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[202] ὃν θυμὸν κατέδων: cf. Od. 9.75 “θυμὸν ἔδοντες”, and 24.129 “σὴν ἔδεαι κραδίην”, where Schol. A says “Πυθαγόρας παραινεῖ καρδίαν μὴ ἐσθίειν”. There was evidently some legend of the madness of Bellerophon, but we know nothing of it from other sources, cf. Pind. O. xiii. 91 “διασωπάσομαί οἱ μόρον ἐγώ”. Madness has always been considered a direct infliction of heaven; so in Od. 9.411, when the Kyklopes think that Polyphemos is mad, they say “νοῦσόν γ᾽ οὔ πως ἔστι Διὸς μεγάλου ἀλέασθαι. πάτον ἀνθρώπων”: cf. 3.406 “θεῶν ἀπόειπε κελεύθους”. Cicero translates the couplet (III. Tusc. xxvi. 63) qui miser in campis maerens errabat Aleis, ipse suum cor edens, hominum vestigia vitans.

The Iliad, edited, with apparatus criticus, prolegomena, notes, and appendices. Walter Leaf. London. Macmillan. 1900.

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