Cnosus, city of the island of Crete, participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.646 & 18.501, Od. 19.178).
Idomeneus, son of Deucalion, grandson of Minos (Il. 12.117, 13.445-454, 17.608) was the leader of the Cretans in the Trojan War (Il. 2.645, 4.252). He managed to arrive in Crete safe with his followers (Od. 3.191).
Idomeneus.The son of Deucalion of Crete, and grandson of Minos. Being one of Helen's suitors, he and Meriones, the son of his half-brother, went with eighty ships to Troy, where he appears in Homer as among the bravest of heroes. He is described by Homer ( Od.iii. 191) as one of those who safely returned to his native land. According to a later story, he was caught in a storm on his way home, and vowed to Poseidon that, if he returned in safety, he would sacrifice to the god whatever he should first meet on his landing. His son came out to meet him, and was accordingly sacrificed; a plague thereupon broke out, he was banished by the Cretans, and betook himself to Calabria. He afterwards withdrew to Colophon in Asia, where he is said to have been buried. His tomb, however, was shown by the Cretans at Cnosus, where he and Meriones were worshipped as heroes
Idomeneus, a son of Deucalion, and grandson of Minos and Pasiphae; and hence he
traced his pedigree to Zeus and Helios. He was a man of great beauty, and is mentioned
among the suitors of Helen (Hon. Il. xiii. 450, &c., Od. xix. 181; Paus. v. 25.
5; Apollod. iii. 3.; Hygin. Fab. 81). He is sometimes called Lyctius or Cnosius,
from the Cretan towns of Lyctus and Cnosus (Virg. Aen. iii. 400; Diod. v. 79).
In conjunction with Meriones, the son of his half-brother Molus, he led the Cretans
in 80 ships against Troy, and was one of the bravest heroes in the Trojan war.
He offered to fight with Hector, and distinguished himself especially in the battle
near the ships, where he slew several Trojans (Hom. Il. ii. 645, &c., iii. 230,
iv. 251, v. 43, vii. 165, xiii. 361, &c., xvi. 345). Philostratus (Her. 7) even
relates that while the Greek heroes were waiting at Aulis, Cretan ambassadors
came to Agamemnon to announce that Idomeneus would join him with one hundred Cretan
ships, if Agamemnon would share the supreme command with him. After the fall of
Troy, Idomeneus returned home in safety (Hom. Od. iii. 1.91; Diod. v. 79), though
the post-Homeric traditions inform us that once in a storm he vowed to Poseidon
to sacrifice to him whatever he should meet first on his landing, if the god would
grant him a safe return. The first person he met on landing was his own son. He
accordingly sacrificed his son; and as Crete was thereupon visited by a plague,
the Cretans expelled Idomeneus. He went to Italy, where he settled in Calabria,
and built a temple to Athena. From thence he is said to have again migrated to
Colophon, on the coast of Asia, to have settled near the temple of the Clarian
Apollo, and to have been buried on Mount Cercaphus (Serv. ad Aen. iii. 121, 401,
531, xi. 264; Strab. x.; Schol. ad Hom. Od. xiii. 259). At Olympia his statue,
the work of Onatas, stood among the images of those who drew lots as to who was
to fight with Hector, and on his shield a cock was represented (Paus. v. 25.5;
comp. Hom. Il. vii. 161, &c.). His tomb was shown at Cnosus, where he and Meriones
were worshipped as heroes (Diod. v. 79).
Another personage of the name of Idomeneus is mentioned among the sons of Priam.
(Apollod. iii. 12.5)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Jan 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Meriones, son of Molus and comrade of Idomeneus, took part in the Trojan War (Il. 2.651, 7.165, 17.610, 23.112).
Son of Molus, a halfbrother of Idomeneus of Crete, whom he accompanied to Troy with eighty ships. In Homer we read that he was there one of the bravest in the fight, and with Teucer specially distinguished in archery, an art in which the Cretans had always excelled. According to a later legend, on his return from Troy his vessel was driven to Engyion in the north of Sicily, which was supposed to be a Cretan settlement. At Gnossus in Crete his grave was shown, and both he and Idomeneus, his friend and companion in battle, were honoured as heroe.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
There is a land called Crete, in the midst of the wine-dark sea, a fair, rich land, begirt with water, and therein are many men, past counting, and ninety cities. They have not all the same speech, but their tongues are mixed. There dwell Achaeans, there great-hearted native Cretans, there Cydonians, and Dorians of waving plumes, and goodly Pelasgians. Among their cities is the great city Cnosus, where Minos reigned when nine years old, he that held converse with great Zeus, and was father of my father, great-hearted Deucalion. Now Deucalion begat me and prince Idomeneus. Idomeneus had gone forth in his beaked ships to Ilios with the sons of Atreus; but my famous name is Aethon; I was the younger by birth, while he was the elder and the better man. There it was that I saw Odysseus and gave him gifts of entertainment; for the force of the wind had brought him too to Crete, as he was making for the land of Troy, and drove him out of his course past Malea. So he anchored his ships at Amnisus, where is the cave of Eilithyia, in a difficult harbor, and hardly did he escape the storm.
Minos: Son of Zeus and Europa, husband of Pasiphae. Pasiphae: Sister of Aeetes, wife of Minos, daughter of the Sun, bewitches Minos, loves the bull, with the complicity of Daedalus, image of, Pasiphae a surname of the moon.
Minos. The son of Zeus and Europa, brother of Rhadamanthus, was the
king and legislator of Crete. After his death he became one of the judges of the
shades in Hades. He was the father of Deucalion and Ariadne; and, according to
Apollodorus, the brother of Sarpedon. Some traditions relate that Minos married
Itone, daughter of Lyctius, by whom he had a son, Lycastus, and that the latter
became, by Ida, the father of another Minos. But it should be observed that Homer
and Hesiod know of only one Minos, the ruler of Cnossus, and the son and friend
of Zeus; and that they relate nearly the same things about him which later traditions
assign to a second Minos, the grandson of the former. In this case, as in many
other mythical traditions, a rationalistic criticism attempted to solve contradictions
and difficulties in the stories about a person, by assuming that the contradictory
accounts must refer to two different personages.
