The ups and downs of the hero Bellerophon

Bellerophon is a great hero in Greek mythology whose greatest feat is slaying the beast Chimera.

Bellerophon destroys Chimera. He is also known for successfully capturing the winged magic horse Pegasus. However, Bellerophon was punished by Zeus, thinking that his exploits would allow him to equal the gods. Defeat the tyrant Belleros Bellerophon is this name that came later. The boy’s name was Hipponoos at first. At that time there arose in Corinthe an evil king named Belleros. He usurped the throne, practiced many tyrannical policies that made the people complain. So Hipponoos took action to eliminate this tyrant. Since then, the brave young man was no longer called by the name Hipponoos, but called Bellerophon in Greek, meaning: “The one who killed Belleros”. But according to ancient Greek law, murder was a felony, the murderer had to be tried and suffered very severe punishment. Bellerophon therefore had to abandon the city of Corinthe and flee to Tirynthe, begging King Proetos to take refuge. After hearing the story, King Proetos loved Bellerophon very much. He baptized and purified him, allowing him to live in the palace with the king’s family. Queen Sthenebee, wife of King Proetos, was an amorous woman. She once again fell in love with the sturdy young man Bellerophon. In the absence of her husband, Sthenebee tried to talk to Bellerophon but was refused. Embarrassed, Sthenebee thought of a way to avenge him. She waited for her husband to return, went to her husband and falsely accused Bellerophon of having acts of laziness, groping with her, and insulting her reputation. She demanded that her husband kill Bellerophon in order to dishonor her. Believing the queen, but not wanting blood, King Proetus sent Bellerophon to his father-in-law – King Iobates of Lycia with a letter. In the letter, it said: Bellerophon has committed offenses against her, asking her father-in-law to take action to punish her. The letter was written in a secret sign on an terracotta “paper” that only the two of them understood and gave Bellerophon to carry. Bellerophon set out for Lycia. King Iobates gave a feast to the hero who destroyed Belleros. After eating and drinking, Bellerophon presented the king with a letter from Proetos. After reading the letter, he couldn’t believe that a hero could commit such an evil and unclean crime as his son-in-law wrote to him. Iobates found it a little hard to believe. In the end, Iobates decided to spare Bellerophon. But not completely acquitted, he devised another way to punish Bellerophon to eliminate the monster Chimera. Kill the Chimera Chimera is a hybrid beast, with a lion body, the front part is a lion’s head, the tail is a dragon’s head (or snake’s head), in the middle of Chimera’s body grows a goat’s head. But to defeat the wind-speeding, fire-breathing Chimere, Bellerophon must have a superior weapon. He knew that the hero Perseus in the duel with the demon Medusa had won a great victory thanks to his winged sandals. He felt that perhaps he must also find such magic sandals so that he could fly high in the sky and swoop down to fight monsters. Suddenly Bellerophon remembered the Pegasus horse from the demon Medusa’s neck, when it was slashed, it flew into the sky. Bellerophon immediately began to prepare for the journey to conquer Pegasus. To conquer Pegasus, you must find the summit of Mount Helicon. Here is the Hippocrene stream, flowing between two banks of green grass. Pegasus often landed from the sky to the top of the mountain and came to drink from that stream. But how to catch that magic horse, a horse that when it caught a glimpse of a person, it flapped its wings and flew straight into the sky? Bellerophon, after many attempts to catch him, had to go to the oracle Polyidos to ask for guidance. Polyidos advised Bellerophon to go to the temple of the goddess Athena to pray. He did, and Athena appeared, giving Bellerophon the golden reins and showing Bellerophon how to capture and tame Pegasus. Out of habit, Pegasus landed from the sky in the meadow by the stream. After gnawing on tufts of young green grass, Pegasus went to the stream to drink water. Bellerophon immediately ran to Pegasus. Hearing the sound, Pegasus lifted his head from the stream to flap his wings. But seeing Bellerophon running up to him with his golden reins shining brightly, Pegasus obediently let Bellerophon take the reins. So Bellerophon had a “weapon” to destroy the evil Chimera. Immediately, Bellerophon flew to the mountain of Chimera’s lair. He landed the horse Pegasus and found the Chimera cave to lure it out. The next hit, Chimera rushed out from the cave, three streams of fire spewed out from the beast’s three mouths and brushed where it was burning. Bellerophon leapt as fast as he could on the back of the reindeer. He flew up, looking down from the sky he could easily see the weak point of the monster. Thanks to Pegasus’s powerful support, Bellerophon used the long spear to stab the monster repeatedly. Chimera got angry, spitting out streams of fire that burned everything around. But the fire had made Chimera’s wounds irreparable. Even though Chimera knew that his opponent was coming down from the sky, he raised his head to spit fire, but it was too late. Bellerophon quickly plunged the spear into Chimera’s throat. In excruciating pain, Chimera unleashed fire indiscriminately, burning the mountains to limestone, and the forest land to cinders. The mountains collapsed, the trees burned, the fire was burning, and the smoke and dust made it even more impossible for Chimera to find Bellerophon. It died in a frenzy and was burned to ashes by its own flames. Bellerophon completes Iobates’ mission. He returned to the palace with a glorious feat, glorious glory. Iobates hasn’t stopped challenging yet. This time, the king sent his famous heroes to lead an army to ambush Bellerophon when he learned that he had won and was on his way back. Bellerophon, despite being hit by surprise, still undeterred, taking down the opponents one by one. Only now did King Iobates acknowledge Bellerophon’s great feat. He opened a solemn celebration party, moreover, gave him his daughter in marriage and gave him half of the country for him to govern. The people considered him a great hero of Lycie country. The life of the hero thought he would achieve more glorious feats for the country of Lycie, unexpectedly, Bellerophon for some reason had come up with the wild idea to equal the gods. He did not want to live in the mundane world of the short-lived, but wanted to live in the Olympus world of the immortal gods. He thought that his exploits might allow him to equal the gods. So Bellerophon rode the horse Pegasus straight up into the sky, high up, high above the low clouds to the high clouds to reach Mount Olympus. Zeus saw Bellerophon riding a Pegasus flying through the clouds, and he frowned in anger. Zeus waved his hand hard, the horse suddenly became aggressive and uncharacteristic, and threw Bellerophon off his back, causing him to fall to the earth. Bellerophon fell, but fortunately did not lose his life, but only lost his life and went blind. He had lost his heroic status, lived with the misfortune of being disabled and alone, roaming the world with remorse for his blasphemy.