Bellerophon or Bellerophontes is a hero of Greek mythology. He was "the greatest
hero and slayer of monsters, alongside Cadmus and Perseus, before the days of
Heracles", and his greatest feat was killing the Chimera, 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 the son
of the mortal Eurynome by either her husband Glaucus, or Poseidon.
Etymology One possible etymology that has been
suggested is: Βελλεροφόντης from βέλεμνον, βελόνη, βέλος and -φόντης from
φονεύω. However, Geoffrey Kirk says that "Βελλεροφόντης means 'slayer of
Belleros'". Belleros could have been a Lycian, a local daimon or a Corinthian
nobleman—Bellerophon's name "clearly invited all sorts of speculation".
Bellerophon's myth The Iliad vi.155–203 contains an
embedded narrative told by Bellerophon's grandson Glaucus, named for his
great-grandfather, which recounts Bellerophon's myth. Bellerophon's father
was Glaucus, who was the king of Corinth and the son of Sisyphus. Bellerophon's
grandsons Sarpedon and the younger Glaucus fought in the Trojan War. In the
Epitome of pseudo-Apollodorus, a genealogy is given for Chrysaor that
would make him a double of Bellerophon; he too is called the son of Glaucus the
son of Sisyphus. Chrysaor has no myth save that of his birth: from the severed
neck of Medusa, who was with child by Poseidon, he and Pegasus both sprang 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 visits 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 the familiar way, with an exile: he had
murdered either his brother, whose name is usually given as Deliades, or killed
a shadowy "enemy", a "Belleros", and in expiation of his crime arrived as a
suppliant to Proetus, king in Tiryns, one of the Mycenaean strongholds of the
Argolid. Proetus, by virtue of his kingship, cleansed Bellerophon of his
crime. The wife of the king, whether named Anteia or Stheneboea, took a fancy
to him, but when he rejected her, she accused Bellerophon of attempting to
ravish her. Proetus dared not satisfy his anger by killing a guest, so he sent
Bellerophon to King Iobates his father-in-law, in the plain of the River
Xanthus in Lycia, bearing a sealed message in a folded tablet: "Pray remove
the bearer from this 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 kill the Chimera, living in neighboring Caria. The Chimera was a
fire-breathing monster whose make-up comprised the body of a goat, the head
of a lion and the tail being a serpent. This monster had terrorized the nearby
countryside. = Capturing Pegasus=
The Lycian seer Polyeidos told Bellerophon that he would have need of
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. Bellerophon had to approach Pegasus
while it drank from a well; Polyeidos told him which well—the never-failing
Pirene on the citadel of Corinth, the city of Bellerophon's birth. 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. Bellerophon mounted his steed and flew off to where
the Chimera was said to dwell. = The slaying of the Chimera=
When he arrived in Lycia, the Chimera was truly ferocious, and he could not
harm the monster even while riding on Pegasus. He felt the heat of the breath
the Chimera expelled, and was struck with an idea. He got a large block of
lead and mounted it on his spear. Then he flew head-on towards the Chimera,
holding out the spear as far as he could. Before he broke off his attack,
he managed to lodge the block of lead inside the Chimera's throat. The beast's
fire-breath melted the lead, and blocked its air passage. The Chimera suffocated,
and Bellerophon returned victorious to King Iobates. Iobates, on Bellerophon's
return, was unwilling to credit his story. A series of daunting further
quests ensued: he was sent against the warlike Solymi and then against the
Amazons who fought like men, whom Bellerophon vanquished by dropping
boulders from his winged horse; when he was sent against a Carian pirate,
Cheirmarrhus, an ambush failed, when Bellerophon killed all sent to
assassinate him; the palace guards were sent against him, but Bellerophon called
upon Poseidon, who flooded the plain of Xanthus behind Bellerophon as he
approached. In defense the palace women sent him and the flood in retreat by
rushing from the gates with their robes lifted high, offering themselves, to
which the modest hero replied by withdrawing. 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 fine vineyards
and grain fields. The lady Philonoe bore him Isander, Hippolochus and Laodamia,
who lay 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, and
because he thought he was a god he deserved to fly to Mount Olympus, the
realm of the gods. However, this presumption angered Zeus and he sent a
gadfly to sting the horse, causing Bellerophon to fall all the way back to
Earth. Pegasus completed the flight to Olympus where Zeus used him as a pack
horse for his thunderbolts. On the Plain of Aleion, Bellerophon lived out his
life in misery as a blinded crippled hermit, grieving and shunning the haunts
of men until he died. In Tlos, near Fethiye, in modern-day Turkey, ancient
Lykia, there is a tomb with a carving of a man riding a winged horse. This is
claimed locally to be the tomb of Bellerophon.
