A Goddess For Men

Athena Favors Bellerophon

Related Resources • Bellerophon and the Chimera • Bellerophon - Glossary Entry • Bulfinch on Bellerophon • Picture of Pegasus and Bellerophon • Pegasus - Glossary Entry

Pride Before a Fall.

Here's a summary of Bellerophon's story:

When Bellerophon was young he followed the proper sacrificial course to obtain the object of his desire. After spending a night at the altar of Athena he awoke to find the dream he'd had was real, for while he slept, Athena had put in his hands the golden bridle to tame the flying horse, Pegasus(*).

Of course one doesn't just capture a fabulous creature and fade into obscurity, so Bellerophon had to have some heroic adventures. Scorning the amorous wife of his host, King Proteus, landed the young hero in traditional hot water. King Proteus wanted him killed, but since Bellerophon was a guest, he couldn't. Perhaps Proteus thought his fellow monarch less honorable; at any rate, the sealed note he gave Bellerophon to give to King Iobates testified to Bellerophon's perfidy. The trouble was that Iobates, Bellerophon's new host, was under the same obligation(+) as King Proteus.

Arriving at the usual solution to the unwanted virile young man problem, King Iobates sent him off to kill the fire-breathing lion-goat-snake monster, the Chimera. After Bellerophon succeeded in this task, he was given several others until the king gave up and gave him half his kingdom.

This would have been a good time for Bellerophon to have settled down, but instead, hubris and the magical powers of his horse overcame him. He decided to ride to Mt. Olympus to visit the gods.

This could not be tolerated(#), so Zeus put an end to it, alternatively with a thunderbolt or by sending a gadfly to torture Pegasus, which, in turn, meant Bellerophon was thrown. Bellerophon landed, crippled. Without anyone willing to help him, he wandered the rest of his life in obscurity.

Athena Favors Heroes:
>> Asclepius, Hercules, Odysseus, Orestes, Perseus

Notes

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