
Consilio & virtute Chimaeram
superari, id est, fortiores & de-
ceptores.
Wisdom and courage defeat Chimaera (i.e. the powerful and deceivers).
CII.
Bellerophon ut fortis eques superare Chimaeram.
Et Licii potuit sternere monstra soli:[1]
Sic tu Pegaseis vectus petis aethera pennis,
Consilioque animi[2] monstra superba domas.
Bellerophon, that bold horseman, was able to overcome the Chimaera and lay low the monsters of the Lycian land. You likewise, borne on wings of Pegasus, seek the high heavens and, by the counsel of reason, tame proud monsters.
COMMENTARIA.
Bellerophon filius Regis Glauci, Adole-
scens insignis pulchritudinis & summae virtu
tis, quem Praetus regno privatum, sibi servire
iussit. Stenobaea verò uxor Praeti eum adama-
vit, & ut secum stuprum committeret sollicita-
vit, ille verò lascivam foeminam repulit, unde
spreta mulier exardens coram Rege falsò il-
lum accusavit, quasi eam oppressurus. Rex
Link to an image of this page [l5r p169]verò hoc audito, nolens tamen domi de illo
poenas sumere, misit eum ad socerum suum Re-
gem Lyciae, addita Epistola qua crimen con-
tinebatur. Rex ille, lectis literis indignatus, va
riis hostibus & periculis Bellerophontem, ut
periret obiecit. Ille verò semper victor evasit,
tandem etiam missus ut Chimaeram mon-
strum, maximo sub periculo interficeret. (Fuit
autem Chimaera monstrum horribile in Ly-
cia, à capite Leo, in medio Capra, in cauda
verò Draco, & gravem ignem ex ore spira-
bat. secundum Homerum lib. 6. Iliadis.
Quoque Chimaera iugo mediis in partibus hircum,
Pectus & ora Leae, caudam serpentis habebat.)
Ascendit ille astutè admodum (teste Strabone
lib. 8. ) Pegasum equum alatum, de quo Ovidius
lib. 4. Metamorphoseon & Chimaeram devicit & inter-
emit, ob hoc laudem nanciscebatur maximam
adeoque ut Rex ille Lyciae alteram suam filiam ei
in uxorem dederit, quod audiens uxor Praeti se-
ipsam occidit. Monemur cuncta mala, iniquos
etiam & perversos superandos esse & suppri-
mendos, animi virtutibus, magnanimitate, con
silio & prudentia. Quid verò re vera fuerit Chi
maera, quid Pegasus, quid denique reliqua Poë-
tarum figmenta ex Palaephato de non credendis
fabulis petere licebit. Quid etiam Dii Deaeque
antiquorum significaverint consulendus est
Eusebius de praeparatione evangelica.
1. The King of Lycia imposed on Bellerophon, among other tasks, that of killing the Chimaera, a fire-breathing monster with a lion’s head, serpent’s tail and goat’s body. He achieved this last with the aid of the winged horse Pegasus, which Athena, goddess of wisdom, helped him to catch.
2. ‘by the counsel of reason’. The name Bellerophon was interpreted by some as ‘bringer of counsel’. The Chimaera symbolised various uncontrolled passions.
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