Bellerophon and Pegasus

This Greek mythology episode whisks you away on an epic adventure, as we follow the saga of Bellerophon, a brave young man, and his legendary winged steed, Pegasus.

The music in this episode is One Day in Summer by Sayuri Hayashi Egnell. 

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Transcript

Jordan: 0:21

Welcome to Dreamful Podcast, bedtime stories for slumber. I would like to start this episode by thanking our anonymous supporters, the unsung heroes of my podcast. Over the years, we've had so many people who donated money and didn't want a shoutout or donated via PayPal, and I just want to say thank you to all of you. This episode is for you. If you'd like to support the show and gain access to the subscriber only episodes while receiving a shoutout, visit DreamfulStories. com and, on the support page, find a link to become a Buzzsprout supporter, subscribe via Supercast if you listen on Spotify, or if you'd like to just make a one-time donation, there's also a link to my PayPal.

Jordan: 1:07

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Jordan: 3:17

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Jordan: 4:18

It's time for another Greek mythology episode, and I found this wonderful story about a hero named Bellerophon and his winged horse, pegasus, who battled the fearsome Chimera. I'm sure you'll love this story just as much as I do. So snuggle up in your blankets and have sweet dreams. Once in the old old times, a fountain gushed out of a hillside In the marvelous land of Greece and for all I know, after so many thousand years, it is still gushing out to the very self-same spot. At any rate, there was a pleasant fountain welling freshly forth and sparkling down the hillside in the golden sunset, and a handsome young man named Blerophon drew near its margin. In his hand he held a bridle started with brilliant gems and adorned with a golden bit. Seeing an old man and another of middle age and a little boy near the fountain, and likewise a maiden who was dipping up some of the water in a pitcher, he paused and begged that he might refresh himself with a drop. This is very delicious water, he said to the maiden as he rinsed and filled her pitcher after drinking out of it. Will you be kind enough to tell me whether the fountain has any name? Yes, it is called the fountain of Pyrrhaenie, and so the maiden. And then she added. My grandmother told me that this clear fountain was once a beautiful woman, and when her son was killed by the arrows of the huntress Diana, she melted all the way into tears, and so the water, which you find so cool and sweet, is the sorrow of that poor woman's heart. I should not have dreamed, observed the young, stranger, though so clear, a wellspring with his gush and gurgle, and its teary dance all the shade into the sunlight as so much as one teardrop. And this, then, is Pyrrhaenie. Thank you, pretty maiden, for telling me its name.

Jordan: 7:44

I have come from a faraway country to find this very spot. A Middle-aged country fellow stared hard at young Bella Riffen and at the handsome bridle which he carried in his hand. The water courses must be getting low, friend, in your part of the world, remarked he, if you come so far only to find the fountain of Pyrrhaenie. But pray, have you lost a horse? If the horse was as fine as the bridle, you are much to be pitied for losing him. I've lost no horse, said Bella Riffen with a smile, but I happen to be seeking a very famous one which, as wise people have informed me, must be found hereabouts, if anywhere. Do you know whether the winged horse Pegasus Well haunts the fountain of Pyrrhaenie, as he used to do in your forefathers' days? But then the country fellow laughed.

Jordan: 8:59

Some of you have probably heard that this Pegasus was a snow-white steed with beautiful silvery wings who spent most of his time on the summit of Mount Helicon. He was as wild and as swift and as buoyant in his flight through the air as any eagle that ever soared into the clouds. There was nothing else like him in the world. He had no mate, he never had been backed or bridled by a master, and for many a long year he led a solitary and a happy life. Oh, how fine a thing it is to be a winged horse, sleeping at night as he did on a lofty mountaintop and passing the greater part of the day in the air.

