Iliad

Even so is it with the generations of humankind, the new spring up as the old are passing away. If, then, you would learn my descent, it is one that is well known to many. There is a city in the heart of Argos , pasture land of horses, called Ephyra , where Sisyphus lived, who was the craftiest of all humankind. He was the son of Aeolus, and had a son named Glaukos, who was father to Bellerophon, whom heaven endowed with the most surpassing comeliness and beauty. But Proetus devised his ruin, and being stronger than he, drove him from the district [ dêmos ] of the Argives, over which Zeus had made him ruler. For Antaea, wife of Proetus, lusted after him, and would have had him lie with her in secret; but Bellerophon was an honorable man and would not, so she told lies about him to Proetus. ‘Proetus,’ said she, ‘kill Bellerophon or die, for he would have had converse with me against my will.’ The king was angered, but shrank from killing Bellerophon, so he sent him to Lycia bearing baneful signs [ sêmata ], written inside a folded tablet and containing much ill against the bearer. He bade Bellerophon show these written signs to his father-in-law, to the end that he might thus perish; Bellerophon therefore went to Lycia , and the gods convoyed him safely.

IliadBook 6, Line 149Samuel ButlerEnglishVerse permalinkRead in Book 6

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