Assuming, however, the fact of a second Minos, he was also a king
and lawgiver of Crete. He is described as the husband of Pasiphae, a daughter
of Helios; and as the father of Catreus, Deucalion, Glaucus, Androgeos, Acalle,
Xenodice, Ariadne, and Phaedra. After the death of Asterius, Minos aimed at the
supremacy of Crete, and declared that it was destined to him by the gods; in proof
of which, he asserted that the gods always answered his prayers. Accordingly,
as he was offering up a sacrifice to Poseidon, he prayed that a bull might come
forth from the sea, and promised to sacrifice the beast. The bull appeared and
Minos became king of Crete. Minos, however, admiring the beauty of the bull, did
not sacrifice him, but substituted another in his place, whereupon Poseidon rendered
the bull furious, and made Pasiphae conceive a passion for the animal. Daedalus
enabled Pasiphae to gratify her passion, and she became by the bull the mother
of the Minotaurus, a monster with a human body and a bull's head, or, according
to others, with a bull's body and a human head. The monster was kept in the labyrinth
at Cnossus, constructed by Daedalus. Daedalus fled from Crete to escape the wrath
of Minos and took refuge in Sicily. Minos followed him to Sicily, and was there
slain by Cocalus and his daughters.
Minos is further said to have divided Crete into three parts, and
to have ruled nine years. The Cretans traced their legal and political institutions
to Minos. He is said to have been instructed in the art of legislation by Zeus
himself; and the Spartan Lycurgus was believed to have taken the legislation of
Minos as his model. In his time Crete was a powerful maritime State; and Minos
not only checked the piratical pursuits of his contemporaries, but made himself
master of the Greek islands of the Aegean. The most ancient legends describe Minos
as a just and wise lawgiver, whereas the later accounts represent him as an unjust
and cruel tyrant. In order to avenge the wrong done to his son Androgeos at Athens,
he made war against the Athenians and Megarians. He subdued Megara, and compelled
the Athenians either every year or every nine years to send him as a tribute seven
youths and seven maidens, who were devoured in the labyrinth by the Minotaurus.
The monster was slain by Theseus.
It is generally held that the tradition of Minos embodies a certain
amount of historical truth, and that there really was a king of that name who
ruled Crete before the Dorian migration, and developed a formidable sea-power,
which he used in putting down piracy. Cf. Thuc. i. 4, 8; Aristotle, Polit. ii.
10; iv. 10;
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
The Cretan constitution approximates to that of Sparta, but though
in a few points it is not worse framed, for the larger part it has a less perfect
finish. For the Spartan constitution appears and indeed is actually stated1 to
have been copied in most of its provisions from the Cretan; and as a rule old
things have been less fully elaborated than newer ones. For it is said that when
Lycurgus relinquished his post as guardian of King Charilaus and went abroad,
he subsequently passed most of his time in Crete because of the relationship between
the Cretans and the Spartans; for the Lyctians were colonists from Sparta, and
the settlers that went out to the colony found the system of laws already existing
among the previous inhabitants of the place; owing to which the neighboring villagers
even now use these laws in the same manner, in the belief that Minos4 first instituted
this code of laws. And also the island appears to have been designed by nature
and to be well situated to be under Greek rule, as it lies across the whole of
the sea, round which almost all the Greeks are settled; for Crete is only a short
distance from the Peloponnese in one direction, and from the part of Asia around
Triopium and from Rhodes in the other. Owing to this Minos won the empire of the
sea, and made some of the islands subject to him and settled colonies in others,
but finally when making an attack on Sicily he ended his life there near Camicus.
The Cretan organization is on the same lines as that of Sparta. In Sparta the
land is tilled by the Helots and in Crete by the serfs;
According to history, Minos was an excellent law-giver, and also the
first to gain the mastery of the sea; and he divided the island into three parts
and founded a city in each part... As Ephorus states, Minos was an emulator of
a certain Rhadamanthys of early times, a man most just and bearing the same name
as Minos's brother, who is reputed to have been the first to civilize the island
by establishing laws and by uniting cities under one city as metropolis and by
setting up constitutions, alleging that he brought from Zeus the several decrees
which he promulgated. So, in imitation of Rhadamanthys, Minos would go up every
nine years, as it appears, to the cave of Zeus, tarry there, and come back with
commandments drawn up in writing, which he alleged were ordinances of Zeus; and
it was for this reason that the poet says, "there Minos reigned as king,
who held converse with great Zeus every ninth year".
Such is the statement of Ephorus; but again the early writers have
given a different account of Minos, which is contrary to that of Ephorus, saying
that he was tyrannical, harsh, and an exactor of tribute, representing in tragedy
the story of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth, and the adventures of Theseus and
Daedalus. Now, as for these two accounts, it is hard to say which is true; and
there is another subject that is not agreed upon by all, some saying that Minos
was a foreigner, but others that he was a native of the island. The poet, however,
seems rather to advocate the second view when he says, "Zeus first begot
Minos, guardian o'er Crete". In regard to Crete, writers agree that in ancient
times it had good laws, and rendered the best of the Greeks its emulators, and
in particular the Lacedaemonians, as is shown, for instance, by Plato and also
by Ephorus, who in his Europe has described its constitution. But later it changed
very much for the worse; for after the Tyrrhenians, who more than any other people
ravaged Our Sea (The Mediterranean), the Cretans succeeded to the business of
piracy; their piracy was later destroyed by the Cilicians; but all piracy was
broken up by the Romans, who reduced Crete by war and also the piratical strongholds
of the Cilicians. And at the present time Cnossus has even a colony of Romans.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Of the numerous accounts of the Carians, the one that is generally agreed upon is this, that the Carians were subject to the rule of Minos, being called Leleges at that time, and lived in the islands; then, having migrated to the mainland, they took possession of much of the coast and of the interior, taking it away from its previous possessors, who for the most part were Leleges and Pelasgians. In turn these were deprived of a part of their country by the Greeks, I mean Ionians and Dorians.
This extract is from: The Geography of Strabo (ed. H. L. Jones, 1924), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Now Minos, it is said, went to Sicania, which is now called Sicily,
in search for Daedalus, and perished there by a violent death. Presently all the
Cretans except the men of Polichne and Praesus were bidden by a god to go with
a great host to Sicania. Here they besieged the town of Camicus, where in my day
the men of Acragas dwelt, for five years. Presently, since they could neither
take it nor remain there because of the famine which afflicted them, they departed.
However, when they were at sea off Iapygia, a great storm caught and drove them
ashore. Because their ships had been wrecked and there was no way left of returning
to Crete, they founded there the town of Hyria, and made this their dwelling place,
accordingly changing from Cretans to Messapians of Iapygia, and from islanders
to dwellers on the mainland. From Hyria they made settlements in those other towns
which a very long time afterwards the Tarentines attempted to destroy, thereby
suffering great disaster.