Jordan: 9:57

Pegasus seemed hardly to be a creature of the earth. Where he was seen up very high above people's heads, with the sunshine on his silvery wings, you would have thought that he belonged to the sky and that, skimming a little too low, he had got a stray among her mists and vapours and was seeking his way back again. It was very pretty to behold him plunge into the fleecy bosom of a bright cloud and be lost in it for a moment or two, and then break forth from the other side. Or in a silent rainstorm, when there was a grey pavement of clouds over the whole sky, it would sometimes happen that the winged horse descended right through it and the young lad-light of the upper region would gleam after him In another instant. It is true, both Pegasus and the pleasant light would be gone away together, but anyone that was fortunate enough to see this wondrous spectacle felt cheerful the whole day afterwards and as much longer as the storm lasted In the summertime and in the beautifulest of weather, pegasus, often alighted on the solid earth and closing his silvery wings, would gallop over hill and dale.

Jordan: 11:39

For past time, as fleeting as the wind, oftener than in any other place, he had been seen near the fountain of Pyrrhaenie, drinking the delicious water or rolling himself upon the soft grass of the margin To the fountain of Pyrrhaenie. Therefore, people's great-grandfathers had been in the habit of going in hopes of getting a glimpse of the beautiful Pegasus, but of late years, he had been very seldom seen. Indeed, there were many other country folks dwelling within half an hour's walk of the fountain who had never beheld Pegasus and did not believe that there was any such creature in existence. The country fellow to whom B'lorifen was speaking chanced to be one of those incredulous persons, and that was the reason why he left. Pegasus, indeed cried, turning up his nose as high as such a flat nose could be turned up.

Jordan: 13:06

A winged horse. Truly, why, friend, are you in your senses Of? What use would wings be to a horse? How would a man like to see his horse flying out the stable window or whisking him up above the clouds when he only wanted to ride a little? No, I don't believe in Pegasus. There never was such a ridiculous kind of horse made. I have reason to think otherwise, said B'lorifen quietly.

Jordan: 13:43

And then he turned to an old grey man who was leaning on a staff and listening very attentively, with his head stretched forward and one hand at his ear. And what say you, venerable sir, inquire thee, in your younger days, I should imagine, you must frequently have seen the winged steed. Ah, young stranger, my memory is very poor, said the aged man. When I was in lad, if I remember rightly, I used to believe there was such a horse, as so did everyone else. But nowadays I hardly know what to think and very seldom think about the winged horse at all. If I ever saw the creature, it was a long, long while ago, and, to tell you the truth, I doubt whether I ever did see him. And have you ever seen him? My fair maiden B'lorifen, of the girl who stood with a pitch on her head While this talk went on, you certainly could see Pegasus, if anybody can, for your eyes were very bright Once.

Jordan: 15:11

I thought I saw him, replied the maiden with a smile and a blush. It was either Pegasus or a large white bird, a very great way up in the air. And one other time, as I was coming to the fountain with my pitcher, I heard a neigh. Oh, such a brisk and melodious neigh as it was. My very heart leaped with delight at the sound, but it startled me nevertheless, so that I ran home without feeling my pitcher. That was truly a pity, said Bellerophon, and he turned to the child. Well, my little fellow cried.

Jordan: 15:59

Balariffen, I suppose you have often seen the winged horse that I have, answered the child very readily. I saw him yesterday and many times before. You are a fine little man, said Balariffen. Come tell me all about it. Why, replied the child? I often come here to sail little boats in the fountain and to gather pretty pebbles out of its basin. And sometimes, when I look down into the water, I see the image of the winged horse in the picture of the sky that is there. I wish he would come down and take me on his back and let me ride him up to the moon, but if I so much as stir to look at him he flies far away, out of sight.

Jordan: 16:59

And Balariffen put his faith in the child, who had seen the image of Pegasus in the water, and in the maiden who had heard him neigh so melodiously, rather than in the middle age clone who believed only in cart horses or in the old man who had forgotten the beautiful things of his youth. Therefore, he haunted about the fountain of Pyrenee for a great many days afterwards. He kept continually on the watch, looking upward at the sky whilst down into the water, hoping forever that he should see either the reflected image of the winged horse or the marvelous reality. He held the bridle with its bright gems and golden bit always ready in his hand. The rustic people who dwelt in the neighborhood and drove their cattle to the fountain to drink would often laugh at poor Balariffen, but the gentle child who had seen the picture of Pegasus in the water comforted the young stranger.

