Lycia's king, Iobates, ordered a youngwarrior named Bellerophon to slay the chimera as a favor to a neighboring king, Proetus, who wanted Bellerophon dead.
The issue of expectations is unavoidable since the film's marketing campaign, like the early passages of the film itself, suggests a feminist fable of a youngwarrior going off to fight her own battles thus the iconic poster image of the heroine alone in a forest, bow and arrow at the ready.