his mind; but he sent him into Lycia, and gave to him fatal characters, writing many things of deadly purport on a sealed tablet; and ordered him to show it to his father-in-law, to the end that he might perish. He therefore went into Lycia, under the blameless escort of the gods; but when now he had arrived at Lycia and at the river Xanthus, the king of wide Lycia honored him with a willing mind. Nine days did he entertain him hospitably, and sacrificed nine oxen; but when the tenth rosy-fingered morn appeared, then indeed he interrogated him, and desired to see the token,[1] whatever it was, that he brought from his son-in-law Prœtus. But after he had received the fatal token of his son-in-law, first he commanded him to slay the invincible Chimæra; but she was of divine race, not of men, in front a lion, behind a dragon, in the middle a goat,[2] breathing forth the dreadful might of gleaming fire. And her indeed he slew, relying on the signs of the gods. Next he fought with the illustrious Solymi: and he said that he entered on this as the fiercest fight among men. Thirdly, he slew the man-opposing Amazons. But for him returning the king wove another wily plot. Selecting the bravest men from wide Lycia, he placed an ambuscade; but they never returned home again, for blameless Bellerophon slew them all. But when [Iobates] knew that he was the offspring of a god, he detained him there, and gave him his daughter:[3] he also gave him half of all his regal honor. The Lycians also separated for him an inclosure of land, excelling all others, pleasant, vine-bearing, and arable, that he might cultivate it. But this woman brought forth three children to warlike Bellerophon, Isandrus, Hippolochus, and Laodamia. Provident Jove, indeed, had clandestine intercourse with Laodamia, and she brought forth
- ↑ Although Apollodorus, l. c. says, ἔδωκεν ἐπιστολὰς αὐτῷ πρὸς Ἰοβάτην κομίσειν, and Hygin. Fab. lvii. "Scripsit tabellas, et mittit eum ad Iobaten regem," there is no reason to behove that letters, properly so called, were yet invented. See Knight, Prolegg. p. lxxiv. lxxxii.; Wood, on the original genius of Homer, p. 249, sqq.; Müller, Lit. of Greece, iv. 5 (Bulwer, Athens, i. 8, boldly advocates the contrary opinion); and Anthon's note. Compare the similar story of Phaedra and Hippolytus.
- ↑ For the different descriptions of the Chimæra, the mythological student may compare Muncker on Hygin. Fab. lvii. p. 104.
- ↑ Philonoë, the sister of Antea.
