Original subtitles

(mysterious music)

- [Presenter] It all began with a murder.

An accidental murder, but a murder none the less.

The sun dipped below the skyline.

Hipponous drew back his bow.

There could be no doubt.

It had to be the stag that he and his brother Belleros

had been hunting for two days now.

Hipponous held his breath.

The arrow flew.

Immediately a cry rang out.

Not the cry of an animal though,

this was the howl of a human.

A few strides away from Hipponous, a silhouette collapsed

face down in the earth.

Not a stag, but a man.

Hipponous leaned over the body and immediately knew it

to be that of his brother Bellous.

A horrified expression spread across his face.

All was lost because he who kills his brother

will not only be condemned by his fellow men

but also cursed by the gods.

So he would no longer call himself Hipponous.

From now on he would be Bellerophon,

meaning the killer of Belleros.

Having buried his brother, Bellerophon lay across the tomb

and stared at the ground.

How would he ever obtain the gods forgiveness?

All the more so as up on Olympus some would say

that this crime was bound to happen sooner or later.

Who was Bellerophon?

He was in fact the grandson of mortal,

one of the biggest criminals of all time, Sisyphus.

Sisyphus the cunning, Sisyphus the liar.

To punish him for his tricks and lies,

Zeus compelled him to push a huge rock up

to the summit of a hill from which it would forever

fall back down again.

Bellerophon dreamed of adventure.

He dreamed of matching the greatest heroes.

Now it was all over, he would be banished.

Bellerophon took one last look at the walls of Corinth,

the city of his birth,

the city where his father Glaucus reigned.

The city where he was a prince.

He knew that his gates would now be forever closed to him.

Custom demanded that any murderer be exiled

from his city, compelled to wander until another city

agreed to take him in and until a king cleansed him

by offering hospitality.

Bellerophon then considered Proetus.

Proetus was king of tyrants in the Gulf of Argos.

Maybe Proetus would be generous enough to take him in.

He was said to be a kind hearted and a good king.

Bellerophon set off.

Moved by Bellerophon's account of the tragedy

he had suffered, Proetus offered him a home in his palace.

He introduced him to everyone in the king's court

including Queen Stheneboea.

Unbeknownst to him, Proetus had just unwittingly

risen the first act of an even greater tragedy.

One night while Bellerophon slept, the door opened.

A silhouette crossed the room, and slipped into his bed.

It was Queen Stheneboea.

Bellerophon gave a start.

The queen declared the undying love for him,

covering him with kisses.

She loved him, she had loved him from the first moment.

The poor young man panicked and backed off.

The Queen Stheneboea insisted, trying to wrap her arms

around him.

Bellerophon was indignant.

It was out of the question for him to betray

the hospitality of Proetus.

He told Stheneboea to go and stop bothering him.

The humiliated queen departed looking black as thunder.

It was clear that she had not had her last word.

The following day, Queen Stheneboea

publicly accused Bellerophon of trying to ravish her.

Despite the young man's protestations,

he was condemned by one and all.

King Proetus felt he was on the horns on the kind

of awful dilemma that can ruin a man and lead him astray.

He could not let this outrage go unpunished

nor could he kill his guest with his own hand.

That would go against the sacred laws of hospitality.

Infringing them would incur the wrath of the gods.

Then he had an idea.

Proetus asked Bellerophon to take a message

to his step father, Iobates, king of Lycia.

Grateful to escape so lightly,

the young man accepted the assignment.

Little did he know he had just signed his death warrant.

When he arrived at the court of the King Iobates,

Bellerophon was warmly greeted.

His first nine days there were filled with festivals

and banquets.

Only on the 10th day did Iobates decide

to unseal the message that Bellerophon had brought with him.

What he discovered inside mortified him.

Proetus had written, pray remove the bearer from this world.

He attempted to violate my wife, your daughter.

But like his son in law, Iobates was loathed

to punish Bellerophon.

One cannot kill a guest without fending the gods.

Never the less, the solution had to be found.

So he offered Bellerophon a mission,

to kill a fearsome monster that had terrorized

his kingdom for many years.

A monster born from the amorous entanglements

of the cruelest demons in hell.

A wicked creature endowed with three heads.

The head of a avaricious lion,

the head of a goat spitting flames,

and the head of a fire breathing dragon.

It was known as the Chimera.

Bellerophon accepted the challenge.

He felt no fear seeing only an opportunity

to prove his worth.

How long he had waited for this moment.

From an early age he had dreamed of becoming a hero.

