Who was the first Superhero? Part 2c (The Greeks)
On to the final Hero of our Greek trilogy. In the two previous posts, I deep dived into stories of Cadmus and Perseus, two of the three ‘First Greek Heroes’ according to Herodotus. This post will focus on the third — Bellerophon
Bellerophon
Bellerophon was amongst the strongest Superheroes with an accomplished resume to boot. As always, we start at the beginning — Bellerophon was born in Corinth, Greece to Eurynome, but the identity of his father is disputed to be either Glaucus (son of Sisyphus), or Poseidon. This potentially could make Cadmus and Bellerophon cousins, though I didn’t find any stories of them going on family trips together, so let’s accept Glaucus as the likely father. In any case, both lineages give him some God/ demi-god DNA, which qualifies him for our Hero requirement.
Bellerophon’s story starts with him being sent on exile for killing someone, but who that ‘someone’ is, is still up for debate. Some sources say it was his brother, whose name no one seems to be able to agree on, while others claim it was a neighboring king. Regardless, we know that Bellerophon was exiled to the Kingdom of Tiryns, where he took refuge from King Proetus and won his favor after a sin-cleansing ceremony of sorts. Now, Bellerophon was a good-looking chap and he caught the eye of Proetus’ queen — Anteia. Being an honored guest, whose didn’t want to dishonor the host, Bellerophon rejected the queen’s advances. It’s my understanding that the queen wasn’t used to the word ‘No’. This rejection activated an unstable angry reaction from the queen, in the form of a lie about our Hero trying to grab her. Proetus was more inclined to getting Bellerophon tortured and killed, but apparently Greeks had their own version of ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ (guest is God) called ‘xenia’. So, Proetus instead decided to send the boy to his father-in-law’s Kingdom, Lycia. Anyway, back to the story. As revenge, Proetus sent a note for his father-in-law that read “Pray remove the bearer from this world: he attempted to violate my wife, your daughter”. In the version of the story I liked, the King had already gone on a drinking spree with Bellerophon before reading the letter. This meant he was now stuck with having accepted Bellerophon as a guest. Same catch 22 as Proetus! Also, when he realised that his daughter, Philonoe, had started eyeing our Greek hero, he became even more eager to get rid of him.
At this point, the King asked for Bellerophon’s help to get rid of a monster in his kingdom that was causing trouble. Bellerophon (now entering the Hero phase of his life story) agreed, and took off with a spear and shield to fight it. He only later realised that the monster he was to bring down was Chimera — one of the most dangerous creatures in the ancient world. Concerned, he stopped by a famous Seer, Polyeidos to get some advice. Polyeidos told him that he might need a special ride when taking on Chimera and suggested Pegasus, the winged horse. Bellerophon looked for Pegasus and eventually found him near a stream, but the darn horse wouldn’t let Bellerophon mount any time he tried. Giving up from exhaustion, Bellerophon slept and dreamed about Athena telling him to approach Pegasus with golden reins. On waking up he found the reins from his dreams next to him as a gift from the goddess. Bellerophon approached Pegasus with the reins, who, taken by Bellerophon’s fashion sense, allowed himself to be mounted. And off went Bellerophon and the flying horse, on their quest to kill Chimera.
The monster Chimera was as nasty as they come. It had the body of a goat, the head of a lion, and the tail of a serpent. Plus, it breathed fire that razed fields and villages to the ground. So when Bellerophon and Pegasus started their battle, it wasn’t surprising that they could do Chimera no harm. After a bit of dodging and wasted attacks, Bellerophon felt the heat from Chimera’s breath (yuck), which gave him an idea. He found a block of lead and mounted it on his spear. He charged Chimera head on and he just managed to lodge the lead block in Chimera’s mouth, before the monster could turn him into barbeque. Chimera’s breath melted the lead block and choked itself to death. Bellerophon took the monster’s head back to the king, who was astonished and obviously unhappy at seeing Bellerophon return safe and sound.
The annoyed King didn’t relent just yet. He ended up sending Bellerophon on a series of absurd quests, like fighting armies of Soylemi (a warrior clan descended from Ares), and the Amazons (predecessors of Wonder Women, and all-round badass women). He even went on to fight pirates, and thwart numerous complicated assassination attempts. But Bellerophon came out victorious in every quest he undertook. Finally, the King relented and accepted the reality that if all these dangers hadn’t gotten Bellerophon killed, he must be protected by the Gods. The King gave his daughter, Philonoe, to Bellerophon as a bride.
I would have liked to end this story with a “happily ever after”, but Greek stories don’t end that way. Bellerophon’s success in all those quests had gone to his head. His arrogance grew with every victory; and his pig-headedness inflamed to the point that he believed his place to be among the Gods at Mount Olympus. So, he jumped on Pegasus and started his flight towards Olympus. Bellerophon’s pride was begging for a fall, and Zeus obliged. Zeus, angered with Bellerophon’s petulance sent Gadflies to sting Pegasus. Gadflies were probably mythical bees, but I haven’t found a good explanations for them. Anyway, Pegasus was shocked by the sting when they attacked, and threw Bellerophon off his back. Eventually, the pretty horse made it to Olympus and went on to be immortalised in a constellation. But poor Bellerophon — well, no one really knows what happened to him. Some say he died, while others believe he lived his life consuming his own soul — not a fun way to end quite an exciting and pride-worthy life.
So, there you have it. Bellerophon’s legacy of heroic acts was vast, and his life inspired many retellings — including one by his grandson Glaucus (named after Bellerophon’s father) during the Trojan War. He was immortalized as the British ship on which Napoleon surrendered. In modern times, he even made an appearance in Deep Space Nine (Star Trek Universe) as USS Bellerophon. Though not the more popular of the Greek Heroes, his name has endured a lasting legacy — on the back of a dapper winged horse!
That’s the end of Part 2 where we covered the first Greek Superheroes. I hope you enjoyed reading them as much as I did researching and writing them. I’m taking a break from the Superhero world for a bit and will come back to it in a few weeks. For now my next post will be on explaining a couple of Design frameworks which will be posted sometime next week. Stay tuned.