Commentary: Minos found Daedalus in Camicus, the city he had built for
Cocalus the Sican king. He was hospitably received by Cocalus, but enticed into
a warm bath and there slain by the king or his daughters.
This extract is from: Herodotus. The Histories (ed. A. D. Godley, 1920), Cambridge. Harvard University Press. Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
And the first person known to us by tradition as having established
a navy is Minos. He made himself master of what is now called the Hellenic sea,
and ruled over the Cyclades, into most of which he sent the first colonies, expelling
the Carians and appointing his own sons governors; and thus did his best to put
down piracy in those waters, a necessary step to secure the revenues for his own
use.(Thuc. 1.4.1)
The islanders, too, were great pirates. These islanders were Carians
and Phoenicians, by whom most of the islands were colonized, as was proved by
the following fact. During the purification of Delos by Athens in this war all
the graves in the island were taken up, and it was found that above half their
inmates were Carians: they were identified by the fashion of the arms buried with
them, and by the method of interment, which was the same as the Carians still
follow. But as soon as Minos had formed his navy, communication by sea became
easier, as he colonized most of the islands, and thus expelled the malefactors.
The coast populations now began to apply themselves more closely to the acquisition
of wealth, and their life became more settled; some even began to build themselves
walls on the strength of their newly-acquired riches. For the love of gain would
reconcile the weaker to the dominion of the stronger, and the possession of capital
enabled the more powerful to reduce the smaller towns to subjection. And it was
at a somewhat later stage of this development that they went on the expedition
against Troy.(Thuc. 1.8.1)
This extract is from: Thucydides. The Peloponnesian War (ed. Richard Crawley, 1910). Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Pasiphae, a daughter of Helios (the Sun) and Perseis, and a sister of Circe and Aeetes. She was the wife of Minos, by whom she became the mother of Androgeos, Catreus, Deucalion, Glaucus, Acalle, Xenodice, Ariadne, and Phaedra. Hence Phaedra is called Pasipheia (Ovid, Met.xv. 500). As a punishment for Minos who had failed to carry out a vow that he had made, Pasiphae was inspired by Poseidon with a violent passion for a bull. By a device of the artisan Daedalus, who enclosed her in a wooden cow, Pasiphae was enabled to gratify her desires, and became by the bull the mother of the monster Minotaurus, a creature half man and half bull. There is a poem De Pasiphae of twenty-two lines in the Latin Anthology, ascribed to Rufinus Antiochensis
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Crete (Krete), a daughter of Asterion, and wife of Minos. According to others, she was the mother of Pasiphae by Helios (Apollod. iii . 1.2; Diod. iv. 60). There are two other mythical personages of this name. (Apollod. iii. 3.1; Diod. iii. 71.)
He was the king of Crete, son of Minos by Pasiphae, father of Idomeneus, an Argonaut and participated in the hunting of the Calydonian boar (Il. 13.451).
This Deucalion is not to be confounded with the more famous Deucalion in whose time the great flood took place.
In the Odyssey, Odysseus pretended in front of Penelope to be the son of Deucalion (Od. 19.180).
A son of Zeus by Europa, brother of Minos (Il. 14.321, Od. 7 323) and father of Erythrus. In the Odyssey, Homer mentions that he dwelt in the Elysian plain (Od. 4.564).
(Rhadamanthos) and Rhadamanthys (Rhadamanthus). The son of Zeus and Europa, and brother of King Minos of Crete. From fear of his brother he fled to Ocalea in Boeotia, and there married Alcmene. In consequence of his justice throughout life, he became, after his death, one of the judges in the lower world or in the Islands of the Blessed, where he has for his associates Aeacus and Minos. The name points to an Egyptian origin of the myth.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Rhadamanthys deserves admiration for the way in which, as we are told,
he judged cases of law, in that he perceived that the men of his time had a clear
belief in the existence of gods,--and naturally so, seeing that most men at that
time were the offspring of gods, he himself among others, as the story declares.
Probably he thought that he ought not to entrust lawsuits to any man, but only
to gods, from whom he obtained verdicts that were both simple and speedy; for
he administered an oath to the disputants regarding each matter in dispute, and
thus secured a speedy and safe settlement. But nowadays, when, as we say, a certain
section of mankind totally disbelieve in gods, and others hold that they pay no
regard to us men, while a third party, consisting of the most and worst of men,
suppose that in return for small offerings and flatteries the gods lend them aid
in committing large robberies, and often set them free from great penalties,--under
such conditions, for men as they now are, the device of Rhadamanthys would no
longer be appropriate in actions at law.
She was the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, who fell in love with Theseus and helped him to find his way out of the labyrinth by giving him a clue of thread. The Athenian hero sailed away from the island of Crete and took Ariadne with him, whom he abandoned at the island of Naxos, where Dionysus saw her, fell in love with her and married her. (Il. 18.592, Od. 11.321).
More information for Ariadne can be found in Naxos island.
Daughter of Minos by Pasiphae or Crete, wife of Theseus, intervention of Amazons at her marriage, dedicates image of Ilithyia, loves Hippolytus and falsely accuses him to Theseus, hangs herself, her grave, her myrtle-tree, painted in a swing by Polygnotus.
More information for Phaedra can be found in Ancient Troezen.
Daedalus; resides with Minos at Cnosus, makes an artificial cow for Pasiphae, constructs the Labyrinth , besought by Ariadne to disclose the way out of the labyrinth, makes wings for himself and flies to Sicily. Icarus; son of Daedalus, flies too high and falls into the sea, body of, washed ashore on Icaria and buried by Herakles.
Daedalus: He was a skilful artificer, who constructed the Labyrinth. Homer compares the dancing-floor, which was constucted by Daedalus for Ariadne in Cnosus, with the one on the shield of Achilles, which Hephaestus wrought (Il. 18.592).
More information for Daedalus at the Attic Deme of Daidalidae
Icarus, son of Daedalus. All articles for Icarus are available at Icaria island, which named after him.
A bullheaded man, offspring of Pasiphae and a bull, shut up in the Labyrinth, Athenians send seven youths and seven damsels every year to be devoured by the, Theseus sent against the, killed by Theseus.
Asterius dying childless, Minos wished to reign over Crete, but his
claim was opposed. So he alleged that he had received the kingdom from the gods,
and in proof of it he said that whatever he prayed for would be done. And in sacrificing
to Poseidon he prayed that a bull might appear from the depths, promising to sacrifice
it when it appeared. Poseidon did send him up a fine bull, and Minos obtained
the kingdom, but he sent the bull to the herds and sacrificed another. (Being
the first to obtain the dominion of the sea, he extended his rule over almost
all the islands).
