All about history book of myths and legends. ( PDFDrive )

Like most Greek heroes, Bellerophon was

given a seemingly impossible task – killing

a monster called the Chimaera. With divine

assistance and the aid of the fabulous flying

horse, Pegasus, Bellerophon succeeded, but

his triumph gave him an inflated view of his

own status. He overreached himself when

he used the horse’s flying ability to try to

visit the gods at Mount Olympus. The gods

saw this act as supremely presumptuous.

Although Bellerophon was a hero, he did not

have the rank of a god, and so was punished.

Bellerophon and Pegasus

CLASSICAL EUROPE

father, killed some giants who threatened Iobates’s

kingdom, and repelled a force of Amazons – female

warriors who were famous for fighting like men.

Iobates was impressed with Bellerophon and the two

became friends – the king even ofered the hero his daughter

in marriage. Soon the spiteful Stheneboia died. Some myths

claim she committed suicide in despair when Bellerophon

married, others say Bellerophon killed her in fury when he

discovered that she had accused him of trying to seduce her.

After her death, the family was able to live in peace.

BELLEROPHON’S DEMISE

The series of triumphs on Pegasus made

Bellerophon ambitious. He decided that the

horse made him as powerful as a god, so he

planned to fly to Mount Olympus. Zeus became

angry at Bellerophon’s presumption, since no

mortal could be allowed to come to Mount

Olympus uninvited. The king of the gods

sent a fly to sting the horse midway

in his flight. Pegasus reared on

his hindlegs in pain, sending

Bellerophon tumbling all

the way to Earth, where

he met his death.

THE MYTH

Bellerophon was a young hero who had unintentionally

killed a man in his home city of Corinth and was banished.

He was accepted at Tiryns, which was ruled by Proetus, but

the king’s wife, Stheneboia, fell in love with him. When

Bellerophon rejected her advances, the queen vengefully

accused the young man of trying to seduce her. Proetus

believed his wife’s false words, and so Bellerophon found

himself banished again. This time, Proetus sent him to Lycia,

the kingdom of Stheneboia’s father, Iobates. Proetus

asked Iobates to kill Bellerophon, but Iobates

did not want to murder a guest. Instead, he

sent Bellerophon on an apparently

vain quest to kill the monstrous

Chimaera, a creature that was part

serpent, part goat, and part lion.

HUNTING THE CHIMAERA

Athena helped the young hero by

giving him the magical

winged horse, Pegasus.

With his assistance,

Bellerophon was able

to swoop down on

the monster and

dispatch it with his sword, freeing

Iobates’s kingdom of the deadly

menace. Athena allowed Bellerophon

to retain the horse and, riding on this

remarkable mount, he fulfilled many

other quests. He defeated the Chimaera’s

Bellerophon and Pegasus

Some say that when Athena brought Pegasus to

Bellerophon, the horse was already broken in and

ready to ride, others that Bellerephon found the

wild winged horse and had to tame him first.

38