Chimera (Barth novel) Bellerophon: The Greek mythic hero who first tamed Pegasus and slayed the Chimera, becoming the King of Lycia. Also called "Bell," he's Perseus's younger cousin and he constantly compares himself self-consciously to the older hero. The Narrator: Somewhat a version of Bellerophon, he was "transformed by the seer Polyeidus into a version of Bellerophon's life" in order to tell this story (138). He constantly questions his own adequacy for the task, and his narrative doubts perpetually intrude in the story. Philonoe: Bellerophon's wife. She loves Bellerophon and is comfortable in her life, but she sees every delight in life as
Greek hero cult other hand, Greek heroes were distinct from the Roman cult of dead emperors, because the hero was not thought of as having ascended to Olympus or become a god: he was beneath the earth, and his power purely local. For this reason hero cults were chthonic in nature, and their rituals more closely resembled those for Hecate and Persephone than those for Zeus and Apollo: libations in the dark hours, sacrifices that were not shared by the living. The two exceptions to the above were Heracles and Asclepius, who might be honored as either heroes or gods, with chthonic libation