Bellerophon

Bellerophon or Bellerophontes (Ancient Greek: Βελλεροφόν; ; lit. "slayer of Belleros") or Hipponous (Ancient Greek: Ἱππονοος; lit. "horse-knower"), was a divine Corinthian hero of Greek mythology, the son of Poseidon and Eurynome, and the foster son of Glaukos. He was "the greatest hero and slayer of monsters, alongside Cadmus and Perseus, before the days of Heracles", among his greatest feats was killing the Chimera of the Iliad, a monster that Homer depicted with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail: "her breath came out in terrible blasts of burning flame."
Bellerophon was also known for capturing and taming the winged horse Pegasus with the help of Athena's charmed bridle, and earning the disfavour of the gods after attempting to ride Pegasus to Mount Olympus.
Etymology
One possible etymology that has been suggested is: Βελλεροφόντης (Bellerophóntēs) from Ancient Greek βέλεμνον (bélemnon), βελόνη (belóne) or βέλος (bélos, "projectile, dart, javelin, needle, arrow") and -φόντης (-phóntēs, "slayer") from φονεύω (phoneúō, "to slay"). However, Geoffrey Kirk says that "Βελλεροφόντης means 'slayer of Belleros. According to the Scholia of Homer, he was named so after having slain a Corinthian citizen of that same name by accident, while practicing his knife throwing, which caused him to be exiled to Lycia; this origin hypothesis would correspond to how Hermes got his epithet 'Argeiphontes' (lit. 'slayer of Argus') after slaying Argus. According to some scholars, Belleros could have also been a local Lycian daimon, as Bellerophon's name "invited all sorts of speculation". The only other authors to mention a Belleros killed by Bellerophon are two Byzantine scholars, John Tzetzes and Eustathius of Thessalonica, who both seem to be following Bellerophon's own name etymology.
Family
Bellerophon was the son of the mortal Eurynome (or Eurymede) and Poseidon; having been raised by his foster father Glaukos. He was the brother of Deliades (also named Peiren or Alcimenes).
Bellerophon was the father of Isander (Peisander), Hippolochus, and Laodamia (Deidamia or Hippodamia) by Philonoe, daughter of King Iobates of Lycia. Philonoe was also known under several other names: Alkimedousa, Anticleia, Pasandra or Cassandra. In some accounts, Bellerophon also fathered Hydissos by Asteria, daughter of Hydeus.
Mythology
The Iliad vi.155–203 contained an embedded narrative told by Bellerophon's grandson Glaucus (who was named after his great-grandfather), which recounted Bellerophon's myth. In this narrative, Bellerophon's father was Glaucus, who was the King of Potniae and son of Sisyphus; Bellerophon's grandsons Sarpedon and the younger Glaucus fought in the Trojan War.
In Stephanus of Byzantium’s Ethnica, a genealogy was given for a figure named Chrysaor ("of the golden sword"), which would make him a double of Bellerophon: he was called the son of Glaucus (son of Sisyphus). Chrysaor has no myth besides that of his birth: from the severed neck of Medusa, who was with child by Poseidon, he and Pegasus were both born at the moment of her death. "From this moment we hear no more of Chrysaor, the rest of the tale concerning the stallion only... [who visited the spring of Pirene] perhaps also for his brother's sake, by whom in the end he let himself be caught, the immortal horse by his mortal brother."
Exile in Argos
Bellerophon's brave journey began in a familiar way, with an exile: in one narrative he had murdered his brother, whose name was given as Deliades, Peiren or Alcimenes; a more precise narrative involves him slaying a Corinthian citizen or nobleman called "Belleros" or "Belleron" by accident, while practicing knife-throwing with his friends, which caused the name change from Hipponous to Bellerophon.
In atonement for this crime, he had to make a plead to Proetus, a king in Tiryns, one of the Achaean strongholds of the Argolid. Proetus, by virtue of his kingship, cleansed Bellerophon of his crime. But when the wife of king Proetus – whose name was either Anteia or Stheneboea, tried to make advances on him, he rejected her, causing her to accuse Bellerophon of attempting to make advances on her instead. Proetus dared not to satisfy his anger by killing a guest who is protected by xenia), causing him to finally exile Bellerophon to King Iobates, his father-in-law from the plain of the River Xanthus in Lycia, bearing a sealed letter in a folded tablet which read: "Please remove this bearer from the world: he attempted to violate my wife, your daughter."
Before opening the tablets, Iobates feasted with Bellerophon for nine days. On reading the tablet's message Iobates too feared the wrath of the Erinyes if he murdered a guest; so he sent Bellerophon on a mission that he deemed impossible to survive: to kill the Chimera, living in neighboring Caria. The Chimera was a fire-breathing monster consisting of the body of a goat, the head of a lion and the tail of a serpent. This monster had terrorized the nearby countryside.