Jordan: 18:30

Now you will perhaps wish to be told why it was that Balariffen had undertaken to catch the winged horse. If I were to relate the whole of Balariffen's previous adventures, they might easily grow into a very long story. It will be quite enough to say that in a certain country of Asia, a terrible monster called a chimera had made its appearance and was doing more mischief than could be talked about. The chimera was nearly the ugliest and most poisonous creature and the strangest and the hardest to fight with and the most difficult to run away from that ever came out of the earth's inside. It had a tail like a bow constrictor and it had three separate heads, one of which was a lion's, the second a goat's and the third an abominably great snake, and a hot blast of fire came flaming out of each of its three mouths. Being an earthly monster, I doubt whether it had wings, but wings or no, it ran like a goat and a lion and wriggled along like a serpent and thus contrived to make about as much speed as all three together. With its flaming breath, it could set to forest on fire or burn up a field of grain or village with all its fences and houses, and laid waste the whole country round about. While the hateful beast was doing all these horrible things.

Jordan: 20:29

It's so chance that Balariphon came to that part of the world on a visit to the king. The king's name was Ayurbeides and Lycea was the country which he ruled over. Balariphon was one of the bravest youths in the world and desired nothing so much as to do some valiant and beneficent deed. Balariphon came to the king, and the king was afraid of the king. He was afraid of the king and the king was afraid of the king. He was afraid of the king and the king was afraid of the king.

Jordan: 21:12

The king Ayurbeides, perceiving the courage of his youthful visitor, proposed to him to go and fight the Chimera, which everybody else was afraid of and which, unless the Chimera, were parish. In the attempt, but in the first place, as the monster was so prodigiously swift, he bethought himself that he should never win the victory by fighting on foot. The wisest thing he could do, therefore, was to get the very best and flitest horse that could anywhere be found. And what other horse in all the world was half so flit as the marvelous horse Pegasus? And this was the purpose with which he travelled from Lycea to Greece and had brought the beautifully ornamented bridle in his hand. It was an enchanted bridle. If he could only succeed in putting the golden bit into the mouth of Pegasus, the winged horse would be submissive and would own Balariffen for his master and fly wherever he may choose.

Jordan: 22:37

But indeed it was a weary and anxious time while Balariffen waited and waited for Pegasus, in hopes that he would come and drink at the fountain of Pirene. One morning the child spoke to Balariffen even more helpfully than usual. Dear Balariffen, cried he. I know not why it is, but I feel as if we should certainly see Pegasus today. After many hours of waiting, the gentle child was gazing down into the water. He was grieved for Balariffen's sake and the hope of another day should be deceived, like so many before it, in two or three, quiet teardrops fell from his eyes and mingled with what were said to be the many tears of Pyrrhaeny. But when he least thought of it, balariffen felt the pressure of the child's little hand and heard a soft, almost breathless whisper. See there, dear Balariffen, there is an image in the water.

Jordan: 24:03

The young man looked down into the dimpling mirror of the fountain and saw what he took to be the reflection of a bird which seemed to be flying at great height in the air, with a gleam of sunshine on its snowy or silvery wings. What a splendid bird, it must be said he. And how very large it looks, though it really must be flying higher than the clouds. It makes me tremble, whispered the child. Dear Balariffen, do not see that it is no bird, it is the winged horse Pegasus. Balariffen gazed keenly upward but could not see the winged creature, whether bird or horse, because just then it had plunged into the flaky depths of a summer cloud. It was but a moment, however, before the object reappeared, sinking lightly down out of the cloud, although still the best distance from the earth.

