HMS Bellerophon (1786) Admiralty at the time, John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, had apparently selected the name from Lemprière's Classical Dictionary, which he kept on his desk. The recently ordered 74-gun ship was thereafter to be named after the Greek warrior Bellerophon who rode the winged horse Pegasus and slew the monster Chimera. The pronunciation proved difficult for the ordinary sailors of the period, and she was widely known by variants, most commonly "Billy Ruffian" or "Billy Ruff'n", although "Belly Ruff One" appears in a satirical 1810 print by Thomas Rowlandson, and "Bellyruffron" in the novel "Poor Jack" by Frederick Marryat. She
Germanic hero Germanic hero A Germanic hero is the protagonist of certain works of early medieval literature mostly in Germanic languages. This hero is always a warrior, concerned both with his reputation and fame, and with his political responsibilities. The way in which he "copes with the blows of fate" is extremely important. He may be distinguished from the classical hero in that his adventures are less individualistic, and from the tragic hero because his death is heroic rather than tragic. His death usually brings destruction, not restoration, as in tragedy. His goal is frequently revenge, "hamartia" in a tragic hero. The