Athene gave Pegasus to Bellerophon (a grandson of Sisyphus), who used the winged creature in his fight against the Chimaera - a monstrous female with three heads.>

Bellerophon shot arrows at the beast as he flew above her on Pegasus, then he stuck between her jaws a huge lump of lead. The monster's own breath melted the lead, which then flowed down her throat and burned her to death.>

Now Bellerophon was sent off on another mission, which he accomplished with equal aplomb. Flushed with victory, he flew off for Olympus, home of the gods, as if he too were immortal. Zeus sent a gadfly, which stung Pegasus on the bum, and Bellerophon was kicked off the horse. Pegasus went alone to Olympus, where he was used by Zeus to carry around his thunderbolts. As for Bellerophon, for his presumption of greatness, he wandered about the earth for the rest of his life, blind, lame, and shunned by man, until dying of old age.>