But angry at him for not sacrificing the bull, Poseidon made the animal
savage, and contrived that Pasiphae should conceive a passion for it. In her love
for the bull she found an accomplice in Daedalus, an architect, who had been banished
from Athens for murder. He constructed a wooden cow on wheels, took it, hollowed
it out in the inside, sewed it up in the hide of a cow which he had skinned, and
set it in the meadow in which the bull used to graze. Then he introduced Pasiphae
into it; and the bull came and coupled with it, as if it were a real cow. And
she gave birth to Asterius, who was called the Minotaur. He had the face of a
bull, but the rest of him was human; and Minos, in compliance with certain oracles,
shut him up and guarded him in the Labyrinth. Now the Labyrinth which Daedalus
constructed was a chamber "that with its tangled windings perplexed the outward
way".(Apollod.3.1.3)
Minos not long afterwards (the murder of his son Androgeus at Athens
by Athenian and Megarian conspirators - for wich see below Androgeus), being master
of the sea, he attacked Athens with a fleet and captured Megara, then ruled by
king Nisus, son of Pandion, and he slew Megareus, son of Hippomenes, who had come
from Onchestus to the help of Nisus. Now Nisus perished through his daughter's
treachery. For he had a purple hair on the middle of his head, and an oracle ran
that when it was pulled out he should die; and his daughter Scylla fell in love
with Minos and pulled out the hair. But when Minos had made himself master of
Megara, he tied the damsel by the feet to the stern of the ship and drowned her.
When the war lingered on and he could not take Athens, he prayed to
Zeus that he might be avenged on the Athenians. And the city being visited with
a famine and a pestilence, the Athenians at first, in obedience to an ancient
oracle, slaughtered the daughters of Hyacinth, to wit, Antheis, Aegleis, Lytaea,
and Orthaea, on the grave of Geraestus, the Cyclops; now Hyacinth, the father
of the damsels, had come from Lacedaemon and dwelt in Athens. But when this was
of no avail, they inquired of the oracle how they could be delivered; and the
god answered them that they should give Minos whatever satisfaction he might choose.
So they sent to Minos and left it to him to claim satisfaction. And Minos ordered
them to send seven youths and the same number of damsels without weapons to be
fodder for the Minotaur. Now the Minotaur was confined in a labyrinth, in which
he who entered could not find his way out; for many a winding turn shut off the
secret outward way. The labyrinth was constructed by Daedalus, whose father was
Eupalamus, son of Metion, and whose mother was Alcippe; for he was an excellent
architect and the first inventor of images. He had fled from Athens, because he
had thrown down from the acropolis Talos, the son of his sister Perdix; for Talos
was his pupil, and Daedalus feared that with his talents he might surpass himself,
seeing that he had sawed a thin stick with a jawbone of a snake which he had found.
But the corpse was discovered; Daedalus was tried in the Areopagus, and being
condemned fled to Minos. And there Pasiphae having fallen in love with the bull
of Poseidon, Daedalus acted as her accomplice by contriving a wooden cow, and
he constructed the labyrinth, to which the Athenians every year sent seven youths
and as many damsels to be fodder for the Minotaur.(Apollod.3.15.8)
Theseus... was numbered among those who were to be sent as the third
tribute to the Minotaur; or, as some affirm, he offered himself voluntarily. And
as the ship had a black sail, Aegeus charged his son, if he returned alive, to
spread white sails on the ship.
And when he came to Crete, Ariadne, daughter of Minos, being amorously
disposed to him, offered to help him if he would agree to carry her away to Athens
and have her to wife. Theseus having agreed on oath to do so, she besought Daedalus
to disclose the way out of the labyrinth. And at his suggestion she gave Theseus
a clue when he went in; Theseus fastened it to the door, and, drawing it after
him, entered in. And having found the Minotaur in the last part of the labyrinth,
he killed him by smiting him with his fists; and drawing the clue after him made
his way out again. And by night he arrived with Ariadne and the children at Naxos...(Apollod.E.1.7)
Commentary: The clearest description of the clue, with which the amorous
Ariadne furnished Theseus, is given by the Scholiasts and Eustathius on Homer
l.c.. From them we learn that it was a ball of thread which Ariadne had begged
of Daedalus for the use of her lover. He was to fasten one end of the thread to
the lintel of the door on entering into the labyrinth, and holding the ball in
his hand to unwind the skein while he penetrated deeper and deeper into the maze,
till he found the Minotaur asleep in the inmost recess; then he was to catch the
monster by the hair and sacrifice him to Poseidon; after which he was to retrace
his steps, gathering up the thread behind him as he went. According to the Scholiast
on the Odyssey, the story was told by Pherecydes, whom later authors may have
copied.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Not long afterwards there came from Crete for the third time the collectors
of the tribute. Now as to this tribute, most writers agree that because Androgeos
was thought to have been treacherously killed within the confines of Attica, not
only did Minos harass the inhabitants of that country greatly in war, but Heaven
also laid it waste, for barrenness and pestilence smote it sorely, and its rivers
dried up; also that when their god assured them in his commands that if they appeased
Minos and became reconciled to him, the wrath of Heaven would abate and there
would be an end of their miseries, they sent heralds and made their supplication
and entered into an agreement to send him every nine years a tribute of seven
youths and as many maidens. And the most dramatic version of the story declares
that these young men and women, on being brought to Crete, were destroyed by the
Minotaur in the Labyrinth, or else wandered about at their own will and, being
unable to find an exit, perished there; and that the Minotaur, as Euripides says,
was "A mingled form and hybrid birth of monstrous shape", and that "Two
different natures, man and bull, were joined in him".
Philochorus, however, says that the Cretans do not admit this, but
declare that the Labyrinth was a dungeon, with no other inconvenience than that
its prisoners could not escape; and that Minos instituted funeral games in honor
of Androgeos, and as prizes for the victors, gave these Athenian youth, who were
in the meantime imprisoned in the Labyrinth and that the victor in the first games
was the man who had the greatest power at that time under Minos, and was his general,
Taurus by name, who was not reasonable and gentle in his disposition, but treated
the Athenian youth with arrogance and cruelty. And Aristotle himself also, in
his Constitution of Bottiaea, clearly does not think that these youths were put
to death by Minos, but that they spent the rest of their lives as slaves in Crete.