He yearned to go down in history, for his name

to be the stuff of legend.

To be mentioned in the same breath as his idol, Perseus,

the demi god born of Zeus' love affairs

who had won glory by cutting off the head of Medusa,

the Gorgon.

He had to find a way to take on the Chimera

without being devoured by fire.

If he attempted to attack from the rear,

he would almost certainly be swept away

by its colossal tail.

Bellerophon decided to consult a sear.

He was told that the only way to overcome the monster

would be from the air.

And to that end, there was only one solution.

To capture and tame Pegasus,

the fabulous winged horse.

The white stead so beloved of the muses

and said to be indomitable.

Pegasus, at last Bellerophon was going to follow

in the footsteps of his heroes, the valiant Perseus,

Jason, Orpheus, Heracles.

Rumor had it the sear had told him that Pegasus

lived with the muses on Mount Helicon.

(soft flute music)

Bellerophon scoured every last corner of the region

but could find no trace of the horse.

He roamed the roads and forests, still nothing.

Finally one morning, his travels took him

to the temple of Athena.

Exhausted, he collapsed at the foot of a column

and fell asleep.

It is often when mortals are fallen into a deep sleep

that the gods come to speak with them.

Here, Athena, goddess of wisdom, came to the young man.

And this is what she told him.

At your feet you will find a gift.

It will allow you to tame the divine Pegasus.

After your victory, you must thank Poseidon,

the father of Pegasus, by building a temple in his honor.

The goddess added, you will find the winged horse

in the fountain of Pyrene, he likes to drink there.

When Bellerophon awoke, he found

the gift had been left close by.

He picked it up.

It was the golden bridle.

Bellerophon made his way back along the road

to the place indicated by the goddess,

the fountain of Pyrene.

It was a magical fountain said to be created

from the tears of Pyrene, the girl of the river Asepalous,

mourning the death of her son, inadvertently killed

by the goddess Artemis.

Athena was right.

Pegasus was indeed there.

The sublime, dazzling white stead seemed to waiting

peacefully for him.

Bellerophon edged closer and carefully slept

the gold bridle onto him.

After a moments hesitancy, he mounted the horse.

Immediately Pegasus reared up and in a name

that made the trees tremble, hurtled toward the skies.

Up he soared flying high over the clouds,

a formidable messenger.

Bellerophon let the stead ride free.

Pegasus carried Athena's protege towards the den

of the Chimera.

After flying over hill and veil, Pegasus soared around

on a broad circle.

The frightening silhouette of the Chimera had just appeared.

Pegasus swooped down on the monster.

Bellerophon drew back his bow and shot his arrows

while the horse pounded the skull of the Chimera

with his hooves.

Alas, to no avail.

The animal seemed indestructible.

The arrows shattered like glass on it's skin.

Then, inspired again by Athena,

Bellerophon affixed a piece of lead to the tip of his spear.

As Pegasus swooped down once more towards the Chimera,

Bellerophon planted his spear into the mouth

of the vile creature.

The Chimera began to spit out fire

but the fire only melted the lead which ran down

into its throat consuming and suffocating the monster.

The battle was over.

Bellerophon could now return victorious

to the palace of Iobates.

The young man was hailed by the crowd as a liberator.

Strangely though, from King Iobates

there was no such outpouring of joy.

No honors, no gratitude.

On the contrary, he seemed upset

and with good reason.

Bellerophon had to pay for the outrage he had perpetuated

on his son in law and daughter.

Bellerophon was then asked to fight the fierce

and war like Solomi, a people known for their cruelty

and savagery.

The young man set off once again.

Nothing could frighten him now after achieving

the unthinkable and killing the Chimera.

(mysterious music)

Again, with the help of the loyal Pegasus,

Bellerophon managed to vanquish the barbarians.

He withdrew, leaving behind him a battle field in ruins,

littered with hundreds of bodies.

Iobates was distraught.

He began to wonder about the true origins on this young man.

He was the son of Glaucus, but some were given to understand

that his real father might be Poseidon,

master of the seas and oceans.

If so, Bellerophon would be of a divine nature.

No matter, he must die.

No sooner had Bellerophon returned to the palace

then Iobates dispatched him to fight the Amazons.

The Amazons were fierce some war like women

who terrorized the population.

Rumors about them were rife.

It was said that they were the descendants of Auris,

the god of war and Nymph, harmony.

And that Amazon's slaughtered their male children at birth

or made them lame or blind in order to use them as servants.

It was also said that they cut off their right breast,

the better to draw back their bows and were practically

invincible in battle.

