Daughter of Iobates of Lycia and wife of Bellerophon, by whom she bore Isander, Hippolochus, and Laodameia — sister of Stheneboea — distinct from Phylonoe (`phylonoe`), the Spartan princess whom Artemis made immortal.1
When Iobates saw that Bellerophon was the valiant offspring of a god, he kept him and gave him his daughter — Apollodorus names her Philonoe — together with half of all his kingly honour; and dying, the king bequeathed his realm to the hero who had survived every trial.2
She bore three children: Isander, Hippolochus, and Laodameia. With Laodameia lay Zeus the counsellor, and she bore godlike Sarpedon, the bronze-harnessed warrior who would fall at Troy — so the Lycian princess linked the Corinthian hero's line to the captains who fought beside Hector.3
Hyginus adds that Stheneboea, hearing of the marriage, killed herself out of love and shame — the sister who had once sent the death-token now undone by Philonoe's union with the man she had accused.4
The name Philonoe belongs to two women in Greek myth and must never share one star. Phylonoe daughter of Tyndareus and Leda, sister of Helen and Clytemnestra, was made immortal by Artemis and bears no part in the Lycian trials; this Philonoe is Iobates' daughter, Bellerophon's bride, and mother of the house from which Glaucus and Sarpedon descend.5
⁂
the spine ignites as you read · hover a bond on the card — every mention of them lights in the story