Belistīda, a woman who obtained a prize at Olympia. Pausanias, bk. 5, ch. 8.
Belitæ, a nation of Asia. Curtius, bk. 4, ch. 12.
Bellerŏphon, a son of Glaucus king of Ephyre by Eurymede, was at first called Hipponous. The murder of his brother, whom some call Alcimenus or Beller, procured him the name of Bellerophon, or murderer of Beller. After this murder, Bellerophon fled to the court of Prœtus king of Argos. As he was of a handsome appearance, the king’s wife, called Antæa or Stenobœa, fell in love with him; and as he slighted her passion, she accused him before her husband of attempts upon her virtue. Prœtus, unwilling to violate the laws of hospitality by punishing Bellerophon, sent him away to his father-in-law Jobates king of Lycia, and gave him a letter, in which he begged the king to punish with death a man who had so dishonourably treated his daughter. From that circumstance, all letters which are of an unfavourable tendency to the bearer have been called letters of Bellerophon. Jobates, to satisfy his son-in-law, sent Bellerophon to conquer a horrible monster called Chimæra, in which dangerous expedition he hoped, and was even assured, he must perish. See: [Chimæra]. But the providence of Minerva supported him, and, with the aid of the winged horse Pegasus, he conquered the monster, and returned victorious. After this Jobates sent him against the Solymi, in hopes of seeing him destroyed; but he obtained another victory, and conquered afterwards the Amazons, by the king’s order. At his return from this third expedition, he was attacked by a party sent against him by Jobates; but he destroyed all his assassins, and convinced the king that innocence is always protected by the gods. Upon this, Jobates no longer sought to destroy his life; but he gave him his daughter in marriage, and made him his successor on the throne of Lycia, as he was without male issue. Some authors have supported that he attempted to fly to heaven upon the horse Pegasus, but that Jupiter sent an insect which stung the horse, and threw down the rider who wandered upon the earth in the greatest melancholy and dejection till the day of his death, one generation before the Trojan war. Bellerophon had two sons, Isander, who was killed in his war against the Solymi, and Hippolochus, who succeeded to the throne after his death, besides one daughter called Hippodamia, who had Sarpedon by Jupiter. The wife of Bellerophon is called Philonoe by Apollodorus, and Achemone by Homer. Homer, Iliad, bk. 6, li. 156, &c.—Juvenal, satire 10.—Apollodorus, bk. 2, ch. 3; bk. 3, ch. 1.—Hyginus, fables 157 & 243; Poeticon Astronomicon, bk. 2, ch. 18.—Hesiod, Theogony, li. 325.—Horace, bk. 4, ode 11, li. 26.—Pausanias, bk. 9, ch. 31.
Bellĕrus and Beller, a brother of Hipponous. See: [Bellerophon].
Belliēnus, a Roman whose house was set on flames at Cæsar’s funeral. Cicero, Philippics, bk. 2, ch. 36.
Bellōna, the goddess of war, daughter to Phorcys and Ceto, was called by the Greeks Enyo, and often confounded with Minerva. She was anciently called Duelliona, and was the sister of Mars, or, according to others, his daughter or his wife. She prepared the chariot of Mars when he was going to war; and she appeared in battles armed with a whip to animate the combatants, with dishevelled hair, and a torch in her hand. The Romans paid great adoration to her; but she was held in the greatest veneration by the Cappadocians, and chiefly at Comana, where she had about 3000 priests. Her temple at Rome was near the Porta Carmentalis. In it the senators gave audience to foreign ambassadors, and to generals returned from war. At the gate was a small column called the column of war, against which they threw a spear whenever war was declared against an enemy. The priests of this goddess consecrated themselves by great incisions in their body, and particularly in the thigh, of which they received the blood in their hands to offer as a sacrifice to the goddess. In their wild enthusiasm they often predicted bloodshed and wars, the defeat of enemies, or the besieging of towns. Juvenal, satire 4, li. 124.—Varro, de Lingua Latina, bk. 5.—Hesiod, Theogony, li. 270.—Pausanias, bk. 4, ch. 30.—Virgil, Æneid, bk. 8, li. 703.—Statius, Thebiad, bk. 2, li. 718; bk. 7, li. 73.—Silius Italicus, bk. 5, li. 221.
Bellōnarii, the priests of Bellona.
Bellovăci, a people of Gaul conquered by Julius Cæsar. They inhabited the modern Beauvais in the isle of France. Cæsar, Gallic War, bk. 2, ch. 4.
Bellovēsus, a king of the Celtæ, who, in the reign of Tarquin Priscus, was sent at the head of a colony to Italy by his uncle Ambigatus. Livy, bk. 5, ch. 34.
Belon, a general of Alexander’s. Curtius, bk. 6, ch. 11.——A city and river of Hispania Bætica. Strabo, bk. 3.