Jordan: 25:20

Balariffen caught the child in his arms and shrank back with him so that they both were hidden among the thick shrubbery which grew all around the fountain. He dreaded if Pegasus caught a glimpse of them he would fly far away, for it was really the winged horse. Nearer and nearer came the aerial wonder flying in great circles, as you may have seen, a dove when about to alight. Nearer came Pegasus in those wide, sweeping circles which grew narrower and narrower still as he gradually approached the earth. The nearer the view of him, the more beautiful he was and the more marvelous the sweep of a silvery wings At last, with so light a pressure as hardly to bend the grass about the fountain or imprint a hoof-trump in the sound of its margin. He alighted and, stooping his wild head, began to drink. He drew in the water with long and pleasant sighs and drinkable pauses of enjoyment, and then another drink and another.

Jordan: 26:53

After drinking to his heart's content, the winged horse began to caper to and fro and dance, as it were, out of mere idleness and sport. There never was a more playful creature made than this very Pegasus. So there he frisked, fluttering his great wings as lightly as ever did a linnet, and running little races, half on earth and half in air. The lariphon, meanwhile, holding the child's hand, peep forth from the shrubbery and thought that there never was any sight so beautiful as this. Once or twice, pegasus stopped and snuffed the air, breaking up his ears, tossing his head and turning it on all sides, as if he partly suspected some mischief. Seeing nothing, however, and hearing no sound, he soon began his antics again At length. Not that he was weary, but only idle and luxurious.

Jordan: 28:18

Pegasus folded his wings and lay down on the soft green turf, but, being too full of aerial life to remain quiet for many months together, he soon rolled over on his back, with his four slender legs in the air. Finally, when he had enough of rolling over and over, pegasus turned himself about, but out his four legs in order to rise from the ground, and the lariphon, who had guessed that he would do so, started suddenly from the thicket and leaped a stride of his back. But what a bound Pegasus made. Before he had time to draw breath, the lariphon found himself 500 feet aloft and still shooting upward, while the winged horse snorted and trembled with terror and anger. Upward he went until he plunged into the cold, misty bosom of a cloud, and then again out of the heart of the cloud. Pegasus shot down like a thunderbolt, as if he meant to dash both himself and his rider headlong against the rock At about two miles height above the earth. He turned a summer scent so that the lariphon's heels were where his head should have been and he seemed to look down into the sky instead of up. He twisted his set about and, looking the lariphon in the face with fire flashing from his eyes, made a terrible attempt to bite him. He fluttered his pinions so wildly that one of the silver feathers was shaken out and, floating earthward, was picked up by the child, who kept it as long as he lived in memory of Pegasus and the lariphon. But the latter had been watching his opportunity and at last clapped the golden bit of the enchanted bridle between the winged steed's jaws. No sooner was this done than Pegasus became as manageable as if he had taken food while his life out of the lariphon's hand. He looked round to the lariphon with the tears in his beautiful eyes. But when Belerphin patted his head and spoke a few authoritative yet kind and soothing words, another look came into the eyes of Pegasus, for he was glad at heart, after so many lonely centuries, to have found a companion and a master.

Jordan: 31:26

While Pegasus had been doing his utmost to shake Belerphin off his back, he had flown a very long distance and they had come within sight of a lofty mountain Belerphin had seen this mountain before and he knew it to be Helicon on the summit of which was a winged horse. As a boat, pegasus now flew and, alighting, waited patiently until Belerphin should please this mount. The young man leaped from his steve's back but still held him fast by the bridle. Meeting his eyes, however, he was so affected by the gentleness of his aspect and by the thought of the free life which Pegasus had lived that he could not bear to keep him a prisoner. Obeying this generous impulse, he slipped the enchanted bridle off the head of Pegasus and took a bit from his mouth. That night they lay down and slept together, with Belerphin's arm, about the neck of Pegasus, not as a caution but for kindness, and they awoke at a peep of day and bade one another good morning In this manner Belerphin and the wondrous steed spent several days and grew better acquainted and fonder of each other all the time.

