Bellerophon, son of Glaucus, king of Ephyre, by Eurymede, was at first called Hipponous. The murder of his brother, whom some call Alcimenus and Beller, procured him the name of Bellerophon, or murderer of Beller.
After this murder, Bellerophon fled to the court of Proetus, king of Argos. As he was of handsome appearance, the king 's wife, called Antaea or Stenoboea, fell in love with him; and as he slighted her passion, she accused him before her husband of attempts upon her virtue. Proetus, unwilling to violate the laws of hospitality, by punishing Bellerophon, sent him away to his father-in-law Jobates, king of Lycia, and gave him a letter, in which he begged the king to punish with death a man who had so dishonorable treated his daughter. From that circumstance, all letters which are of an unfavorable tendency to the bearer, ave been called letters of Bellerophon.
Jobates, to satisfy his son-in-law, sent Bellerophon to conquer a horrible monster called Chimaera, in which dangerous expedition he hoped, and was even assured, he must perish. But the providence of Minerva supported him, and with the aid of the winged horse Pegasus, he conquered the monster and returned victorious. After this Jobates sent him against the Solymi, in hopes of seeing him destroyed; but he obtained another victory, and conquered afterwards the Amazons, the king 's order. At his return from this third expedition, he was attacked by a party sent against him by Jobates; but he destroyed all his assassins.
Bellerophon convinced the king the innocence is always protected by the gods. Jobates no longer sought to destroy his life; but he gave him is daughter in marriage, and made him his successor on the throne of Lycia, as he was without male issue. The wife of Bellerophon is called Philonoe by Apollodorus and Achemone by Homer.
Some authors have supported, that he attempted to fly to heaven upon the horse Pegasus, but that Zeus sent an insect, which stung the horse, and threw down the rider, who wandered upon the the earth in the greatest melancholy and dejection until the day of his death, one generation before the Trojan war.
Bellerophon had two sons, Isander, who was killed in his war against the Solymi, and Hippolochus, who succeeded to the throne after his death. He had one daughter, Hippodamia, who had Sarpedon by Jupiter.