Gods Mythology Kings

The people rose up in anger, demanding that the king obey the oracle. Athamas had to give in, but just as Phrixos was being led to the sacrificial altar Nephele, the children’s mother, sent a ram with a golden fleece. Phrixos and Helle mounted the ram flew off. As they crossed the Thracian peninsula, however, Helle looked down, became dizzy and fell. She drowned in the waters of the strait known since then as the Hellespont. Phrixos arrived alone in Colchis, where the king was Aeetes, son of Helios and Perseis and brother of the sorceress Circe. Once there he sacrificed the ram to Zeus, in gratitude, and begged the protection of Aeetes, who made him his son-in-law. Phrixos, in turn, gave the king the golden fleece. Aeetes hung the fleece on an oak tree in a grove sacred to the god Ares and set a dragon which never slept to guard it night and day.  

Bellerophon met his end much later, we are told. His arrogance became such that he decided to fly up to the summit of Olympus on his winged steed, to see the house of Zeus and perhaps even take part in the council of the gods. But Zeus was enraged by the hero’s vanity, and Pegasus, the divine horse, threw his rider from the peak of the mountain. Then he returned to Olympus, where his true place was. From then on, he served Zeus by bringing him thunderbolts and helped Io (the Dawn) when the time came for the day to break.

After the Chimera had been dealt with, Iobates next commanded that Bellerophon be sent to fight the people called the Solymi, a fierce and belligerent tribe. Once they had been annihilated, the next order was to fight the Amazons. They, too, were defeated. Iobates was nearing despair, and his last attempt to kill Bellerophon consisted of the formation of a crack unit of troops whom he set to lie in ambush for the hero. But Bellerophon beat them, just as he had all the others. These feats convinced Iobates that Bellerophon must be of divine descent. He disclosed the instructions that Proetus had sent him, and out of respect and admiration for Bellerophon kept him by his side, married him to his daughter and, later, left him his kingdom.

It occurred to him, when he read lobates’ request that Bellerophon be put to death, that he could ask him instead to kill the Chimera. Bellerophon agreed to undertake the task. His greatest difficulty was with the fiery breath of the Chimera, which could throw its flames a considerable distance. But he was helped by Pegasus, who soared up high with his rider and allowed Bellerophon to shoot the Chimera with his arrows from a safe distance.

Proteus decided to send Bellerohpon  - who, we should remember, was the owner of the winged horse Pegasus - to his father - in - law Iobates in Lycia, since he himself was prevented by the unwritten laws of hospitality from killing the youth. Iobates welcomed Bellerophon with feasting, and declared nine days of celebrations in his honour, during which time he sacrificed nine bulls as part of the rites in honour of his guest.

Bellerophon was actually the son Poseidon, but among men his father was taken to be Glaucus, son of Sisyphus. His mother was Eurynome, daughter of King Nisus of Megara. This hero acquired his name after killing a tyrant of Corinth called Bellerus. After the murder, he was forced to leave Corinth and seek out King Proetus of Tiryns, to expiate his crime. But when he was staying there Anteia, the wife of Proetus, fell in love with the young and handsome penitent - who denied her, out of respect for her husband’s hospitality. To avenge this slight, Anteia went to Proetus and accused Bellerophon of having tried to seduce her, demanding that her husband put him to death.

When Perseus got back to Seriphos, he took the same revenge on Polydectes, who he was told, had been subjecting Danae to insufferable torment. Once Polydectes and his cronies had been turned to statues, Perseus put his adoptive father Dictes on the throne and, taking Andromeda with him, set out for Argos, his home, to meet his grandfather. But as soon as Acrisuis heard of the approach of his grandson, he fled - yet he did not escape his fate. Later, he was present as a spectator at games in Larisa arranged by King Tentamides, at which Perseus was a competitor in the discus. When Perseus’ turn came to throw, the discus slipped from his hand and hit Acrisius on the head, killing him. Perseus was grieved to learn who the dead man had been, and buried him with every honour

On his way back, Perseus met Andromeda, a beautiful maiden whom he saved from the chains which bound her to a rock and the sea monster which was at the point of devouring her. Andromeda’s parents agreed to a marriage between their daughter and her saviour, but Phineas, her uncle ( who had been planning to wed her himself) began to plot against Perseus. As soon as Perseus realised what was going on, he produced the head of Medusa and turned Phineas and his fellow conspirators to stone.