Jordan: 33:16

They went on long aerial journeys and sometimes ascended so high that the earth looked hardly bigger than the moon. So at last, when he had become accustomed to the feats of horsemanship in the air, it could manage Pegasus with the least motion of his hand, and it taught him to obey his voice. He determined to attempt the performance of this perilous adventure. At daybreak, therefore, as soon as he unclosed his eyes, he gently pinched the wings' horse ear in order to arouse him. Pegasus immediately started from the ground and pranced about a quarter of a mile loft and made a ground sweep around the mountaintop by way of showing that he was wide awake and ready for any kind of excursion. Well done, dear Pegasus, well done, my sky skimmer, cried Belerphin fondly stroking the horse's neck. And now my fleet and beautiful friend, we must break our fast. Today we are to fight the terrible chimera.

Jordan: 34:48

As soon as they had eaten their morning meal and drank some sparkling water from a spring, pegasus held at his head so that the master might put on the bridle. Then, with a great many playful leaps and airy caperings, he showed his impatience to be gone, while Belerphin was girding on a sword and hanging a shield about his neck and repairing himself for battle. When everything was ready, the rider mounted and turned the head of Pegasus toward the east and set out for Lycia. Being now so near their journey's end, the winged horse gradually descended with his rider, and they took advantage of some clouds and were floating over the mountaintops in order to conceal themselves. Hovering on the upper surface of a cloud and peeping over its edge, belerphin had a pretty distinct view of the mountainous part of Lycia and could look into all its shadowy veils at once. There were the ruins of houses that had been burnt and, here and there, the carcasses of dead cattle strewn about the pastures where they had been feeding.

Jordan: 36:29

The chimera must have done this mischief, thought Belerphin. But where can the monster be? Three spires of black smoke, which issued from what seemed to be the mouth of a cavern and clambered solandly into the atmosphere. The smoke, as a crept heavily upward, had an ugly, sulphurous, stifling scent which caused Pegasus to snort and Belerphin to sneeze. He made a sign which the winged horse understood, and sunk slowly through the air until his hooves were scarcely more than a man's height above the rocky bottom of the valley. In front, as far off as you could throw a stone, was the cavern's mouth, with the three smoke reeds oozing out of it.

Jordan: 37:33

There seemed to be a heap of strange and terrible creatures curled up within the cavern. Their bodies lay so close together that Belerphin could not distinguish them apart, but judging by their heads, one of these creatures was a huge snake, the second a fierce lion and the third an ugly goat. So strange was the spectacle that, though Belerphin had been all along expecting it, the truth did not immediately occur to him that here was a terrible three-headed chimera. He had found its cavern. A snake, a lion and a goat, as he supposed them to be, were not three separate creatures, but one monster. Pegasus seemed to know it at the same instant and sent forth a neigh, a sound like a call of a trumpet to battle. At this sound, the three heads veered themselves erect and belched out great flashes of flame.

Jordan: 38:58

Before Belerphin had time to consider what to do next, the monster flung itself out of the cavern and sprung straight towards him. If Pegasus had not been as nimble as a bird, both he and his rider would have been overthrown. But the winged horse was not to be caught. So In the twinkling of an eye he was aloft halfway to the clouds, snorting with anger. The chimera, on the other hand, raised itself up so as to sound absolutely on the tip end of its tail, with its talons pulling fiercely in the air and his three heads spluttering fire at Pegasus and his rider. It roared and hissed and bellowed.

Jordan: 39:53

Belerphin, meanwhile, was fitting his shield on his arm and drawing a sword. Now, my beloved Pegasus, he whispered in the winged horse's ear, you must help me to slay this insufferable monster, or else you shall fly back to your solitary mountain peak without your friend Belerphin, for either the chimera dies or his three mouths shall gnaw the head of mine. Pegasus winnied and, turning back his head, rubbed his nose tenderly against his rider's cheek. I thank you, pegasus, and said Belerphin. Now then let us make a dash at the monster. Buttering these words, he shook the bridle and Pegasus started down a slant as swift as the flight of an arrow right towards the chimera's three-fold head, which all this time was poking itself as high as it could into the air. As he came with an arm's length. Belerphin made a cut at the monster, but it was carried onward by a steed before he could see whether the blow had been successful.

