Bellerophon

Pegasus, The Winged Horse

Bellerophon was one of the biggest heroes in Greek mythology in the time before Hercules came around. The myth was told by his Grandson, Glaucus, which also happened to be the name of his father, King Glaucus. In the begenning of the myth Bellerophon accidently killed his brother or a figure posing at him (different resources tell different things), which lead to him being banished into exile for murder. He then traveled to the King of Tirnys, Proetus. Proetus heard his story and cleansed him of his crimes he committed in Corinth. After this the Kings wife, Stheneboea, took on to him and fell for him. Bellerophon rejected the kings wife though, and she got angry with him and told the king that he had tried to rape her. This made the king very displeased, but wanted Bellerophon to be socially acceptable and sent him to King Lobates in Lycia. With him he sent a letter that was to go to King Lobates. When Bellerophon arrived, he was treated great for nine days. On the tenth day, Lobates found out about the letter, and demanded to see it. When he opened the latter he found it said "Take care of Bellerophon because he tried to sleep with my wife". Lobates did not want to kill Bellerophon for fear of the gods, so he sent him on a journey deemed impossible, to kill the fire breathing beast, Chimera. Chimera was a beast that had the body of a goat, head of a lion, and tail of a serpent. To do this task he was told he needed to obtain Pegasus in order for his journey to be successful. Pegasus was a untamed horse that had wings. In order to do this, Polyeidos told him to sleep in the temple of Athena. While sleeping in this temple, Bellerophon had a dream that Athena came to him, with a gold bridle. Athena talked to him and said that the bridle was a sacrifice to the tamer and he needed it in order to get Pegasus. When he woke up he found the bridle sitting right next to him. He was then told that he needed to approach Pegasus when he was drinking from the well in his home city, Corinth, at the never ending Pirene. Other sources say different on how he got Pegasus but this is the one I found. When he caught Pegasus he flew off to where Chimera was believed to be located. Chimera was located in Lycia, and when Bellerophon found him he was not the slightest bit pleased. Bellerophon couldn't phase the beast as it blew fire and threw him off track. He then got the idea to attach a large block of lead to a spear and then threw it towards Chimera's throat. The block of lead lodged in his throat and when it tried to breath fire it melted the lead killing the beast by blocking its air passage. He returned to Lobates and he couldn't believe he had done it. He later went on to do many other tasks like fight against the Amazons and the Solymi. Bellerophon got so full of himself he thought he would fly up to Mount Olympus, which angered Zues. Right before Bellerophon made it up to Olympus Zues took Pegasus from him and Bellerophon fell to back to Earth. Bellerophon would then live the rest of his life a cripple and blind, and not respected by the population.