And he says that the Cretans once, in fulfillment of an ancient vow, sent an offering
of their first-born to Delphi, and that some descendants of those Athenians were
among the victims, and went forth with them; and that when they were unable to
support themselves there, they first crossed over into Italy and dwelt in that
country round about Iapygia, and from there journeyed again into Thrace and were
called Bottiaeans; and that this was the reason why the maidens of Bottiaea, in
performing a certain sacrifice, sing as an accompaniment "To Athens let us
go!"
And verily it seems to be a grievous thing for a man to be at enmity
with a city which has a language and a literature. For Minos was always abused
and reviled in the Attic theaters, and it did not avail him either that Hesiod
called him "most royal," or that Homer styled him "a confidant
of Zeus," but the tragic poets prevailed, and from platform and stage showered
obloquy down upon him, as a man of cruelty and violence. And yet they say that
Minos was a king and lawgiver, and that Rhadamanthus was a judge under him, and
a guardian of the principles of justice defined by him.
Accordingly, when the time came for the third tribute, and it was
necessary for the fathers who had youthful sons to present them for the lot, fresh
accusations against Aegeus arose among the people, who were full of sorrow and
vexation that he who was the cause of all their trouble alone had no share in
the punishment, but devolved the kingdom upon a bastard and foreign son, and suffered
them to be left destitute and bereft of legitimate children. These things troubled
Theseus, who, thinking it right not to disregard but to share in the fortune of
his fellow-citizens, came forward and offered himself independently of the lot.
The citizens admired his noble courage and were delighted with his public spirit,
and Aegeus, when he saw that his son was not to be won over or turned from his
purpose by prayers and entreaties, cast the lots for the rest of the youths.
Hellanicus, however, says that the city did not send its young men
and maidens by lot, but that Minos himself used to come and pick them out, and
that he now pitched upon Theseus first of all, following the terms agreed upon.
And he says the agreement was that the Athenians should furnish the ship, and
that the youths should embark and sail with him carrying no warlike weapon, and
that if the Minotaur was killed the penalty should cease.
On the two former occasions, then, no hope of safety was entertained,
and therefore they sent the ship with a black sail, convinced that their youth
were going to certain destruction; but now Theseus encouraged his father and loudly
boasted that he would master the Minotaur, so that he gave the pilot another sail,
a white one, ordering him, if he returned with Theseus safe, to hoist the white
sail, but otherwise to sail with the black one, and so indicate the affliction.
Simonides, however, says that the sail given by Aegeus was not white,
but ?a scarlet sail dyed with the tender flower of luxuriant holm-oak,? and that
he made this a token of their safety. Moreover, the pilot of the ship was Phereclus,
son of Amarsyas, as Simonides says; but Philochorus says that Theseus got from
Scirus of Salamis Nausithous for his pilot, and Phaeax for his look-out man, the
Athenians at that time not yet being addicted to the sea, and that Scirus did
him this favour because one of the chosen youths, Menesthes, was his daughter's
son. And there is evidence for this in the memorial chapels for Nausithous and
Phaeax which Theseus built at Phalerum near the temple of Scirus, and they say
that the festival of the Cybernesia, or Pilot's Festival, is celebrated in their
honor.
When the lot was cast, Theseus took those upon whom it fell from the
prytaneium and went to the Delphinium, where he dedicated to Apollo in their behalf
his suppliant's badge. This was a bough from the sacred olive-tree, wreathed with
white wool. Having made his vows and prayers, he went down to the sea on the sixth
day of the month Munychion, on which day even now the Athenians still send their
maidens to the Delphinium to propitiate the god. And it is reported that the god
at Delphi commanded him in an oracle to make Aphrodite his guide, and invite her
to attend him on his journey, and that as he sacrificed the usual she-goat to
her by the sea-shore, it became a he-goat (tragos) all at once, for which reason
the goddess has the surname Epitragia.
When he reached Crete on his voyage, most historians and poets tell
us that he got from Ariadne, who had fallen in love with him, the famous thread,
and that having been instructed by her how to make his way through the intricacies
of the Labyrinth, he slew the Minotaur and sailed off with Ariadne and the youths.
And Pherecydes says that Theseus also staved in the bottoms of the Cretan ships,
thus depriving them of the power to pursue. And Demon says also that Taurus, the
general of Minos, was killed in a naval battle in the harbor as Theseus was sailing
out. But as Philochorus tells the story, Minos was holding the funeral games,
and Taurus was expected to conquer all his competitors in them, as he had done
before, and was grudged his success. For his disposition made his power hateful,
and he was accused of too great intimacy with Pasiphae. Therefore when Theseus
asked the privilege of entering the lists, it was granted him by Minos. And since
it was the custom in Crete for women to view the games, Ariadne was present, and
was smitten with the appearance of Theseus, as well as filled with admiration
for his athletic prowess, when he conquered all his opponents. Minos also was
delighted with him, especially because he conquered Taurus in wrestling and disgraced
him, and therefore gave back the youths to Theseus, besides remitting its tribute
to the city.
Cleidemus, however, gives a rather peculiar and ambitious account
of these matters, beginning a great way back. There was, he says, a general Hellenic
decree that no trireme should sail from any port with a larger crew than five
men, and the only exception was Jason, the commander of the Argo, who sailed about
scouring the sea of pirates. Now when Daedalus fled from Crete in a merchant-vessel
to Athens, Minos, contrary to the decrees, pursued him with his ships of war,
and was driven from his course by a tempest to Sicily, where he ended his life.
And when Deucalion, his son, who was on hostile terms with the Athenians, sent
to them a demand that they deliver up Daedalus to him, and threatened, if they
refused, to put to death the youth whom Minos had received from them as hostages,
Theseus made him a gentle reply, declining to surrender Daedalus, who was his
kinsman and cousin, being the son of Merope, the daughter of Erechtheus. But privately
he set himself to building a fleet, part of it at home in the township of Thymoetadae,
far from the public road, and part of it under the direction of Pittheus in Troezen,
wishing his purpose to remain concealed. When his ships were ready, he set sail,
taking Daedalus and exiles from Crete as his guides, and since none of the Cretans
knew of his design, but thought the approaching ships to be friendly, Theseus
made himself master of the harbor, disembarked his men, and got to Gnossus before
his enemies were aware of his approach. Then joining battle with them at the gate
of the Labyrinth, he slew Deucalion and his body-guard. And since Ariadne was
now at the head of affairs, he made a truce with her, received back the youthful
hostages, and established friendship between the Athenians and the Cretans, who
took oath never to begin hostilities.
