Two Kingdoms, Two Brides:
The Bellerophon Narrative of Iliad 6

Nancy R. Felson (University of Georgia)

A narratological analysis of Bellerophon’s life-story, as Glaukos tells it to Diomedes at Iliad 6.152-211, provides insight into the traditional herotale.  As a herotale, Glaukos’ account of his ancestry has an unusual denouement which highlights the possibility of conflict resolution evident, in different ways, in only a few places in the Iliad: in the affirmation of xenia between Diomedes and Glaukos that frames the tale; in the neikos on Achilles’ shield; in conflicts over cheating at the funeral games for Patroklos; and in the return of Hector’s body and the rapprochement between Achilles in Priam. 

Key to these cases of conflict resolution is the rejection of a ‘zero-sum’ mentality, where there can be only one winner, whose victory is won at the expense of the loser.  The conflict over Helen and the duel over her in Book 3 and the conflict over Briseis between Agamemnon and Achilles are zero-sum.  We as audience witness both the loss and the gain of gunê or geras, and witness as well the impact on the loser. 

In Glaukos’ Bellerophon story, Bellerophon ends up marrying the sister of the woman who accused him of making overtures toward her.  The king of Lycia, Antaios’ father, ends up giving his daughter to and sharing his kingdom with the very man with whom his son-in-law could not share either wife or kingdom.  That is, what was a story of usurpation and cuckoldry in Argos (a lie told by Antaia to punish Bellerophon for rejecting her overture) not only causes the hero’s exile but is refashioned in Lycia as a bride-contest and marriage tale: Bellerophon gets marriage and half the Lycian kingdom, once he performs the tasks that show his mettle.   Once the Lycian king decides to give and share, the story is transformed into a Proppian folktale!  Then this benign, idyllic outcome carries over into the world of combat that comprises the here-and-now of the Iliad.  

In my paper I provide a detailed analysis of the Bellerophon narrative and how show its diction makes the Lycian king a doublet of King Proitos of Argos and Antaia’s sister a doublet of Antaia.  I examine the way that Glaukos’ tale imports folk motifs more at home in the Odyssey into paradigms of conflict resolution.  The story then resonates with the larger Iliadic theme of mênis that results from a neikos between two men.