Athena and Hermes helped Perseus accomplish his feat. By a cunning trick, he managed to get the Nymphs to lend him winged sandals, a bag, and the helmet of Hades which would make him invisible. Hermes gave him a razor-sharp sickle. When Perseus came upon the Gorgons, they were asleep. Using the winged sandals, he swooped up high and cut off Medusas’ head while looking at  her reflection in the shiny shield Athena had given him: if he had looked her straight in the eye, she would have turned him to stone. As soon as Medusas’ head was off, Pegasus and the giant Chrysaor sprang from her neck. Perseus put the head in the bad and set off for home. Medusa’s two sisters chased him, but in vain: wearing the helmet of Hades, Perseus was invisible.

All the young men answered that a horse was the most suitable gift for the king. Only Perseus answered that if it was absolutely necessary he would bring Polydectes the head of Medusa, the Gorgon. Polydectes pounced on this promise to demand that Perseus bring him the head of Medusa - otherwise, he said, he would seize Danae by force. And so Perseus set out to find the Gorgon and cut off her head.

The waves washed them up on Seriphos, where the fisherman Dictes, brother of Polydectes, tyrant of the island, found it. Dictes took in Perseus and his mother, and it was in his house that the boy grew into a brave young man blessed with talents and gifts of all kinds. At one point King Polydectes fell in love with Danae, but he was never able to meet her because Perseus kept his mother well-guarded and the king was unable to bear the pressure of Perseus. Once, Polydectes invited Perseus to dinner with some other friends, and asked them what gifts they would give him if the need arose.

Danae gave birth to a son, whom she managed to bring up in secret for several months. When Acrisius found out about the baby, he refused to believe that Zeus had anything to do with it; he killed Danaes’ wet-nurse, whom he suspected of complicity in the affair, and put his daughter and grandson in a wooden ark and set them adrift on the sea.

Perseus, son of Zeus and Danae, was a hero of Argos. His grandfather, Acrisius, once asked an oracle if he would ever have sons. The oracle replied that it would be the destiny of his daughter Danae to have a son who would kill him. In order to prevent this prophecy from coming true, he had Danae locked up in an underground cave with brass walls. But Zeus managed to squeeze through a crack in the cave - after transforming himself into a shower of golden rain - and formed a union with the lovely Danae.

The Argo wandered about a great deal, experiencing many dangers and bad weather, eventually coming home to Iolkos, bearing with them the golden fleece. Now the time had come for Jason to claim his throne of King Pelias. But Pelias - who in the meantime had put all of Jason’s relatives to death - refused to give up his throne to the rightful heir. So Jason was forced to resort to the magical powers and cunning of the witch Medea. She managed to gain entrance to the palace and set Pelias’ daughters to kill him, tricking them into thinking they were taking part in a rite to rejuvenate their father. From this point on, we find a number of variations of the myth. In one, Jason and Medea ruled Iolkos and entrusted the son born to them to the Centaur Chiron; in another, they left the city and went to live in Corinth, after putting Acastus, Pelias’ only son on the throne.

As soon as Aeetes discovered that Jason and Medea had fled - taking with them the golden fleece - he set off in pursuit of the Argo. In order to delay him, Medea killed her brother Apsyrtus and, every so often, threw a part of his body into the sea. The unfortunate Aeetes lost time by stopping to collect the pieces of his beloved son, and soon the fugitives were out of danger.