Bellerophon

(Iliad vi. 152-195.)

In a far nook of steed-famed Argos, stand The city Ephyra. Here Sisyphus, The wily son of Æolus, was king.

His son was Glaucus, and to him was born Bellerophon of honour without stain, Gifted with every grace the gods bestow, And manly spirit that won all men’s love.

Him Prœtus, who by Jove’s supreme consent Held a harsh sceptre over Argolis, Hated and doomed to exile or to death. For fair Antea loved Bellerophon With a mad passion, and, her royal spouse Deceiving, told her longing to his guest. But brave Bellerophon, as good as brave, Set a pure heart against her evil words. Then with false tongue she stood before the king: “O Prœtus, die or slay Bellerophon, Who sought her love, who only loveth thee.” And anger seized the king at what he heard, Yet was he loath to kill him, for the laws That make the stranger sacred he revered. But unto Lycia, bearing fatal signs, And folded in a tablet, words of death, He sent him, and enjoined him these to give Unto Antea’s sire—his step-father, Thinking that he would perish.

So he went, Blameless, beneath the guidance of the gods, And reached the eddying Xanthus. There the king Of wide-extending Lycia honoured him Nine days with feasting and with sacrifice. But when the tenth rose-fingered morn had come, He asked him for his message and the sign Whate’er he bore from Prœtus,—which he gave.

And when he broke the evil-boding seal, He first enjoined him the Chimæra dire To slay,—of race divine and not of men, In front a lion, dragon in the rear, And goat between, whose breath was as the strength Of fiercely blazing fire. And this he slew, Trusting the portents of the gods. And next He conquered the wild, far-famed Solymi,— The hardest battle fought with mortal men. The man-like Amazons he next subdued; And as he journed homeward, fearing nought, An ambuscade of Lycia’s bravest men, Attacked him, but he slew them one by one, And they returned no more.

And so the king Seeing his race divine by noble deeds Well proven, made the Lycian realm his home, His beauteous daughter gave him for his wife, And made him partner in his royal power. And of the choicest land for corn and wine, The Lycians gave him to possess and till.