Figures

Bellerophon

Heroes

Citation Formats

General Reference

Divinity Atlas. "Bellerophon." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://www.divinityatlas.com/figures/bellerophon.

APA Style

Divinity Atlas. (n.d.). Bellerophon. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://www.divinityatlas.com/figures/bellerophon

BibTeX

@misc{divinityatlas-bellerophon,
  author = {Divinity Atlas},
  title = {Bellerophon},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://www.divinityatlas.com/figures/bellerophon},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Bellerophon is a Corinthian hero, raised as the son of Glaucus though some sources make Poseidon his true father, who tames the winged horse Pegasus with a golden bridle given to him by Athena in a dream. Exiled to Tiryns after an accidental killing, he is falsely accused of assault by his host's wife and sent to the king of Lycia carrying a sealed letter that, unknown to him, requests his own death. The Lycian king sets him a string of deadly tasks instead of killing him outright, the first and most famous being the slaying of the Chimaera, a fire breathing hybrid monster ravaging the countryside, which Bellerophon accomplishes from Pegasus's back. His story ends badly: grown proud of his feats, he tries to fly Pegasus to Olympus itself, and Zeus sends a gadfly to sting the horse, throwing Bellerophon back to earth to live out his life lame, blind and shunned.

Facts

Attestation

Historicity

Legendary: known from narrative tradition, not the historical record 1

Attributions

Mythic Association

Sent by King Proetus of Tiryns to Iobates of Lycia bearing a sealed letter that secretly requested the bearer's own death, the origin of the proverbial Bellerophontic letter for a message carried unknowingly against its own carrier; Iobates set him deadly tasks instead, slaying the Chimaera and fighting the Solymi and the Amazons, all of which he survived. 2

Mythic Association

Tames Pegasus with a golden bridle given by Athena, then kills the Chimaera from the air 2Ancient Greek Religion

Tradition

Greek mythology, part of the Corinthian hero-cycle distinct from the Panhellenic epic tradition of Troy, preserved chiefly through Homer's brief retelling in the Iliad and later mythographic summary. 1

Cult

Attributes and Iconography

Archaic Corinthian pottery favored his fight against the Chimaera from Pegasus's back above almost any other episode of his story, a popularity historians tie to his standing as a hero native to Corinth itself. 1

Life

Manner of Death Detail

Not killed outright; thrown from Pegasus attempting to reach Olympus and left lame, blind and shunned for the rest of his life 2

Associated Relic

Greek myth credits Athena with giving him a golden bridle in a dream, the means by which he tamed the winged horse Pegasus at the spring Peirene, a partnership he used to slay the monstrous Chimera before his own presumption in trying to fly to Olympus on Pegasus's back brought about his fall. 2

Position Profile

Key Text

Iliad book 6, where Glaucus recites his descent to Diomedes 3

Identity

Gender

Male 1

Origins

Place of Origin

Corinth 1

Origin of the Name

Ancient sources connect his name to the killing of a Corinthian named Bellerus, an act of manslaughter tradition holds sent him into exile at Tiryns in the first place, though the story's own details vary between sources. 2

Disputed

Lineage

Raised as the son of Glaucus of Corinth 2Ancient Greek Religion

Pseudo-Apollodorus's The Library records that some sources make the sea god Poseidon Bellerophon's true father, with his mother Eurynome's husband Glaucus standing as a stepfather rather than his blood father, a divine paternity claim of the kind Greek mythography commonly attaches to notable heroes; the ancient tradition as Apollodorus records it does not settle which parentage is original.

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The Letter to Lycia

Bellerophon's troubles begin in Corinth, where he accidentally kills a man, sometimes named as his own brother, and travels to Tiryns to be ritually purified by King Proetus. Proetus's wife Stheneboea, also called Anteia, propositions him, and when he refuses her she accuses him to her husband of attempting to assault her instead. Bound by guest friendship not to kill a man he has just purified, Proetus sends Bellerophon on to his father in law, Iobates, king of Lycia, carrying a sealed message that Bellerophon never reads, which asks Iobates to put the bearer to death.

Iobates, equally unwilling to kill a guest directly, instead sets him a sequence of tasks meant to finish him off less directly, starting with the Chimaera, a monster no one has managed to kill, and following with a campaign against the Solymi, a war against the Amazons, and an ambush by the best warriors in Lycia, which Bellerophon survives by killing every man sent against him. Convinced at last that the gods favor him, Iobates gives him half his kingdom and his daughter in marriage instead of the death the letter had requested.

The Fall From Pegasus

Before any of his labors, Bellerophon needs Pegasus, the winged horse born from the blood of the slain Gorgon Medusa, and the seer Polyeidus tells him to sleep in Athena's temple, where the goddess appears in a dream and gives him a golden bridle. He wakes with the bridle in hand, finds Pegasus drinking at the spring of Pirene, and tames him with it on the spot.

Pegasus carries him through every labor Iobates sets, most famously the killing of the Chimaera, flying above the monster's reach to strike it down from the air. Success and royal favor, in the version of the story that ends least well for him, go to Bellerophon's head: he decides a hero who has killed the Chimaera and married a king's daughter deserves a place among the gods, and tries to fly Pegasus up to Olympus. Zeus, unwilling to let a mortal simply arrive uninvited among the immortals, sends a gadfly to sting Pegasus, who throws his rider back down to earth. Bellerophon survives the fall lamed and blinded, and spends the rest of his life wandering the Aleian plain alone, shunning the paths of other men, a fall from favor the ancient sources treat as the clearest lesson in Greek myth against a mortal overreaching toward the gods.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Athena

Athena appears to Bellerophon in a dream and gives him the golden bridle that tames Pegasus.

Source The Library (Bibliotheca)Pseudo-Apollodorus

Bellerophon and Pegasus, accession 2013.555 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

This source names Bellerophon directly: "open-access collection API record for "Bellerophon and Pegasus," a pen and brown ink drawing with brown wash over black chalk or graphite, by Bertel Thorvaldsen, ca."

Source Bellerophon and Pegasus, accession 2013.555 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Pegasus

Tames Pegasus with a golden bridle given by Athena, and rides him through every one of his labors and to his eventual fall.

Source The Library (Bibliotheca)Pseudo-Apollodorus