Preview of Mt. Yantaras

Just a short walk down the beach from our wooden cabin in Cirali, Mt. Yantaras rises up on the coast, saluting legions of ancient sailors and stumbling tourists with massive indifference. Some say it is the place from which the first Olympic flame was carried-it has always been a place of mystery with a heroic legend attached. A mixture of methane and other gases seeps from between the jumbled mass of rocks, and, upon encountering oxygen, bursts into spontaneous flame. In centuries gone by, the flames were said to be much more prominent, and served as a warning and locator beacon to ships skirting the Lycian coast.

Just how they arose is the tale of the hero Bellerophon, who, with the help of magical Pegasus, slew the fire-breathing Chimera - which had the fore part of a lion, the hind part of a snake, while ae she-goat formed the middle.
Once a place of fear and mystery, Mt. Yantaras apparently hosts a gentler following these days-tipsy hippies who make the climb to commune with the past, families who celebrate their ascent with toasting marshmallows, and lovers who prefer a bottle of wine and some meat-on-a-stick to mark their passage on this timeless coast. And we plan to do the same.

The Legend of Bellerophon

In ancient Corinth there lived king Glaucus, son of Sisyphus, and his fair and brave son Bellerophon, who was to become one of the great heroes of Greek mythology. As is the case with many Greek heroes, there is some doubt about the origins of the name Bellerophon. Some sources claim he inadvertently slew his brother during the hunt, while others state he disposed of a belleros, an enemy or even a "bane to mankind."

Whatever the truth, it was this death that caused Bellerophon to be exiled from his father's house. He ended up in Tiryns, as a supplicant to the Mycenean king Proetus. The king offered him sanctuary and even expiation of his crime. Unfortunately, Bellerophon attracted the eye of Anteia, wife to king Proetus. When Bellerophon refused her, Anteia went to the king and told him Bellerophon had attempted to ravish her. Now Proetus, bound by the laws of hospitality, could not bring harm to Bellerophon and decided to send him away to Xanthus in Lycia where Iobates, Anteias' father, was king. To ensure that Iobates woul deal with Bellerophon the right way, Proetus told Bellerophon to bring Iobates a sealed letter, in which he had written that Bellerophon had attempted to ravish "my wife, your daughter".

But Iobates received Bellerophon in accordance with the laws of hospitality, ordering a grand feast lasting nine days and nine nights. On the tenth day Iobates summoned Bellerophon and asked him to hand over Proetus' letter. As he read the letter, Iobates realised that he too could not harm Bellerophon. On the other hand, he could also not allow "the molester of his daughter" to walk free. So Iobates decided he would send Bellerophon on a mission that would surely kill him: to kill the Chimera, a monster depicted by Homer as having a lion's head, a goat's body, and a serpent's tail and a terrible fiery breath which it used to lay waste to the Lycian lands.

Even though he deemed his chances of survival to be slim, Bellerophon did not despair. He sought the aid of the goddess Athena and spent the night in a temple dedicated to her. In his dream, Bellerophon witnessed Athena setting a golden bridle beside him and instructing him to use it to capture the flying horse Pegasus as it drank from a well.Using guile and the bridle, Bellerophon managed to capture the horse and, thus strengthened, he set out to confront the Chimera. However hard he fought the monster though, Bellerophon found the Chimera impossible to beat. In a last attempt, he got a large block of lead and mounted it on his spear. Flying head-on towards the Chimera, he held out the spear as far as he could and managed to lodge the block of lead inside the monster's throat, causing it to suffocate to death. So destructive was the Chimera's fire, however, that even its death could not quench it: flames still erupt toady from the mountain upon which it was slain (Mount Chimera, or Yanartaş, in the village of Çıralı).

Upon his return to Xanthus, Bellerophon found king Iobates strangely reluctant to accept the story of his victory. Would the king now have to honor the man who he believed to have molested his daughter? Unthinkable! So Iobates decided to send Bellerophon on another quest, this time to fight the extremely warlike tribe of the Solymoi. But Bellerophon triumphed again and now Iobates charged him with defeating the ferocious Amazons. Again, Bellerophon returned victorious. A number of equally daunting quests followed, from all of which Bellerophon returned triumphant and, even worse, still alive. Finally, Iobates saw no other recourse than setting his palace guard on our inntrepid hero. When Bellerophon retaliated by killing them all and flooding the entire plain of Xanthus by calling upon the god Poseidon, Iobates finally relented. He gave Bellerophon the hand of his daughter Philonoe, the younger sister of Anteia, and half of his kingdom. Now nothing more seemed to stand in the way of Bellerophon's happiness.

Unfortunately, Bellerophon had by now begun to think of himself invincible and decided his rightful place was among the very gods on Mount Olympus. Once more, he mounted his flying steed and flew off. This was too much for Zeus, greatest of all the Olympian gods, and he sent down a fly to sting Pegasus. Startled, the steed threw Bellerophon, sending him plummeting down to earth. Aided by Athena, Bellerophon survived the fall, but only by ending up in a thornbush, leaving him blinded and crippled. Thus Bellerophon ended up a miser, forced to spend the rest of his days wandering the land alone, grieving and avoiding man forever more.