“The monarch hearkened, and was moved to wrath; And then he would not slay him, for his soul Revolted at the deed; he sent him thence To Lycia, with a fatal tablet, sealed, With things of deadly import writ 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;