Bellerophon Bellerophon Bellerophon (; Ancient Greek: Βελλεροφῶν) or Bellerophontes () is a hero of Greek mythology. He was "the greatest hero and slayer of monsters, alongside Cadmus and Perseus, before the days of Heracles", and his greatest feat was killing the Chimera, a monster that Homer depicted with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail: "her breath came out in terrible blasts of burning flame." Bellerophon was born at Corinth and was the son of the mortal Eurynome by either her husband Glaucus, or Poseidon. One possible etymology that has been suggested is: Βελλεροφόντης from βέλεμνον, βελόνη, βέλος
Greek hero cult heroines as similar in kind to heroes, but in androcentric Greek culture, typically of lesser stature. Whitley distinguishes four or five essential types of hero cult: Hero cults could be of the utmost political importance. When Cleisthenes divided the Athenians into new demes for voting, he consulted Delphi on what heroes he should name each division after. According to Herodotus, the Spartans attributed their conquest of Arcadia to their theft of the bones of Orestes from the Arcadian town of Tegea. Heroes in myth often had close but conflicted relationships with the gods. Thus Heracles's name means "the glory of