Unchanged by any teller — how the centuries since have seen Bellerophon.
The gallery
Bellerophon and the Chimera (Attic red-figure epinetron)
Unknown, c. 425–420 BC
The edge of an Attic red-figure epinetron — a curved ceramic guard a woman wore over her thigh while preparing wool for weaving — painted with the Corinthian hero Bellerophon mounted on the winged horse Pegasus as he drives his spear into the fire-breathing Chimera, the lion-goat-serpent monster of Lycia. Made in Athens around 425–420 BC and now in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens (inv. 2179), it is one of the finest classical renderings of the hero's defining exploit and shows how the Pegasus-and-Chimera image had become a fixed visual emblem even on everyday domestic objects.
Plate with Bellerophon on Pegasus slaying the Chimera (Apulian red-figure)
Baltimore Painter, c. 350–300 BC
An Apulian red-figure plate attributed to the Baltimore Painter, a leading South Italian vase-painter of the late 4th century BC, showing Bellerophon seated on a galloping Pegasus and thrusting downward at the Chimera that rears beneath the horse. Held in the deposits of the Museo Nazionale Romano (Palazzo Massimo, Rome), it documents the spread of the Bellerophon myth into the Greek colonies of southern Italy and the ornate, theatrical style those workshops brought to heroic combat scenes.
Bellerophon Killing the Chimera (Hellenistic pebble mosaic)
Unknown, c. 300–270 BC
A Hellenistic Greek pebble mosaic from Rhodes depicting Bellerophon astride Pegasus as he spears the Chimera below. Dating to roughly 300–270 BC and now in the Archaeological Museum of Rhodes, it is an early example of the floor-mosaic tradition that would carry the hero's image across the ancient Mediterranean; the rhythmic black-and-white pebble technique freezes the airborne attack at the instant of the kill.
Bellerophon Riding Pegasus and Killing the Chimera (Gallo-Roman mosaic)
Unknown, 2nd–3rd century AD
The central medallion of a vast Gallo-Roman floor mosaic — about 110 square metres in total — showing Bellerophon on Pegasus plunging his lance into the Chimera, framed by acanthus borders and swan motifs. Discovered at Autun in 1830 and today displayed in the Musée Rolin, it shows how thoroughly the Greek hero was absorbed into Roman provincial art, where Bellerophon's triumph over the monster was read as an allegory of order overcoming chaos and adorned the grandest domestic floors of Roman Gaul.
In play
Pegasus (constellation)
The winged horse Bellerophon rode became a northern constellation — the hero's mount fixed in the autumn sky long after the rider fell.
Bellerophon Taming Pegasus
Jacques Lipchitz
Lipchitz's monumental bronze outside Columbia Law School restages the Corinthian hero mastering Pegasus — myth as a modern emblem of reason bridling inspiration.