Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Bellerophon (Bellerophontes), son of Glaucus son of Sisyphus—or in many accounts secretly of Poseidon—came as a guest (or exile) to the court of Proetus, king of Tiryns (or Argos). Anteia (called Stheneboea in tragedy and Apollodorus), Proetus’s wife, desired him. When he refused her, she told Proetus that Bellerophon had tried to force her. Proetus would not kill a guest under his own roof; instead he sent Bellerophon to Lycia bearing sealed tablets (or a letter) for Anteia’s father, King Iobates, with a message requesting the bearer’s death. Iobates, likewise reluctant to murder a guest outright, set Bellerophon impossible tasks. First he ordered him to kill the Chimera—a fire-breathing monster, front lion, rear serpent, middle goat—that was ravaging Lycia (Hesiod’s *Theogony* already describes the beast as offspring of Typhon and Echidna; Homer calls it of divine stock, not of men). Bellerophon slew the Chimera. Apollodorus and the later tradition equip him with Pegasus for this fight (next entry); Homer’s *Iliad* narrates the Chimera’s death without naming the winged horse. Iobates then sent him against the Solymi, then against the Amazons; Bellerophon prevailed in each campaign. Finally Iobates ambushed him with the bravest Lycians; Bellerophon killed them all. Convinced of the hero’s divine favor, Iobates showed him the letter, gave him his daughter (Philonoë / Casandra in variants) in marriage, and shared the kingship. Anteia/Stheneboea’s false accusation thus drives the hero from Argolid hospitality into Lycian proving-trials whose climax is the Chimera.