the sea near the island of Melos (Schol. Aristoph., Pax, 140). His ambitious attempt to ascend to the heavens on Pegasus brought upon him the wrath of the gods. His son was smitten by Ares in battle; his daughter Laodameia was slain by Artemis; he himself, flung from his horse, lamed or blinded, became a wanderer over the face of the earth until his death (Pindar, Isthmia, vi. [vii.], 44; Horace, Odes, iv. 11, 26). Bellerophon was honoured as a hero at Corinth and in Lycia. His story formed the subject of the Iobates of Sophocles, and of the Bellerophontes and Stheneboea of Euripides. It has been suggested that Perseus, the local hero of Argos, and Bellerophon were originally one and the same, the difference in their exploits being the result of the rivalry of Argos and Corinth. Both are connected with the sun-god Helios and with the sea-god Poseidon, the symbol of the union being the winged horse Pegasus. Bellerophon has been explained as a hero of the storm, of which his conflict with the Chimaera is symbolical. The most frequent representations of Bellerophon in ancient art are (1) slaying the Chimaera, (2) departing from Argos with the letter, (3) leading Pegasus to drink. Among the first is to be noted a terra-cotta relief from Melos in the British Museum, where also, on a vase of black ware, is what seems to be a representation of his escape from Stheneboea.
See H. A. Fischer, Bellerophon (1851); R. Engelmann, Annali of the Archaeological Institute at Rome (1874); O. Treuber, Gechichte der Lykier (1887); articles in Pauly-Wissowa’s Real-Encyclopädie, W. H. Roscher’s Lexikon der Mythologie, Daremberg and Saglio’s Dictionnaire des antiquités; L. Preller, Griechische Mythologie.
BELLES-LETTRES (Fr. for “fine literature”), a term used to designate the more artistic and imaginative forms of literature, as poetry or romance, as opposed to more pedestrian and exact studies. The term appears to have been first used in English by Swift (1710).
BELLEVILLE, a city and port of entry of Ontario, Canada, and capital of Hastings county, 106 m. E.N.E. of Toronto, on Bay of Quinté and the Grand Trunk railway. Pop. (1901) 9117. Communication is maintained with Lake Ontario and St Lawrence ports by several lines of steamers. It is the commercial centre of a fine agricultural district, and has a large export trade in cheese and farm produce. The principal industries are planing mills and cement works, cheese factories and distilleries. There are several educational institutions, including a business college, a convent, and a government institute for the deaf and dumb. Albert College, under the control of the Methodist church, was formerly a university, but now confines itself to secondary education.
BELLEVILLE, a city and the county-seat of St Clair county, Illinois, U.S.A., in the S.W. part of the state 14 m. S.E. of St Louis, Missouri. Pop. (1890) 15,361; (1900) 17,484, of whom 2750 were foreign-born; (1910) 21,122. Belleville is served by the Illinois Central, the Louisville & Nashville, and the Southern railways, also by extensive interurban electric systems; and a belt line to O’Fallon, Illinois, connects Belleville with the Baltimore & Ohio South Western railway. A large element of the population is of German descent or German birth, and two newspapers are published in German, besides three dailies, three weeklies and a semi-weekly in English. Among the industrial establishments of the city are stove and range factories, flour mills, rolling mills, distilleries, breweries, shoe factories, copper refining works, nail and tack factories, glass works and agricultural implement factories. The value of the city’s factory products increased from $2,873,334 in 1900 to $4,356,615 in 1905 or 51·6%. Belleville is in a rich agricultural region, and in the vicinity there are valuable coal mines, the first of which was sunk in 1852; from this dates the industrial development of the city. Belleville was first settled in 1813, was incorporated as a city in 1850, and was re-incorporated in 1876.
BELLEY, a town of eastern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Ain, 52 m. S.E. of Bourg by the Paris-Lyon railway. Pop. (1906), town, 3709; commune, 5707. It is situated on vine-covered hills at the southern extremity of the Jura, 3 m. from the right bank of the Rhone. Apart from the cathedral of St Jean, which, with the exception of the choir of 1413, is a modern building, there is little of architectural interest in the town. Belley is the seat of a bishopric and a prefect, and has a tribunal of first instance. The manufacture of morocco leather goods and the quarrying of the lithographic stone of the vicinity are carried on, and there is trade in cattle, grain, wine, truffles and dressed pork. Belley is of Roman origin, and in the 5th century became an episcopal see. It was the capital of the province of Bugey, which was a dependency of Savoy till 1601, when it was ceded to France. In 1385 the town was almost entirely destroyed by an act of incendiarism, but was subsequently rebuilt by the dukes of Savoy, who surrounded it with ramparts of which little is left.
BELLI, GIUSEPPE GIOACHINO (1791–1863), Italian poet, was born at Rome, and after a period of literary employment in poor circumstances was enabled by marriage with a lady of means to follow his own special bent. He is remembered for his vivid popular poetry in the Roman dialect, a number of satirical sonnets which in their own way are unique.
See Morandi’s edition, I sonetti romaneschi (1886–1889).
BELLIGERENCY, the state of carrying on war (Lat. bellum, war, and gerere, to wage) in accordance with the law of nations. Insurgents are not as such excluded from recognition as belligerents, and, even where not recognized as belligerents by the government against which they have rebelled, they may be so recognized by a neutral state, as in the case of the American Civil War, when the Southern states were recognized as belligerents by Great Britain, though regarded as rebels by the Northern states. The recognition by a neutral state of belligerency does not, however, imply recognition of independent political existence. The regulations annexed to the Hague Convention, relating to the laws and customs of war (29th of July 1899), contain a section entitled “Belligerents” which is divided into three chapters, dealing respectively with (i.) The Qualifications of Belligerents; (ii.) Prisoners of War; (iii.) The Sick and Wounded. To entitle troops to the special privileges attaching to belligerency, chapter i. provides that all regular, militia or volunteer forces shall alike be commanded by persons responsible for the acts of their men, that all such shall carry distinctive emblems, recognizable at a distance, that arms shall be carried openly and operations conducted in accordance with the usages of war observed among civilized mankind. It provides, nevertheless, for the emergency of the population of a territory, which has not already been occupied by the invader, spontaneously taking up arms to resist the invading forces, without having had time to comply with the above requirements; they, too, are to be treated as belligerents “if they respect the laws and customs of war.” In naval war, privateering having been finally abolished as among the parties to it by the declaration of Paris, a privateer is not entitled, as between such parties, to the rights of belligerency. As between states, one of whom is not a party to the Declaration, the right to grant letters of marque would remain intact for both parties, and the privateer, as between them, would be a belligerent; as regards neutrals, the situation would be complicated (see Privateer). On prisoners of war and sick and wounded, see War. (T. Ba.)
BELLINGHAM, SIR EDWARD (d. 1549), lord deputy of Ireland, was a son of Edward Bellingham of Erringham, Sussex, his mother being a member of the Shelley family. As a soldier he fought in France and elsewhere, then became an English member of parliament and a member of the privy council, and in 1547 took part in some military operations in Ireland. In May 1548 he was sent to that country as lord deputy. Ireland was then in a very disturbed condition, but the new governor crushed a rebellion of the O’Connors in Leinster, freed the Pale from rebels, built forts, and made the English power respected in Münster and Connaught. Bellingham, however, was a headstrong man and was constantly quarrelling with his council; but one of his opponents admitted that he was “the best man of