There are many other stories about these matters, and also about Ariadne,
but they do not agree at all. Some say that she hung herself because she was abandoned
by Theseus; others that she was conveyed to Naxos by sailors and there lived with
Oenarus the priest of Dionysus, and that she was abandoned by Theseus because
he loved another woman: "Dreadful indeed was his passion for Aigle child of Panopeus".
This verse Peisistratus expunged from the poems of Hesiod, according to
Hereas the Megarian, just as, on the other hand, he inserted into the Inferno
of Homer the verse: "Theseus, Peirithous, illustrious children of Heaven", (Hom. Od. 11.631)
and all to gratify the Athenians. Moreover, some say that Ariadne actually had
sons by Theseus, Oenopion and Staphylus, and among these is Ion of Chios, who
says of his own native city: "This, once, Theseus's son founded, Oenopion.
Now the most auspicious of these legendary tales are in the mouths
of all men, as I may say; but a very peculiar account of these matters is published
by Paeon the Amathusian. He says that Theseus, driven out of his course by a storm
to Cyprus, and having with him Ariadne, who was big with child and in sore sickness
and distress from the tossing of the sea, set her on shore alone, but that he
himself, while trying to succour the ship, was borne out to sea again. The women
of the island, accordingly, took Ariadne into their care, and tried to comfort
her in the discouragement caused by her loneliness, brought her forged letters
purporting to have been written to her by Theseus, ministered to her aid during
the pangs of travail, and gave her burial when she died before her child was born.
Paeon says further that Theseus came back, and was greatly afflicted, and left
a sum of money with the people of the island, enjoining them to sacrifice to Ariadne,
and caused two little statuettes to be set up in her honor, one of silver, and
one of bronze. He says also that at the sacrifice in her honor on the second day
of the month Gorpiaeus, one of their young men lies down and imitates the cries
and gestures of women in travail; and that they call the grove in which they show
her tomb, the grove of Ariadne Aphrodite.
Some of the Naxians also have a story of their own, that there were
two Minoses and two Ariadnes, one of whom, they say, was married to Dionysus in
Naxos and bore him Staphylus and his brother, and the other, of a later time,
having been carried off by Theseus and then abandoned by him, came to Naxos, accompanied
by a nurse named Corcyne, whose tomb they show; and that this Ariadne also died
there, and has honors paid her unlike those of the former, for the festival of
the first Ariadne is celebrated with mirth and revels, but the sacrifices performed
in honor of the second are attended with sorrow and mourning.
On his voyage from Crete, Theseus put in at Delos, and having sacrificed
to the god and dedicated in his temple the image of Aphrodite which he had received
from Ariadne, he danced with his youths a dance which they say is still performed
by the Delians, being an imitation of the circling passages in the Labyrinth,
and consisting of certain rhythmic involutions and evolutions. This kind of dance,
as Dicaearchus tells us, is called by the Delians The Crane, and Theseus danced
it round the altar called Keraton, which is constructed of horns (kerata) taken
entirely from the left side of the head. They say that he also instituted athletic
contests in Delos, and that the custom was then begun by him of giving a palm
to the victors.
It is said, moreover, that as they drew nigh the coast of Attica,
Theseus himself forgot, and his pilot forgot, such was their joy and exultation,
to hoist the sail which was to have been the token of their safety to Aegeus,
who therefore, in despair, threw himself down from the rock and was dashed in
pieces. But Theseus, putting in to shore, sacrificed in person the sacrifices
which he had vowed to the gods at Phalerum when he set sail, and then dispatched
a herald to the city to announce his safe return. The messenger found many of
the people bewailing the death of their king, and others full of joy at his
tidings, as was natural, and eager to welcome him and crown him with garlands
for his good news. The garlands, then, he accepted, and twined them about his
herald's staff and on returning to the sea-shore, finding that Theseus had not
yet made his libations to the gods, remained outside the sacred precincts, not
wishing to disturb the sacrifice. But when the libations were made, he announced
the death of Aegeus. Thereupon, with tumultuous lamentation, they went up in
haste to the city. Whence it is, they say, that to this day, at the festival
of the Oschophoria, it is not the herald that is crowned, but his herald's staff,
and those who are present at the libations cry out: "Eleleu! Iou! Iou!"
the first of which cries is the exclamation of eager haste and triumph, the
second of consternation and confusion.
This extract is from: Plutarch's Lives (ed. Bernadotte Perrin, 1914). Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
A brazen man, the work of Hephaestus, and given by Zeus to Minos, king of Crete, to watch that island, which he did by walking about it three times every day. When strangers approached he heated himself red hot and then embraced them, or, according to another version, threw showers of stones upon them. He had one vein in his body through which his blood ran and was stopped by a nail or plug in his foot. This plug Medea drew out by magic, and he bled to death.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
nbsp; The name of the Talaea Mountains refers to the giant Talos, who played an important role in Cretan mythology. Talos was the guardian of the island of Crete. He circumnavigated it three times a day in order to protect it from intruders. This giant, who was made of bronze and had a unique vein running from his neck to his heel, was invention of Hephaestus. Talos was unarmed, however he was able to hurl enormous rocks at hostile vessels when they approached Crete, while at the same time his bronze body glowed so that everything he touched was destroyed by fire. He was also responsible for the laws being obeyed in the country. During his walks through the island he was holding the plaques in his hands, on which the laws were written. This mythical giant would never have died, if it had not been for the Argonauts who passed the island on the vessel "Argo" and Medea, the witch, who helped them escape Talos' destructive blow. She kept him immobile so that she could approach him and take away the small bronze pin at his heel, which sealed the unique vein of his body. Thus the "blood of the gods" ran from his body and the hero collapsed.
This text is cited Nov 2003 from the Tourism Promotion Committee of Rethymno Prefecture URL below, which contains image.
(Argonauts) putting to sea from there (Anaphi), they were hindered from touching
at Crete by Talos. Some say that he was a man of the Brazen Race, others that
he was given to Minos by Hephaestus; he was a brazen man, but some say that he
was a bull. He had a single vein extending from his neck to his ankles, and a
bronze nail was rammed home at the end of the vein. This Talos kept guard, running
round the island thrice every day; wherefore, when he saw the Argo standing inshore,
he pelted it as usual with stones. His death was brought about by the wiles of
Medea, whether, as some say, she drove him mad by drugs, or, as others say, she
promised to make him immortal and then drew out the nail, so that all the ichor
gushed out and he died. But some say that Poeas shot him dead in the ankle.
