
Amazonomachy
Ambush of assassins
Iobates offers half of
kingdom and his
daughter in marriage
Lycia
Glaucus and

Diomedes

Diomedes and Glaucus (25)

In that case, he said, you are an old friend

of my fathers houseFrom now on, however,

I must be your host in Argos, and you mine in
Lycia, if I should ever go there; let us avoid
one anothers spears even during a general
engagementwe two, then, will exchange
armour, that all present may know of the old
ties that subsist between us.
Xenia

Bellerophons hubris and fall

Bellerophon flies Pegasus up to Mt. Olympus
But when Bellerophon came to be hated by all

the gods, he wandered all desolate and

dismayed upon the Alean plain, gnawing at his
own heart, and shunning the path of man. (CP
16)
If any man sets his eye on a distant target,

he is too short to reach the bronze-paved

home of the gods. For winged Pegasus hurled
his rider Bellerophon, who wished to enter the
palaces of heaven and join Zeus company.
Pindar, Isthmian Odes

Hero and the City

Connection between heroes and locales
1. Heracles Thebes, Tiryns, Trachis
2. Jason Iolcus, Corinth
3. Perseus Argos
4. Bellerophon Corinth, Lycia (SW Turkey)
.Consequences?