Pegasus
is the winged horse from Greek mythology who sprang from Medusa's neck when she was killed by Perseus. Pegasus then flew to mount Helicon, where, striking the ground with his hoof, a stream began to flow which became sacred to the Muses. When Bellerophon was giving the task of killing the Chimara, he was advised to procure Pegasus for the battle. Minerva gave Bellerophon a golden bridle and showed him Pegasus drinking at the well of Pirene. At the sight of the bridle, Pegasus approached and allowed himself to be captured. With Pegasus' help, the Chimaera was easily defeated. This conquest and other successes with Pegasus caused Bellerophon to become swell headed. He attempted to fly Pegasus to Olympus to join the gods. An angry Zeus sent an insect to sting Pegasus, causing him to throw Bellerophon from his back. Bellerophon thereafter wandered the earth alone, lame and blind in consequence. Some stories place Pegasus in Zeus' stables after this, entrusted with the task of bringing thunderbolts and lightning to the god.
 

Bellerophon
 

Tamer of the flying horse Pegasus and heroic vanquisher of the Chimaera, a monster so fantastic that it has entered our language in the adjective chimerical, describing the improbable product of a wild imagination.

Bellerophon was a citizen of Corinth who was exiled owing to a murder which he had committed. In those days it was possible to be purified of the guilt of such a crime, and Bellerophon was in due course absolved by King Proetus of neighboring Tiryns.
The king's wife, generally identified as Stheneboea, made a pass at the young hero, and when he repulsed her advances she told her husband that it was Bellerophon who made a pass at her.

King Proetus cloaked his indignation, not wishing to violate the sacred obligations of hospitality by doing harm to his guest. But he contrived his revenge by asking Bellerophon to deliver a letter on his behalf to King Iobates of Lycia, his father-in-law. This is somewhat surprising in that writing hadn't been invented yet, except perhaps a rudimentary form used for inventory-keeping on the island of Crete and certain parts of the mainland. No wonder Bellerophon couldn't make out the meaning of the message he was to deliver. Either that or the letter was sealed - although for that matter "letters" hadn't been invented yet either.

What the message said was: "Dear Iobates, please do me a favor and kill the person who hands you this." To do so proved impossible, however, as Iobates was bound by the same strictures of hospitality as King Proetus. So instead he feasted Bellerophon for a goodly number of days and nights, until at length he announced that he had a favor to ask of him. Assuming
that this had something to do with a return letter to Proetus, Bellerophon may well have been giving thought to establishing the first postal service, when Iobates surprised him with the unexpected nature of his request. Would Bellerophon be so kind as to rid the kingdom of the Chimaera?

Not wishing to sugarcoat the challenge, the king went on to describe the Chimaera as a fire-breathing monster directly related to Heracles' nemesis the many-headed Hydra, and Cerberus, watchdog of Hades. The Chimaera had a lion's front, a goat's middle and a snake's tail (or, in some alternative versions of the myth, the heads of these three beasts with some admixture of body parts). In any case, it was truly ferocious.

Iobates was hoping to make good on his son-in-law's request to do away with Bellerophon, and he had hit upon the Chimaera as the ideal agent in expediting his young guest's demise. And while one might think that he would have made little of the Chimaera's dangers in order to instill a false sense of security, Iobates had sized up Bellerophon and deduced that he was a sucker for a challenge - the bigger the better. And in fact Bellerophon was pleased at the opportunity to elevate himself from
mere postal-delivery person to authentic hero. He immediately began to plan his campaign of attack.

Word was that the Chimaera was virtually impregnable to any ground assault. Others had waded in on foot with spear or sword
- to their eternal regret. There was even a rumor of a mounted Thessalian who had come up short in the encounter, his horse having been blasted out from under him by the Chimaera's fiery breath. With a keen sense of logistics, Bellerophon narrowed down his viable options to an attack either by air or sea. The latter course being out by virtue of the inland nature of the Chimaera's lair, he settled on the aerial option and immediately set out to procure himself a winged steed.

When Bellerophon was still a boy growing up in Corinth, he had yearned to ride the magic horse Pegasus, immortal offspring of the god Poseidon and the Gorgon Medusa. Pegasus was born when the hero Perseus cut off Medusa's head. Like everyone else, Bellerophon had been unable to so much as approach Pegasus. So he sought the advice of the seer Polyeidus.

