Dear Friends, I wanted me to tell a legend from Anatolia today.
Spring is the summer's muster. When we say summer, the Mediterranean comes to mind for us.
With its history, legends, ancient cities, beautiful bays, beaches, the Mediterranean
has an indescribable beauty.
The Mediterranean is a paradise of the world with lush pine trees descending from the peaks of the Taurus Mountains to the sea shore.
The story I will tell is the legend of an impressive natural wonder known as Olympos, Çıralı or Yanartaş for 2500 years.
Homer told, Hesiodos told, who knows more, but we heard it from Halicarnassus Fishermen for the first time.
Pir-i Rehberan.
Piri, master of guides. Cevat Şakir Kabaağaçlı tells the story of Bellerophontes and Khimeira in his book 'Anatolian Legends.
Although it seems like a love story, it tells a heroism with Bellerophontes and Khimeira. Bellerophentes is the son of Glaukos, King of Corinth, and the grandson of the famous punished Sisyphos. Another subject he is famous for in the history is that he struck Pegasus, the legendary winged flying horse, and performed heroism with him.
He also says that he is a human beauty, Halikarnas Balıkçısı. So much so that he likens the story of this young man to the story of our Prophet Yusuf and our mother Zeliha.
One day he kills his brother for some reason. In fact, Belleros is the name of his brother. Bellerophontes means the one who eats brother.
When he commits this disgraceful crime, he is forced to flee from the land of his birth and take refuge in the king of Argos, Proitos.
When King Proitos's wife saw this beauty, she fell in love with Bellerophontes.
However, Bellerophontes is both hero and honorable, and he does not betray the person he takes shelter with. The king's wife cannot feed this refusal and slanders our hero.
Proitos also does not want to kill this young man who took shelter with him. He sends it to the King of Lycia with a letter.
It is welcomed with feasts in Lycia. However, when the King reads the letter, that is, when he receives the death order, he gives Bellerophontes a task he cannot handle without dying. Khimeira is a lion-headed, goat-body, snake-tailed dragon with flames from its mouth. Bellerophontes kills Khimeira with the help of his winged horse Pegasus and sends him to the bottom of the earth seven floors. However, after he dies, flames continue to come out of his mouth from the depths of the ground.
This is the folk-language expression of the fires burning spontaneously for thousands of years in the place we call Yanartaş today.
The young people who celebrate Bellerophontes' victory every year, light their torches with this fire and run to the ancient city of Olympos. It is said that this is where the Olympic fire first burned.
Friends, our story is just like that.
Those who go know it, it is highly recommended for those who do not. Olympos is a natural wonder.
It is one of the unique places of Turkey with its ancient city established by the sea, Yanartaş National Park and Tahtalı Mountains on which it rests.
Fire is an odorless natural gas source made up of methane, ethane, nitrogen and carbon dioxide. It takes 40 minutes to walk to the hilly where the fire is burning. It is a little tiring but worth it. Once there was no road, it was taken by boats. Fishermen used to cook their fish on this natural fire. Fires can be seen from the sea at night, which is why our people call it Çıralı.
Also, the spawning area of the caretta carettas, the legend of our beaches, is Olympos beach and it is under protection.
There is no structuring. There are only camping and bungalows.
Olympos and Çıralı still preserve their natural beauty and hopefully Yanartaş will protect it as it continues to burn.
And a note from the poor: Khimeira, Chimeira, Chimeneia (isp) or Cheminée (fr) Camino (ita) Kamin (Alm), which means chimney in Latin languages, always comes from this root.
BELLEROPHONTES AND PEGASUS
Comments