Commentary: Talos would seem to have been a bronze image of the sun represented
as a man with a bull's head. In his account of the death of Talos our author again
differs from Apollonius Rhodius, according to whom Talos perished through grazing
his ankle against a jagged rock, so that all the ichor in his body gushed out.
This incident seems to have been narrated by Sophocles in one of his plays (Scholiast
on Ap. Rhod., Argon. iv.1638; The Fragments of Sophocles, ed. A. C. Pearson, i.110ff.).
The account, mentioned by Apollodorus, which referred the death of Talos to the
spells of Medea, is illustrated by a magnificent vase-painting, in the finest
style, which represents Talos swooning to death in presence of the Argonauts,
while the enchantress Medea stands by, gazing grimly at her victim and holding
in one hand a basket from which she seems to be drawing with the other the fatal
herbs.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Talos : Various WebPages
The seventh labour he enjoined on him was to bring the Cretan bull. Acusilaus says that this was the bull that ferried across Europa for Zeus; but some say it was the bull that Poseidon sent up from the sea when Minos promised to sacrifice to Poseidon what should appear out of the sea. And they say that when he saw the beauty of the bull he sent it away to the herds and sacrificed another to Poseidon; at which the god was angry and made the bull savage. To attack this bull Hercules came to Crete, and when, in reply to his request for aid, Minos told him to fight and catch the bull for himself, he caught it and brought it to Eurystheus, and having shown it to him he let it afterwards go free. But the bull roamed to Sparta and all Arcadia, and traversing the Isthmus arrived at Marathon in Attica and harried the inhabitants.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
The land of the Cretans and especially that by the river Tethris was ravaged by a bull. It would seem that in the days of old the beasts were much more formidable to men, for example the Nemean lion, the lion of Parnassus, the serpents in many parts of Greece, and the boars of Calydon, Eryrmanthus and Crommyon in the land of Corinth, so that it was said that some were sent up by the earth, that others were sacred to the gods, while others had been let loose to punish mankind. And so the Cretans say that this bull was sent by Poseidon to their land because, although Minos was lord of the Greek Sea, he did not worship Poseidon more than any other god. They say that this bull crossed from Crete to the Peloponnesus, and came to be one of what are called the Twelve Labours of Heracles. When he was let loose on the Argive plain he fled through the isthmus of Corinth, into the land of Attica as far as the Attic parish of Marathon, killing all he met, including Androgeos, son of Minos. Minos sailed against Athens with a fleet, not believing that the Athenians were innocent of the death of Androgeos, and sorely harassed them until it was agreed that he should take seven maidens and seven boys for the Minotaur that was said to dwell in the Labyrinth at Cnossus. But the bull at Marathon Theseus is said to have driven afterwards to the Acropolis and to have sacrificed to the goddess; the offering commemorating this deed was dedicated by the parish of Marathon.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
After the complicated business with the Stymphalian Birds, Hercules
easily disposed of the Cretan Bull.
At that time, Minos, King of Crete, controlled many of the islands
in the seas around Greece, and was such a powerful ruler that the Athenians sent
him tribute every year. There are many bull stories about Crete. Zeus, in the
shape of a bull, had carried Minos' mother Europa to Crete, and the Cretans were
fond of the sport of bull-leaping, in which contestants grabbed the horns of a
bull and were thrown over its back.
Minos himself, in order to prove his claim to the throne, had promised
the sea-god Poseidon that he would sacrifice whatever the god sent him from the
sea. Poseidon sent a bull, but Minos thought it was too beautiful to kill, and
so he sacrificed another bull. Poseidon was furious with Minos for breaking his
promise. In his anger, he made the bull rampage all over Crete, and caused Minos'
wife Pasiphae to fall in love with the animal. As a result, Pasiphae gave birth
to the Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. Minos
had to shut up this beast in the Labyrinth, a huge maze underneath the palace,
and every year he fed it prisoners from Athens.
When Hercules got to Crete, he easily wrestled the bull to the ground
and drove it back to King Eurystheus. Eurystheus let the bull go free. It wandered
around Greece, terrorizing the people, and ended up in Marathon, a city near Athens.
The Athenian hero Theseus tied up some loose ends of this story. He
killed the Cretan Bull at Marathon. Later, he sailed to Crete, found his way to
the center of the Labyrinth, and killed the Minotaur.
This text is cited July 2004 from Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Heracles. 7. The Cretan bull. According to Acusilaus, this bull was the same as the one which had carried Europa across the sea; according to others, he had been sent out of the sea by Poseidon, that Minos might sacrifice him to the god of the sea. But Minos was so charmed with the beauty of the animal, that he kept it, and sacrificed another in its stead. Poseidon punished Minos, by making the fine bull mad, and causing it to make great havoc in the island. Heracles was ordered by Eurystheus to catch the bull, and Minos, of course, willingly allowed him to do so. Heracles accomplished the task, and brought the bull home on his shoulders, but he then set the animal free again. The bull now roamed about through Greece, and at last came to Marathon, where we meet it again in the stories of Theseus. (Apollod. ii. 5.7; Paus. i. 27. 9, v. 10.2; Hygin. Fab. 30; Diod. iv. 13, &c.; Serv. ad Aen. viii. 294.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
When Minos was taking Theseus and the rest of the company of young folk to Crete he fell in love with Periboea, and on meeting with determined opposition from Theseus, hurled insults at him and denied that he was a son of Poseidon, since he could not recover for him the signet-ring, which he happened to be wearing, if he threw it into the sea. With these words Minos is said to have thrown the ring, but they say that Theseus came up from the sea with that ring and also with a gold crown that Amphitrite gave him.
Son of Minos and Pasiphae, drowned in a jar of honey, brought to life by a magic herb, taught the art of divination by Polyidus, but forgets it, raised from the dead by Aesculapius.
Glaucus, while he was yet a child, in chasing a mouse fell into a
jar of honey and was drowned. On his disappearance Minos made a great search and
consulted diviners as to how he should find him. The Curetes told him that in
his herds he had a cow of three different colors, and that the man who could best
describe that cow's color would also restore his son to him alive. So when the
diviners were assembled, Polyidus, son of Coeranus, compared the color of the
cow to the fruit of the bramble, and being compelled to seek for the child he
found him by means of a sort of divination. But Minos declaring that he must recover
him alive, he was shut up with the dead body. And while he was in great perplexity,
he saw a serpent going towards the corpse. He threw a stone and killed it, fearing
to be killed himself if any harm befell the body. But another serpent came, and,
seeing the former one dead, departed, and then returned, bringing a herb, and
placed it on the whole body of the other; and no sooner was the herb so placed
upon it than the dead serpent came to life. Surprised at this sight, Polyidus
applied the same herb to the body of Glaucus and raised him from the dead.6
Minos had now got back his son, but even so he did not suffer Polyidus to depart
to Argos until he had taught Glaucus the art of divination. Polyidus taught him
on compulsion, and when he was sailing away he bade Glaucus spit into his mouth.
