Yes, it sounds a bit like an adventure right? And that’s the way it is. Perhaps you have heard of Chimaera (or Chimaera, as it is also called), the terrible monster who spits fire and has equal parts of lion, goat and snake?
Well, is there something that lights up? I think, at least, that most people can remember something about something dangerous unbelievably, that was fought by a brave warrior on a winged horse.
And here you have the monster of Chimaera, who (maybe?) lived on the mountain Yanartaş near Antalya and is responsible for the fact, that today flames rise from cracks in the mountain.
Chimaera was, according to the legend and Greek mythology, a feared monster, whose head reminded most of a lion, from the body a goat head rised and the tail was a snakes head. As you can imagine, if you saw Chimaera it was a sign of disaster. Therefore in Greek mythology, Chimaera was a warning of storm, shipwreck and especially nature disasters and volcanic eruptions.
This monster is described for the first time in Homer’s Iliad and is the earliest reproduction of the legend of the fiery immortal and the brave warrior Bellerophon, who was tasked with killing the monster from his winged horse.
According to legend, Bellerophon killed his brother and therefore had to exile at the Greek King of Argos. Here the king’s wife fell in love with the brave warrior, but when he did not want anything to do with her, she claimed that he had raped her. The king did not want to murder his guest, so he sent Bellerophon to the king of Lycia, so that he could get rid of the warrior. However, he either didn’t want to kill a guest and feared the subsequent consequences. Therefore he sent Bellerophon to kill the dreaded monster Chimaera, who had terrorized the nearby towns. No one was previously able to damage the monster.
Bellerophon was assisted by the white winged horse Pegasus, and on this, he set himself against Chimaera. He found a spear and tied up a huge lead-knot. Armed with this, he was flying over the fiery Chimaera. He threw the lance into the gap of the monster, the lead block melted because of the fire and the heat and blocked the airways for the monster. Chimaera then died and crashed into the ground and is the reason, why today flames rise from the burning mountain of Yanartaş.
Following the surrender, people in the city subsequently arranged a run, lit the torches at the burning mountain of Yanartas, ran down the mountain towards the nearby city of Olympos, to honor Chimaera’s death. This should be said to be the 1st Olympic Games in Anatolia, where the Olympic torch symbolizes the eternal flame on the Chimaera / Yanartaş mountain.
