Bellerophon married Philonoe, daughter of King Iobates, after surviving every deadly task her father devised. They had three children: Isander, slain by Ares fighting the Solymoi; Hippolochus, father of the Lycian hero Glaucus; and Laodamia, who lay with Zeus and bore Sarpedon.
Glaucus of Corinth, son of Sisyphus, fathered Bellerophon, who grew to tame Pegasus and slay the Chimera before his pride brought him low on the Aleian plain.
⚠ Homer (Iliad 6.155) traces the mortal lineage through Glaucus son of Sisyphus. Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 2.3.1) and Hesiod's Catalogue of Women name Poseidon as Bellerophon's true father, with Glaucus as his mortal guardian.
Poseidon sired Bellerophon, granting his son the divine favor that allowed him to tame Pegasus and achieve feats no mortal could match — until hubris drove him to fly toward Olympus.
⚠ Homer (Iliad 6.155) names Glaucus son of Sisyphus as the father. The divine paternity from Poseidon appears in Apollodorus (Bibliotheca 2.3.1) and Hesiod's Catalogue of Women (fr. 43a M-W).
Athena appeared to Bellerophon in a dream and placed a golden bridle beside him. With this divine gift he tamed Pegasus at the Pirene spring, gaining the winged mount that carried him through every impossible trial.
Bellerophon tamed Pegasus with Athena's golden bridle at the Pirene spring, and the winged horse bore him through every trial — against the Chimera, the Solymoi, and the Amazons — until the hero's fatal attempt to reach Olympus, when Zeus sent a gadfly and Pegasus threw his rider.
Stheneboea, wife of Proetus, desired Bellerophon and falsely accused him of attempted seduction when he rejected her. Her lie set in motion the hero's deadly journey to Lycia bearing his own death warrant.
The hero originally named Hipponous killed a Corinthian noble called Belleros, earning the name Bellerophon — 'slayer of Belleros' — and was driven into exile at the court of Proetus in Argos.
Bellerophon rode Pegasus in aerial combat against the Chimera, driving a lead-tipped spear into the fire-breathing monster's throat. The molten lead killed the Chimera from within.
Athena appeared to Bellerophon in a dream and placed a golden bridle beside him. With it he tamed Pegasus at the Pirene spring, the only means by which the immortal horse could be mastered.
Iobates sent Bellerophon against the Amazons as the third impossible task meant to destroy him. Riding Pegasus high above their arrows, Bellerophon routed the warrior women and returned unscathed.
King Iobates of Lycia received Bellerophon bearing sealed tablets that demanded his death. Unwilling to kill a guest, Iobates devised impossible tasks — the Chimera, the Solymoi, the Amazons — and when the hero survived them all, Iobates gave him his daughter Philonoe and half the Lycian kingdom.
Proetus purified Bellerophon of the blood-guilt from killing Belleros and sheltered him in Tiryns. But when Stheneboea accused the hero of assault, Proetus could not slay a guest he had purified — so he sent Bellerophon to Lycia with sealed tablets ordering his death.
When Bellerophon dared fly Pegasus toward Olympus, Zeus struck the winged horse with a gadfly. The hero fell to earth, crippled and blinded, and wandered the Aleian plain alone for the rest of his days, hated by the gods for his presumption.
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