In Greek mythology, Bellerophon rejected the advances of Anteia, the wife of his host, Proetus, King of Tiryns, and in return she accused him of having attempted to seduce her. Proetus, unwilling to kill a guest, sent the unfortunate Bellerophon to his father-in-law, Iobates, King of Lycia, with a sealed letter requesting Iobates to kill him. Also loath to harm a guest, Iobates set Bellerophon the difficult task of ridding him of the Chimaera, a fire-breathing she-monster. Bellerophon was advised by a seer to make use of Pegasus, the winged horse beloved by the Muses of Mount Helicon, whom he found drinking at the Well of Peirene on the Acropolis of Corinth and tamed by means of a golden bridle, a gift from Athene. He was then able to kill the Chimaera by attacking it from the air. The gorgon's head shield depicted at lower right in the present picture presumably refers to the birth of Pegasus, who sprang from the body of Medusa when she was killed by Perseus.

We are grateful to Dr. Hans Vlieghe, who (judging from a photograph) considers the present picture 'a very characteristic work by Jan
Boeckhorst' and dates it in the 1650s