On his way to Caria, he encountered the famous Corinthian fortune teller Polyeidos, who gave him advice on his upcoming battle, telling Bellerophon that in order to emerge victorious, he would be in need of the mythical Pegasus.
Capturing Pegasus
To obtain the services of the untamed winged horse, Polyeidos told Bellerophon to sleep in the temple of Athena. While Bellerophon slept, he dreamed that Athena set a golden bridle 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." It was there when he awoke and understood that he had to approach Pegasus while it drank from a well. When asked, Polyeidos told him which well: the never-failing Pirene on the citadel of Corinth, the city of Bellerophon's birth. Bellerophon mounted his steed and flew off, back to Lycia where the Chimera was said to dwell.
Other accounts say that Athena brought Pegasus already tamed and bridled, or that Poseidon the horse-tamer, secretly the father of Bellerophon, brought Pegasus, as Pausanias understood.
The Slaying of the Chimera
When Bellerophon arrived in Lycia to face the ferocious Chimera, he could not harm the monster even while riding Pegasus. But when he felt the Chimera's hot breath, he was struck with an idea. He got a large block of lead and mounted it on his spear. He then flew head-on towards the Chimera, holding out the spear as far as he could. Before breaking off his attack, he lodged the block of lead inside the Chimera's throat. The beast's fire-breath melted the lead, which blocked its air passage, suffocating it. Some red-figure pottery painters show Bellerophon wielding Poseidon's trident instead.
Return to Iobates
When Bellerophon returned victorious to King Iobates, the king was unwilling to believe his story. A series of daunting quests ensued: Bellerophon was sent against the warlike Amazons, who fought like men, whom Bellerophon vanquished by dropping boulders from his winged horse; which – in some Narratives, is preceded by Bellerophon facing off the Solymi.
When he was sent against a Carian pirate, Cheirmarrhus, they tried to ambush him, but failed when Bellerophon killed everyone sent to assassinate him. The palace guards then were sent against him, but Bellerophon called upon his father Poseidon, who flooded the plain of Xanthus behind Bellerophon as he approached. To defend themselves, the palace women rushed from the gates with their robes lifted high to expose themselves. Unwilling to confront them while they were undressed, Bellerophon withdrew.
Iobates relented, produced the letter, and allowed Bellerophon to marry his daughter Philonoe, the younger sister of Anteia, and shared with him half his kingdom, with its fine vineyards and grain fields. The lady Philonoe bore him Isander (Peisander), Hippolochus and Laodamia, who slept with Zeus the Counselor and bore Sarpedon, but was slain by Artemis.
Flight to Olympus and fall
As Bellerophon's fame grew, so did his Hubris. Bellerophon felt that because of his victory over the Chimera, he deserved to fly to Mount Olympus, the home of the gods. This act angered Zeus and he sent a gadfly to sting Pegasus, causing Bellerophon to fall back to Earth causing him to die. Pegasus completed the flight to Olympus where Zeus used him as a pack horse for his thunderbolts.
According to other narratives, on the Plain of Aleion ("Wandering") in Cilicia, Bellerophon, who had been blinded after falling into a thorn bush, lived out his life in misery, "devouring his own soul", until he died.
Euripides' Bellerophon
Enough fragments of Euripides' lost tragedy, Bellerophon, remain as about thirty quotations in surviving texts, giving scholars a basis for assessing its theme: the tragic outcome of his attempt to storm Olympus on Pegasus. An outspoken passage—in which Bellerophon seems to doubt the gods' existence, due to the contrast between the wicked and impious, who live lives of ease, with the suffering of the good—is apparently the basis for Aristophanes' imputation of "atheism" to the poet.
Perseus on Pegasus
The replacement of Bellerophon by the more familiar culture hero Perseus was a development of Classical times that was standardized during the Middle Ages and has been adopted by the European poets of the Renaissance and later.
Gallery
Footnotes
References
Further reading
Graves, Robert, 1960. The Greek Myths, revised edition (Harmondsworth: Penguin)
Homer, Iliad, book vi.155–203
Kerenyi, Karl, 1959. The Heroes of the Greeks (London: Thames and Hudson)
Kirk, G. S., 1990. The Iliad: A Commentary Volume II: books 5-8. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
External links
The Warburg Institute Iconographic Database (images of Bellerophon)
Greek mythological heroes
Princes in Greek mythology
Kings in Greek mythology
Children of Poseidon
Demigods in classical mythology
Boeotian characters in Greek mythology
Boeotian mythology
Corinthian mythology
Lycia
Mythology of Argolis
Deeds of Zeus
Pegasus