Polyeidus suggested that Bellerophon spend the night in Athena's temple. In a dream, the goddess came to him and gave him a golden bridle. And in the morning Bellerophon found Pegasus drinking at the spring of Peirene and slipped the bridle over his head, rendering him tame and rideable. Thus once more, in manhood, Bellerophon sought out the Corinthian watering hole and his trusty mount, and as he did so he gave thought to the essential issue of armament.

Clearly not just any sword or spear would do in fighting the Chimaera. For starters, a lance would be indispensable - the sort of spear best suited to fighting on horseback. And even a proper lance was no guarantee of victory over so substantial a foe.

Again the gods came to Bellerophon's aid, suggesting that a lump of lead affixed to the end of the spear would have a decidedly deadly effect. Firstly, when thrust into the monster's maw, it would cause the Chimaera to gag. And secondly, when melted by the beast's fiery breath, it would trickle down into its innards and cause a fatal case of heartburn.

So Bellerophon trekked all the way from Lycia to Corinth, located the fountain of Peirene and found Pegasus sipping therefrom. Mounting up, the hero made a much speedier trip back to Lycia, swooped down on the Chimaera's lair and rammed home the secret weapon. And with a great, gasping groan of rage, the Chimaera gave up the ghost.
 

The Phoenix in Greece

Greek mythology places the phoenix in Arabia, where it lives close to a cool well. Every morning at dawn it bathes in the water and sings a beautiful song. So beautiful is the song, that the sun god would stop his chariot to listen. There only exists one phoenix at a time. When the phoenix feel sits death approaching (every 500 or 1461 years) it builds a nest, sest it on fire, and is consumed by the flames. A new phoenix springs forth from the pyre. It then embalms the ashes of it's predecessor in an egg of
myrrh and flies with it to the City of the Sun. There the egg is deposited on the altar of the sun god.

The Phoenix in Egypt

In Egypt the phoenix was usually depicted as a heron, but also as a peacock or an eagle. The brilliantly red and golden plumed Bennu was the sacred bird of Heliopolis. Identified as a heron with its long straight back and head adorned at the back withtwo erect feathers, the Bennu was later named Phoenix by the Greeks. The Bennu lived on the ben-ben stone or obelisk within the sanctuary of Heliopolis and was worshipped alongside Ra and Osiris. It was said to create itself from the fire that burned on the top of the sacred Persea tree in Heliopolis. The sun rose in the form of the Bennu each morning. Bennu was also considered a manifestation of Osiris, said to spring from his heart as a living symbol of the god. The Bennu symbolizes rebirth as it rises from the ashes, just as the new sun rises from the old.
 
 

Satyr with Nymphs
A forest and mountain creature. Part human, with a horse's tail and ears, and a goat's horns
and legs, satyrs were merry, drunken, lustful devotees of Dionysus.
 
 

Unicorn

"...I can o'ersway him; for he loves to hear
That unicorns may be betray'd with trees,
And bears with glasses, elephants with holes,
Lions with toils and men with flatterers;

Julius Caesar

--William Shakespeare

A fabled beast having the head and legs of a horse and a long, twisted horn set in the middle
of its forehead. Pure white, it has been used as a symbol of virginity, holiness and chastity. It has also been described as a white horse, with the legs of an antelope, and a spirally grooved horn projecting forward from the center of its forehead, with the horn being white
at the base, black in the middle, and red at the tip.
 

Perhaps the earliest mention of the unicorn is by Herodotus, who in the 3rd century BC wrote of the 'horned ass' of Africa. The more likely earliest surviving mention of the unicorn comes from a century later, in the writings of the Greek historian Ctesias. He writes of a creature he calls the 'wild ass of India' describing it as being equal in size to a horse, with a white body, a red head, bluish eyes and a straight horn on the forhead, a cubit long. He describes the lower part of the horn as being white, the middle black, and the tip red. Drinking cups made from the horn were believed to possess the power of neutralizing poison when poured into them. Ctesias represents the unicorn as being extraordinarily swift of foot, untameable and almost impossible to capture.
 
 
 

 
 

 

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