Bellerophon

A false accusation

Bellerophon came as a guest to the court of King Proetus of Tiryns, where the queen fell in love with him. When he refused her, she accused him of attacking her. Proetus would not break the sacred laws of hospitality by killing a guest, so he sent Bellerophon to his father-in-law, King Iobates of Lycia, carrying a sealed message asking that the bearer be put to death.

Pegasus and the Chimera

Iobates set him a task he thought impossible: to kill the Chimera, a fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat and a serpent for a tail. Bellerophon prayed to Athena, who gave him a golden bridle, and with it he tamed Pegasus as the winged horse drank at a spring. Flying above the Chimera, he killed it, in one version by thrusting a lump of lead into its jaws, which melted in its fiery breath. He went on to defeat the warlike Solymi and the Amazons, and Iobates gave him his daughter in marriage.

The fall

Flushed with success, Bellerophon tried to ride Pegasus up to Olympus itself. Zeus sent a gadfly to sting the horse, which threw its rider back to earth. Lame and alone, Bellerophon wandered the world for the rest of his life, while Pegasus was welcomed among the gods.