Once upon a time in the land of corinth, a
hero was born.
The son of the sea god poseidon, and the mortal
woman, Eurynome.
The brother of deliades. and the grandson
of king Sisyphus.
His name was bellerophon.
A valiant youth, a young demi god, who would
rise to become one of the greatest heroes
in all of greek myths.
Glaucus, the king of corinth, and husband
of Eurynome, had assumed bellerophon was his
son, and raised him as his own, without an
inkling of his wife's affair with the sea
god.
Now, just like Poseidon, the mortal Glaucus
was a lover of horses.
He was known to make his horses vicious in
battle, by feeding them human flesh.
Thus, this trait, this fondness of horses,
was naturally passed down to bellerophon,
from both of his fathers.
Right from the days of his childhood, bellerophon
so dreamt of riding the legendary flying horse,
Pegasus.
And so, when the time came, this became his
first quest, his very first adventure.
He travelled to where pegasus was rumoured
to roam. there, bellerophon tried to mount
pegasus, but the steed shook him off each
time.
He made efforts to tame it, but it struggled,
it kicked, it neighed furiously.
He tried to capture it, but the horse constantly
eluded him.
still determined to ride pegasus, bellerophon
sought the help of polyeidos, the famed seer
of corinth.
polyeidos advised him to sleep in the temple
of the goddess athena, that night.
that this might bring athena to his aid. and
by the help of the goddess, he would gain
the trust of the untamed pegasus.
Paying heed to the advice, bellerophon went
to the sacred temple of athena, and lay there
to sleep.
While he slept, he had a dream where the goddess
fashioned a golden bridle, and set it beside
him, saying "Sleepest thou, prince of the
house of Aiolos?
Come, take this charm for the steed and show
it to the Tamer, thy father, as thou makest
sacrifice to him, of a white bull."
When bellerophon awoke from his slumber.
he saw the golden bridle right beside him,
and made a sacrifice of a white bull to athena,
and to the earthshaker poseidon, just as he
was told.
Taking the bridle, the young man set back
to the abode of pegasus.
there he saw the beautiful horse drinking
from a well.
He watched the horse a while, in admiration.
then slowly approached it, half expecting
it to react agressively, like before.
However pegasus stood calmly, glanced at the
man coming towards it. and continued its drinking.
Bellerophon painlessly put the golden bridle
on the horse, and it did not kick at him.
He mounted the horse, and it did not reject.
but instead, flapped its wings, and lifted
them both, high up in the air.
Bellerophon rode back to his kingdom, to show
his people, and the neighboring kingdoms,
his wondrous achievement.
Impressed by the young hero's deed, King pittheus
of Troezen, gave his daughter, Aethra, to
bellerophon, in marriage.
On a fateful day, before the wedding could
take place, bellerophon got into a fight with
his brother, deliades. and accidentally killed
him.
A crime, for which he was banished. and his
mariage to Aethra was revoked.
The banished prince found refuge in the house
of King Proteus of Argos, who pardoned him
for his crimes.
Bellerophon was welcomed and fed.
unbeknownst to him, more trouble was coming
his way.
The wife of king Proteus, named Anteia, had
taken a liking to him. and one day tried to
seduce him.
But bellerophon was an honourable man.
he rejected her advances.
Bitter at being rejected, queen anteia lied
to her husband, that bellerophon had tried
to force himself on her.
Furious, king proteus thought of a way to
eliminate bellerophon.
He could not kill his guest, as he would incur
the wrath of the furies.
So, king proteus sent bellerophon to his father
in-law, king Iobates of Lycia.
Proteus had given the young hero a folded
tablet to deliver to king Iobates.
In that folded tablet, was a concealed message.
a message that read thus: "Pray remove the
bearer from this world: he attempted to violate
my wife, your daughter."
now king Iobates did not read the tablet he
had been given, immediately.
He talked, and laughed, and feasted with bellerophon
for 9 whole days, before doing so.
When he finally read the tablet's message.
king Iobates found himself in the same dilema
as son in-law, proteus.
He too, could not kill a guest, for the fear
of the furies.
King Iobates thought of a paln to dispose
of bellerophon, and came up with one.
a mission no ordinary man could accomplish.
a mission deemed impossible.
He sent bellerophon to kill the powerful chimera.
The chimera was a ferocious fire-breathing
monster, which had the head of a lion, the
body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent.
It was one of the children of echidna, the
mother of monsters.