Euripides' Bellerophontes Enough fragments of Euripides' lost
tragedy Bellerophontes remain embedded as some thirty quotations in surviving
texts to give 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 from the contrast between the
wicked and impious, who live lives of ease with the privations suffered by the
good—is apparently the basis for Aristophanes' imputation of "atheism" to
the tragic 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.
In popular culture The first planet discovered orbiting a
Sun-like star, 51 Pegasi b, has been unofficially nicknamed 'Bellerophon'.
Chimera, the 1972 National Book Award-winning novel by John Barth,
includes a novella called Bellerophoniad that is a complex postmodern retelling
and examination of the myth of Bellerophon.
In The Concept of Anxiety, Søren Kierkegaard wrote that Bellerophon "sat
calmly on his Pegasus in the service of the idea but fell when he wanted to
misuse Pegasus by riding the horse to a rendezvous with a mortal woman."
The classical opera seria Il Bellerofonte of the Czech composer Josef
Mysliveček, premiered in Naples, 1767; its libretto by Giuseppe Bonecchi
focused on the passion of the queen Antea.
The French composer Jean-Baptiste Lully wrote the opera Bellérophon which
premiered in Paris in 1679. Bellerophon is a computer program used
by geneticists and molecular biologists to detect invalid "chimera" genetic
sequences. Bellerophon was also the name of four or
more Royal Navy warships, the first of which fought many naval battles against
Napoleon. HMS Bellerphon’s keel was laid down in 1782, she was launched in 1792
and broken up in 1836. Napoleon surrendered and was taken aboard the
Bellerophon after his defeat at Waterloo. Known as "Billy Ruffian" by
the crew, the 74 gun warship fought at the Battle of the Nile and Battle of
Trafalgar. The second HMS Bellerophon was an early battleship, renamed Indus
III in 1904 and used for training, then sold in 1922. The third HMS Bellerophon
was the lead ship of a three-ship class, which were a follow up to HMS
Dreadnought; she fought at the Battle of Jutland. For other ships of the same
name, see HMS Bellerophon. The USS Bellerophon was one of 41
Achelous-class landing craft repair ships built for the United States Navy
during World War II. She was the only U.S. Naval vessel to bear the name.
A large statue called Bellerophon Taming Pegasus graces the facade of the
Columbia Law School in Manhattan. Bellerophon astride Pegasus, as the
first airborne warrior, is the traditional symbol of British Airborne
forces. Starships named Bellerophon have
appeared in many TV shows and films, such as:
The 1956 movie, Forbidden Planet the Andromeda episode "The Lone and
Level Sands" the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode
"Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges" Bellerophon was also the name of a
character on the series Xena: Warrior Princess
Was the name of a planet in the series Firefly.
Bellerophon is used as a name for a cure to the fictional virus 'Chimera' in
Mission Impossible II. The name of a long lost starship from
Earth in the fifth episode of season 3 of Andromeda.
Bellerophon is the name of a disaster zone-planet in the episode 'Milk Run' of
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Bellerophon is a Noble Phantasm of Rider
in Fate/stay night that takes the form of the bridle used to tame Pegasus.
Bellerophon(e) is the name of Dimitris Santziliotis, Athens music project
Mythic Warriors is a television series with one episode on Bellerophon.
References Further reading
Graves, Robert, 1960. The Greek Myths, revised edition
Homer, Iliad, book vi.155–203 Kerenyi, Karl, 1959. The Heroes of the
Greeks Kirk, G. S., 1990. The Iliad: A
Commentary Volume II: books 5-8. External links
Media related to Bellerophon at Wikimedia Commons
Images of Bellerophon in the Warburg Institute Iconographic Database