Bellerophon or Bellerophontes ( Ancient Greek : Βελλεροφών; Βελλεροφόντης ; lit. "slayer of Belleros") or Hipponous ( Ancient Greek : Ἱππόνοος; 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."
31-577: 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 . 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
62-557: 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. 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
93-415: 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
124-516: 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
155-511: 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. When Bellerophon returned victorious to King Iobates,
186-445: A letter in which Iobates was desired to murder Bellerophon. Iobates challenged Bellerophon to several seemingly impossible tasks which Bellerophon did complete. When Proetus' daughters arrived at the age of maturity, they were stricken with madness, the cause of which is differently stated by different authors; some say that it was a punishment inflicted upon them by Dionysus , because they had despised his worship. Others have assumed
217-529: 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. Enough fragments of Euripides ' lost tragedy Bellerophon remain (as about thirty quotations in surviving texts) to give scholars a basis for assessing its theme:
248-585: A plea 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
279-401: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article about a legendary creature is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Proetus (king of Argos and Tiryns) In Greek mythology , Proetus ( / ˈ p r iː t ə s / Ancient Greek : Προῖτος , romanized : Proîtos ), the son of Abas , was a king of Argos and Tiryns . Proetus' father
310-557: 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
341-476: 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. 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
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#1732771869475372-474: The Counselor and bore Sarpedon , but was slain by Artemis . 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 and die. Pegasus completed the flight to Olympus, where Zeus used him as
403-408: The daughters of Proetus, died, but the two others were cured by Melampus by means of purifications, and were then married to Melampus and Bias. There was a tradition that Proetus had founded a sanctuary of Hera, between Sicyon and Titane, and one of Apollo at Sicyon. The place where the cure was effected upon his daughters is not the same in all traditions, some mentioning the well Anigros, others
434-430: 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 . 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
465-480: The father of three daughters (the so-called Proetides) and a son Megapenthes . The daughters' names are Lysippe , Iphinoe , and Iphianassa in the Bibliotheca and were often mentioned under the general name of Proetides; Servius calls the last two Hipponoe and Cyrianassa , whereas Aelian only mentions two, Elege and Celaene . Proetus and Acrisius quarreled continually ever since they still were in
496-493: 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
527-613: 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, but he vanquished them by dropping boulders from his winged horse; in some narratives, this 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
558-550: 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
589-422: 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." Bellerophon's brave journey began in
620-537: 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
651-408: 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. The replacement of Bellerophon by the more familiar culture hero Perseus
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#1732771869475682-401: The troubles arose by Hera , because they presumed to be more beautiful than the goddess, or perhaps because they had stolen some of the gold off her statue. In this state of madness they wandered through Peloponnesus. Melampus promised to cure them, if Proetus would give him one third of his kingdom. As Proetus refused to accept these terms, the madness of his daughters not only increased, but
713-736: The war had gone on for a while the kingdom was divided in two. Acrisius then shared his kingdom with his brother, surrendering to him Tiryns and the eastern half of Argolis, i.e. the Heraeum, Midea and the coast of Argolis. Tiryns was said to be fortified by the Cyclopes. When Bellerophon came to Proetus to be purified of a murder which he had committed, the wife of Proetus fell in love with him, and invited him to come to her: but, as Bellerophon refused to comply with her desire, she charged him before Proetus with having made improper proposals to her. Proetus then sent Bellerophon to Iobates in Lycia, with
744-767: The well Cleitor in Arcadia , or Lusi in Arcadia. Some even state that the Proetides were cured by Asclepius or that they were cured in the Cave of the Lakes . This story is sometimes attributed to Anaxagoras . In one account, Proetus had yet another daughter, Nyctaea , who fled from her own father's attempts of violation and was changed by Athena into an owl; her story is a variant for that of Nyctimene . According to Ovid, Proetus ended up changed into stone by Perseus ,
775-584: The womb that they even carried on with the rivalry into their adult years, inventing shields or bucklers in the process. In one tradition, the conflict was reiterated when Proetus seduced Acrisius' daughter (and his own niece) Danae . Proetus started out as king of Argos, and held the throne for about seventeen years, but Acrisius defeated him on the war and exiled him. Proetus then fled to King Jobates (Iobates) or Amphianax in Lycia , and married his daughter Antea or Stheneboea . Jobates, thereupon, attempted to restore Proetus to his kingdom by armed force. After
806-490: Was Abas , son of the last surviving Aegyptiad Lynceus and the Danaid Hypermnestra , had ruled over Argos and married Aglaea or Ocalea , who bore him twin sons, Proetus and Acrisius . Proetus had also an illegitimate brother named Lyrcus, son of his father by an unknown woman. According to Apollodorus, some said Proetus was father of Perseus . By his wife, Antea or Stheneboea , Proetus became
837-532: 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
868-607: 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. List of winged horses A winged horse , flying horse , or pterippus is a kind of mythical creature , mostly depicted as a horse with the wings of a bird . Winged horses appear in the mythologies of various cultures, including Greek mythology . Tianma
899-809: Was a winged 'celestial' horse in Chinese folklore . A Qianlima is a mythical winged horse which originates from the Chinese classics . Tulpar is a winged or swift horse in Turkic mythology . The Wind Horse is a winged horse from Tibetan mythology . The Ethiopian pegasus was born on an island in the Red Sea off the coast of Eritrea. Some of the Legendary horses in the Jura are depicted as winged horses. [REDACTED] Media related to Winged horses at Wikimedia Commons This equine-related article
930-413: Was also known under several other names: Alkimedousa or Cassandra , Anticleia , or Pasandra . In some accounts, Bellerophon also fathered Hydissos by Asteria , daughter of Hydeus . 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
961-506: Was communicated to the other Argive women also, so that they murdered their own children and ran about in a state of frenzy. Proetus then declared himself willing to listen to the proposal of Melampus; but the latter now also demanded for his brother Bias an equal share of the kingdom of Argos. Proetus consented and Melampus, having chosen the most robust among the young men, gave chase to the mad women, amid shouting and dancing, and drove them as far as Sicyon. During this pursuit, Iphinoe, one of