Chimera Flames

The eternal flames of Chimera are far more interesting when you also know the story behind. So here it is.

Hippones, son of the King of Ephyra, accidentally kills his brother, Belleros, during a hunting party and then he takes a new name: Bellerophontes - the one who ate Belleros. So his father bans him into exile.

He takes refuge with the King of Argos. He feels sorry for the young man and doesn’t want to kill him, so he sents him on to the king of Lycia. This king also doesn’t want to kill a man for nothing, so he leaves his fate at the hand of Gods by ordering him to kill the Chimera.

Chimera was a fire breathing mythical creature, often depicted as a mix of animals (lion, goat and snake, most often). She was the end of many men and brought fear to the region.

Chimera attacks. Bellerophon listens to his intuition and the Gods. He flies on Pegasus, his winged horse, high in the sky and shoots Chimera from up there, getting her straight into the ground. The flames coming up from the rocks are said to be Chimera still breathing out fire from inside the ground.

To celebrate the victory, the people organise a race. The athletes light their torches from the flames and run down to the Olympos city.

This was believed to be the first Olympic Race.

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This was short 2km hike, very close to Cirali. You could feel Chimera, as it was so hot, everyone, including us, was sweating heavily in an attempt not melt down.
This is close to Mt Olympos - different than the Greek version of it, where the Gods were said to live.Read more