Prior to the onset of his deadly journey.
bellerophon once again, sought the help of
the wise seer, polyeidos.
the seer told him to take the winged pegasus
along with him.
for the steed would prove to be very useful
in his time of need.
and so, riding through the sky, on the back
of pegasus.
bellerophon set out on his journey to caria,
to his second quest, to the abode of the chimera.
On getting there, the monster was raging,
as always, scorching everything in its path,
with the heat of its fire.
It had terrorized that vicinity for a long
time, destroying both men and livestock.
From above, bellerophone beheld the creature
for the first time, in utter astonishment.
what stood below him was huge, it was large,
its breath came out in terrible blasts of
burning flame, it had razor sharp fangs and
claws, and, he was to kill it.
Surely, any man would have fled, but bellerophon
did not. for he was brave.
With no plan yet in mind, the hero flew towards
the beast, perhaps to test its strength.
and as soon as the chimera spotted him, it
released from its mouth, at this intruder,
a blast of flame so strong, that bellerophon
could feel the scorching heat of its flame,
from the height of his horse.
He quickly swung pegasus to the side, evading
the attack.
The chimera kept blasting flames, and bellerophon
kept evading the atacks.
but he was running out of time.
The chimera was indeed ferocious, it had covered
almost everywhere in flames. and he had to
do something quickly, or be destroyed by this
monster, like others before him.
Suddenly, an idea came to him.
an idea that could be very deadly, if he failed.
but it was the only way.
With the speed and agility of a warrior, bellerophone
lept from his horse, directly at the monster,
all by himself.
with all his strength, with all his might,
he thrust his spear, into the monster's gaping
mouth, piercing the inside of its throat.
For a moment, the chimera didn't seem to be
affected.
Then the its fire breath, melted the spear
made of lead, blocking its air passage.
The beast roared loudly, struggling to breath.
Gradually it lowered itself to the ground,
untill it lay still.
it had suffocated.
the chimera was dead.
What a great moment it was for the hero, a
moment that would earn him his place, as one
of the greatest of all time.
Bellerophone had slain the chimera.
out of the plains, the hero flew, towards
the kingdom of lycia, to king Iobates, his
quest a success.
Oh what a shock it was to king Iobates, when
he saw bellerophon unharmed.
Impossible! how could he have slain a beast
that powerful?
Bellerophon's victory further infuriated king
Iobates, so he came up with more daunting
tasks for the hero.
He sent bellerophon against the great warriors
of Solymi, and then against the fierce Amazons,
the children of Ares, who fought like men.
But bellerophon came out victorious once again.
He flew over them with Pegasus, above the
reach of arrows and spears, all the while
throwing down large boulders on them, until
they had all been vanquished.
Next, the king sent bellerophon against a
band of Carian pirates, led by an ogre named
Cheimarrhus.
bellerophon easily defeated the pirates, and
came back to meet the even more infuriated
king.
Having run out of ideas, king Iobates sent
his elite palace guards to kill bellerophon.
but bellerophon prayed to his father poseidon,
who answered by flooding the plains with water,
threatening to drown the entire region.
There, king Iobates finally realised, that
this was no ordinary man, that bellerophon
was strongly protected by the gods.
His anger vanished, and he immediately regretted
his actions.
The palace women offered themselves to bellerophon,
in defence.
but the honorable hero rejected their offer,
and prayed to poseidon to stop the floods.
The flood disappeared, and peace was made.
Bellerophon married the king's daughter, Philonoe,
and was given half of the kingdom.
On hearing the news, queen anteia, who had
falsely accused the hero, killed herself,
out of shame.
Bellerphone and philonoe, had two sons, Isander
and Hippolochus, and two daughters, Laodameia
and Deidameia.
He had become very famous, and wealthy.
Sadly, as bellerephon's fame continued to
grow, so did his arrogance, so did his pride.
He deemed himself too great to reside with
the mortals.
he wanted to go to olympus, to live with the
gods.
On a fateful day, bellerophon flew pegasus
towards the heavens, to the gates of olympus.
this was enough to incur the wrath of zeus.
"Be gone, Fool! away with thy insolence, away
to thy doom".
zeus sent a gadfly to sting pegasus, which
caused the horse to throw bellerophon off.
bellerophon fell all the back to the earth,
landing heavily on the hard ground.
The fall left him broken, crippled, and blind.
Bellerophon spent the rest of his life in
solitude, wandering in misery, in delusion,
till his death.
meanwhile, pegasus was allowed to enter olympus,
where zeus used the horse to carry his thunderbolts.
This is the story of bellerophon.
the tragic fall of a great hero.
the greatest, before the time of perseus,
before the time of theseus, before the time
of hercules.
