User:Milowent/Statue of Bellerophon

The Statute of Bellerophon was a supposed statue of Classical antiquity, with varying reports locating it in Smyrna (modern day İzmir in Turkey),, Rhodes, or Rome.

A Treatise on the Seven Wonders of the world fashioned by the hand of Men (De septum mundi miraculis manu hominum factis), at one time attributed to the 7th/8th century scholar Bede, lists the statue as one of the seven wonders of the world. The fourth entry on the list, it described "the iron figure of Belerophon on horseback, which hangs suspended in the air over the city, and has neither chains nor any thing else to support it; but great magnetic stones are placed in vaults, and so it is retained in assumption (position), and remains in balanced meansure. Now the calculation of its weight is about five thousand pounds of iron."

De mirabilibus urbis Romae, a mid-12th century manuscript by Magister Gregorius ("Master Gregory") of Oxford, described the statute as existing in Rome, but plainly derived from the work above. He described it as an iron statue of Bellerophon siting on his horse (Pegasus) which rested in mid-air, not supported from above or below, but instead by large magnets. It was said to have an estimated weight of 15,000 pounds.

Cosmas of Maiuma, an 8th century bishop and writer, noted a statue of Bellerophon in his commentary on the poems of Gregory of Nazianzus of which it was said that Pegasus was so lightly fastened that it would move under gentle pressure but would resist greater pressure.