therein, Meant for Anteia’s father, in whose hand Bellerophon must place it, and be made To perish. So at Lycia he arrived Under the favoring guidance of the gods; And when he came where Lycian Xanthus flows, The king of that broad realm received his guest With hospitable welcome, feasting him Nine days, and offering up in sacrifice Nine oxen. But when rosy-fingered Morn Appeared for the tenth time, he questioned him And bade him show the token he had brought From Proetus. When the monarch had beheld The fatal tablet from his son-in-law, The first command he gave him was, to slay Heaven-born Chimaera, the invincible. No human form was hers: a lion she In front, a dragon in the hinder parts, And in the midst a goat, and terribly Her nostrils breathed a fierce, consuming flame; Yet, trusting in the portents of the gods, He slew her. Then it was his second task To combat with the illustrious Solymi— The hardest battle he had ever fought— So he declared—with men; and then he slew— His third exploit—the man-like Amazons. Then he returned to Lycia; on his way The monarch laid a treacherous snare. He chose From his wide Lycian realm the bravest men To lie in ambush for him. Never one Of these came home again—Bellerophon The matchless slew them all. And when the king Saw that he was the offspring of a god, He kept him near him, giving him to wife His daughter, and dividing with him all His kingly honors, while the Lycians set Their richest fields apart—a goodly spot, Ploughlands and vineyards—for the prince to till. And she who now became his wife brought forth Three children to the sage Bellerophon— Isandrus and Hippolochus; and, last, Laodameia, who in secret bore To all-providing Jupiter a son— Godlike Sarpedon, eminent in arms. But when Bellerophon upon himself Had drawn the anger of the gods, he roamed The Alcian fields alone, a prey to thoughts That wasted him, and shunning every haunt Of humankind. The god whose lust of strife Is never sated, Mars, cut off his son Isandrus, warring with the illustrious race Of Solymi; and Dian, she who guides Her car with golden reins, in anger slew His daughter. I am of Hippolochus; From him I claim my
Table of Contents
Book VI
136