All this in no way scared Bellerophon.

Sitting astride the haughty Pegasus, he polished off

the warriors in no time.

He returned to a rapturous reception.

The people of Lycia were in a frenzy singing his praises.

All except Iobates who continued to look solemn.

Not only did the king refuse to commend his deeds,

he sent his best soldiers with orders to arrest him

and eliminate him.

This was too much.

Bellerophon killed the kinds soldiers and ran to Iobates

determined to obtain an explanation.

Iobates laid down his weapon.

He was now convinced that Proetus must have been mistaken

about the attempted rape of Stheneboea.

He showed Bellerophon the message from Proetus,

ordering that he should be killed

before giving a humble bow.

Bellerophon was blessed.

Any man able to mount the indomitable Pegasus,

vanquish the Chimera, decimate the Solemi,

and drive the Amazon's out the country

could only be the son of a god.

There could be no doubt that in his veins

ran the noble and powerful blood of the divinity Poseidon.

Iobates went even further.

To prove his admiration, he gave his own daughter

to Bellerophon in marriage and nominated him his successor.

Word quickly spread around all Greece.

Bellerophon was a demi god, the son of the god Poseidon,

brother of the great Pegasus.

Bellerophon greeted the acclaim with great satisfaction

and no little pride.

His ambition had finally been fulfilled.

He was bursting with conceit.

But the faithless Stheneboea who had unjustly accused him

had to be punished.

Pegasus would take care of it.

Off flew the stead to Tyrans, where the queen had fled

having learned of the failure of her plot.

After nightfall she left the palace.

Just then, Pegasus arrived.

He offered to take Stheneboea on his back.

Stheneboea accepted his offer.

Pegasus carried her away towards the sea

but once above the waves, he reared up wildly.

The panicking queen clung desperately to his mane.

Pegasus kicked, neighed and reared again.

This time, Stheneboea toppled off,

dispatched once and for all.

Bellerophon was finally fulfilled.

His spouse, the daughter of King Iobates,

gave him three children and he ascended

to the throne of Ricia.

However, he was to make a mistake.

A fateful error.

The more his exploits were attributed to his blood line

with Poseidon, the more Bellerophon felt belittled

and humiliated.

He grew to attest this divine father who had been

forced upon him and who prevented him

from being acknowledged for the man he was, Bellerophon.

Besides, Bellerophon does not believe

a word of this rubbish.

His was father was not nor had he ever been a god.

He was no more begat by Poseidon than he was of Apollo

or Zeus.

His father was Glaucus, a mere mortal and he, Bellerophon,

owed his victories only to his own skill and courage.

To make sure everybody knew, he began to proclaim

loud and clear to all Sundry, that the gods had no business

in the affairs of men.

All that was only empty superstition.

The gods had no hand in his glorious destiny.

He, Bellerophon, son a mortal was as strong

and as brave as any god.

The priests tried to calm him down.

They pleaded with him to withdraw his blasphemous words.

This sent Bellerophon into a fit of rage.

Picking up a mace, he began to smash down the columns

in the temple of Poseidon, one after the other.

The gods are nothing, he repeated.

My victories were mine and mine alone, you hear?

Mine alone.

In his rage, Bellerophon dreamed up a new plan.

A particularly wild plan.

If he was being honored as a god, then his rightful place

was among the gods, on Olympus with the immortals.

He mounted Pegasus and soared up into the air

towards Olympus.

It would be his final trip.

The gods love their heroes well, provided they accept

the limitations imposed on human beings.

No sooner had Pegasus taken to the skies,

then Zeus emerged from his palace.

He closely observed the stead and its rider

hurdling towards him.

With a snap of the fingers, he produced a gad fly

which he dispatched to attack the magnificent

and invincible stead.

The faithful Pegasus, stung by Zeus' gadfly,

bolted, peroeted, and reared up.

Bellerophon was thrown from his back.

The fall was breath taking

and the landing devastating.

Bellerophon crashed right into the middle of a thorn bush

which tore out his eyes.

He was thought to be dead, but no,

Zeus did not want his killed.

The king of the gods regarded death as too slight

a punishment for the sin of pride committed by Bellerophon.

When the young man rose to his feet, he was blind

and lame.

Distraught and haggard, he began to limp along

the first road he came across.

No one knows where Bellerophon went,

nor how he finished his days.

He was forgotten.

And until today, no one had ever heard about a man

who was desperate to etch himself in legend,

to become a hero.

A man who dared claim himself to be equal of the gods.