Bellerophon and Chimera

Bellerophon was a prince of Corinth whose heroic career reached its zenith with the slaying of the C‌​‌​‌​‍​‌​‌​‌​‍​‌​‌​‌​‌​‍​‌​‌​‍​‌​‍​‌​‌​‍​‌​‍​‍​‍​‌​‍​‍​‌​‌​‌​‍himera, a monstrous fire-breathing creature with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent. Bellerophon had fled Corinth after accidentally killing a man (his brother, in some versions) and sought purification at the court of King Proetus of Tiryns. There, Proetus's wife Stheneboea (or Anteia) fell in love with Bellerophon. When he rejected her advances, she falsely accused him of assault — a pattern mirrored in the Hippolytus myth and the biblical story of Joseph. Proetus, bound by the laws of hospitality not to kill a guest directly, sent Bellerophon to his father-in-law King Iobates of Lycia bearing a sealed letter requesting his execution. Iobates, similarly constrained, set Bellerophon a series of deadly tasks, the first and most dangerous being to slay the Chimera, which had been terrorising the Lycian countryside, incinerating livestock and warriors with its flaming breath. With divine guidance, Bellerophon tamed the winged horse Pegasus at the spring of Pirene in Corinth, using a golden bridle given to him by Athena in a dream. Mounted on Pegasus, Bellerophon attacked the Chimera from the air, beyond the reach of its fire. He killed the beast by thrusting a lump of lead onto the tip of his spear; when the Chimera's breath melted the lead, the molten metal poured down its throat and destroyed it from within. Bellerophon completed every subsequent task Iobates set him, but his story ended in tragedy: emboldened by success, he attempted to fly Pegasus to Mount Olympus. Zeus sent a gadfly that stung Pegasus, throwing Bellerophon to earth, where he spent his remaining years lame, blind, and alone — a cautionary example of hubris.