Jordan: 41:23

Pegasus continued his course but soon wheeled round at about the same distance from the chimera's before. Belerphin then saw that he had cut the ghost's head of the monster almost off, and it seemed quite dead. But to make amends, the snake's head and the lion's head had taken all the fierceness of the dead one into themselves, his mid flame and haste and roared with a vast deal more fury than before. Never mind, my brave Pegasus, cried Belerphin. With another stroke like that, we will stop either at his sing or its roaring. And again he shook the bridle, dashing as before.

Jordan: 42:19

The winged horse made another arrow flight towards the chimera and Belerophon aimed another downright stroke at one of the two remaining heads, but this time neither he nor Pegasus escaped so well as the first. With one of its claws, the Chimera had given the young man a deep scratch in his shoulder and had slightly damaged the left wing of the flying steed. With the other, on his part, belerophon had mortally wounded the lion's head of the monster so much that now hung downward with his fire almost extinguished and sending out gasses of thick black smoke. The snake's head, however, which was the only one now left was twice as fierce and venomous as ever before. Meanwhile, pegasus had again paused in the air and knaved angrily while sparkles of a pure crystal flame darted out of his eyes. How, unlike the lured fire of the Chimera, the aerial steed spirit was all aroused, and so was that of Belerophon. Do you bleed, my mortal horse? Cried the young man, caring less for his own hurt than for the anguish of this glorious creature that ought never to have tasted pain. The Chimera shall pay for this mischief with his last head. Then he shook the bridle, shouted loudly and guided Pegasus straight at the monster's hideous front. So rapid was the onset that it seemed but a dazzle in a flash before Belerophon was a close gripe with his enemy.

Jordan: 44:35

The Chimera by this time, after losing its second head, had got into a red-hot passion of pain and rampant rage. His so flustered bout, half on earth and partly in the air, that it was impossible to say which element it rested upon. It opened its snake jaws to such an abominable width that Pegasus might have almost flown right down its throat. Wings outspread rider and all. At their approach it shot out a tremendous blast of its fiery breath and the envelope Belerophon has steed in a perfect atmosphere of flame singling the wings of Pegasus, scorching off one whole side of the young man's golden ringlets and making them both far hotter than was comfortable, from head to foot.

Jordan: 45:40

When the early rush of the winged horse had brought him within the distance of a hundred yards, the Chimera gave a spring and flung its huge, awkward, venomous and utterly detestable carcass right upon poor Pegasus, clung round him with might and mane and, tied up a sneaky tail into a knot Up flew. The aerial, steed higher and higher and higher, above the mountain peaks, above the clouds and almost out of sight of solid earth. But still the monster kept its hold and was born upward, along with a creature of light and air. Belerophon, meanwhile, found himself face to face with the ugly grimness of the Chimera Over the upper edge of the shield. He looked sternly into the savagize of the monster. But the Chimera was so mad and wild with pain that it did not guard itself so well as might else have been the case. Perhaps, after all, the best way to fight a Chimera is by getting as close to it as you can. In its efforts to stick its horrible iron claws into its enemy, the creature left its own chest quite exposed. In perceiving this, Belerophon thrust his sword up to the hilt into its cruel heart. Immediately, the snaky tail untied its knot. The monster let go his hold of Pegasus and fell from that vast height downward.

Jordan: 47:50

At early sunrise some cottagers were going to their day's labor and saw to their astonishment, the several acres of ground were strewn with black ashes. In the middle of a field there was a heap of whiteened bones a great deal higher than a haystack. Nothing else was ever seen of the dreadful Chimera. When Belerophon had won the victory, he bent forward and kissed Pegasus while the tear stood in his eyes. Back now, my beloved steed, said he. Back to the fountain of Pyrrhaeny. Pegasus skimmed through the air quicker than he ever did before and reached the fountain at a very short time. So Belerophon slipped off the enchanted bridle from the head of the marvelous seed. Be free for evermore, my Pegasus. He cried with a shade of sadness in his tone. But Pegasus rested his head on Belerophon's shoulder and will not be persuaded to take flight. Well then, sebalerophane, crossing the airy horse, you shall be with me as long as you will, and we will go together and tell King Ayyubades that the chimera is destroyed.