BELLEROPHON (Gk. BaXEpo56v-rns, Bel lerophon ffs, 'slayer of Belle's'). The son of Glaucus, and grandson of Sisyphus, according to the narrative in Iliad vi. Ile was driven forth by King Prcetus on account of the false accusa tions of his wife Anteia, who had become en amored of him, hut had been repulsed. Prcetus sent him to Anteia's father, King of Lycia, with a sealed message, which advised his death. The King sent him to kill the Chimera (q.v.), end when he had accomplished this task dispatched hint against the Solymi and Amazons, both of whom he defeated, finally destroying an ambus cade set by the King to slay him. Satisfied of his bravery and innocence, the King gave him his daughter in marriage. Later writers modified the story in various ways. Bellerophon was transferred from Argos to Corinth, and made son of Poseidon. He was also aided in killing the Chinnera by Athena, who enabled him to capture the winged horse Pegasus (q.v.). The Homeric version is evidently the hereditary story of the Lyeian kings, to prove their Greek origin; but there is evidence in the coins of Corinth that the exploit of Bellerophon was at one time localized in Peloponnesus. Other stories represented him
as fleeing to King Prcetus because of the murder of his brother, and as later returning to take vengeance on the wife of Prwtus, here called Sthenebcea. In Homer, Bellerophon ends his life-wandering in the Aleian Plain, hated by the gods; but Pindar tells how he tried to ascend to heaven upon Pegasus, but was dashed to the earth. This version was combined with the earlier by making Bellerophon fall upon the Aleian Plain. where he wandered blind and lame. Bellerophon's adventures formed the subject of lost plays of Sophocles and Euripides. In art Bellerophon is sometimes represented with Peg asus alone, but more often in battle with the Chimaera. This scene is also found among the reliefs of the Ilerobn at GJ1-bashi in Lycia. Bellerophon was worshiped as a god at Corinth and in Lycia. There seems good reason to see in him a sea-divinity of the Argolid, like Posei don, who later sank to the position of a hero. Consult Fischer, BelleropIon (Leipzig, 1851).