Glaucus did so and forgot the art of divination.
Commentary:
1. The cow or calf (for so Hyginus describes it) was said to change colour twice
a day, or once every four hours, being first white, then red, and then black.
The diviner Polyidus solved the riddle by comparing the colour of the animal to
a ripening mulberry, which is first white, then red, and finally black.
2. Coeranus is said to have discovered the drowned boy by observing an owl which
had perched on a wine-cellar and was driving away bees.
3. According to another account (Apoll. 3.10.3) , Glaucus was raised from the dead by Aesculapius.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Glaucus. One of the sons of the Cretan king Minos by Pasiphae or Crete. When yet a boy, while he was playing at ball (Hygin. Fab 136), or while pursuing a mouse (Apollod. iii. 3.1, &c.), he fell into a cask full of honey, and died in it. Minos for a long time searched after his son in vain, and was at length informed by Apollo or the Curetes that the person who should devise the most appropriate comparison between a cow, which could assume three different colours, and any other object, should find the boy and restore him to his father. Minos assembled his soothsayers, but as none of them was able to do what was required, a stranger, Polyidus of Argos, solved the problem by likening the cow to a mulberry, which is at first white, then red, and in the end black. Polyidus, who knew nothing of the oracle, was thus compelled by his own wisdom to restore Glaucus to his father. By his prophetic powers he discovered that Glaucus had not perished in the sea, and being guided by an owl (glaux) and bees, he found him in the cask of honey. (Aelian, H. A. v. 2.) Minos now further demanded the restoration of his son to life. As Polyidus could not accomplish this, Minos, who attributed his refusal to obstinacy, ordered him to be entombed alive with the body of Glaucus. When Polyidus was thus shut up in the vault, he saw a serpent approaching the dead body, and killed the animal. Presently another serpent came, carrying a herb, with which it covered the dead serpent. The dead serpent was thereby restored to life, and when Polyidus covered the body of Glaucus with the same herb, the boy at once rose into life again. Both shouted for assistance from without; and when Minos heard of it, he had the tomb opened. In his delight at having recovered his child, he munificently rewarded Polyidus, and sent him back to his country. (Comp. Tzetz. ad Lycoph. 811; Palaephat. 27; Apollod. iii. 10.3; Schol. ad Eurip. Alcest.; Hygin. P. A. ii. 14; Schol. ad Pind. Pyth. iii. 96.) The story of the Cretan Glaucus and Polyidus was a favourite subject with the ancient poets and artists; it was not only represented in mimic dances (Lucian, de Saltat. 49), but Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides made it the subject of separate dramatic compositions. (Welcker, Die Griech. Tragoed. vol. i., vol. ii.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Prince of Crete, marries Europa, dies childless, father of Crete, according to Asclepiades.
Creteus (Kreteus) or Catreus (Katreus), a son of Minos by Pasiphae or Crete, and king of Crete. He is renowned in ancient story on account of his tragic death by the hand of his own son, Althemenes. (Apollod. ii. 1.2, iii. 1.2; Diod. iv. 59; Paus. viii. 53.2)
And in the tenth month the bride with beautiful hair bore Euxantius, to be ruler over the glorious island daughters city cut deep by the sun's rays.
(...)Palamedes, the son of Nauplius and Clymene daughter of Catreus, had been stoned to death through the machinations of Ulysses. And when Nauplius learned of it, he sailed to the Greeks and claimed satisfaction for the death of his son; but when he returned unsuccessful ( for they all favoured King Agamemnon, who had been the accomplice of Ulysses in the murder of Palamedes), he coasted along the Grecian lands and contrived that the wives of the Greeks should play their husbands false, Clytaemnestra with Aegisthus, Aegialia with Cometes, son of Sthenelus, and Meda, wife of Idomeneus, with Leucus. But Leucus killed her, together with her daughter Clisithyra, who had taken refuge in the temple; and having detached ten cities from Crete he made himself tyrant of them; and when after the Trojan war Idomeneus landed in Crete, Leucus drove him out.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Androgeos. A son of Minos, king of Crete, by Pasiphae. Visiting Athens at the first celebration of the Panathenaea, he won victories over all the champions, when King Aegeus, out of jealousy, sent him to fight the bull of Marathon, which killed him. According to another account he was slain in an ambush. Minos avenged his son by making the Athenians send seven youths and seven maidens every nine years as victims of the Minotaur.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Androgeus (Androgeos), a son of Minos and Pasiphae, or Crete, who is said to have conquered all his opponents in the games of the Panathenaea at Athens. This extraordinary good luck, however, became the cause of his destruction, though the mode of his death is related differently. According to some accounts Aegeus sent the man he dreaded to fight against the Marathonian bull, who killed him; according to others, he was assassinated by his defeated rivals on his road to Thebes, whither he was going to take part in a solemn contest (Apollod. iii. 1.2, 15.7; Paus. i. 27.9). According to Diodorus (iv. 60) it was Aegeus himself who had him murdered near Oenoe, on the road to Thebes, because he feared lest Androgeus should support the sons of Pallas against him. Hyginus (Fab. 41) makes him fall in a battle during the war of his father Minos against the Athenians (See some different accounts in Plut. Thes. 15; Serv. ad Aen. vi. 14). But the common tradition is, that Minos made war on the Athenians in consequence of the death of his son. Propertius (ii. 1. 64) relates that Androgeus was restored to life by Aesculapius. He was worshipped in Attica as a hero, an altar was erected to him in the port of Phalerus (Paus. i. 1.4), and games, androgeonia, were celebrated in his honour every year in the Cerameicus (see Androgeonia.) He was also worshipped under the name Eurugues, i. e. he who ploughs or possesses extensive fields, whence it has been inferred that originally Androgeus was worshipped as the introducer of agriculture into Attica.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited July 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Aegeus... celebrated the games of the Panathenian festival, in which Androgeus,
son of Minos, vanquished all comers. Him Aegeus sent against the bull of Marathon,
by which he was destroyed. But some say that as he journeyed to Thebes to take
part in the games in honor of Laius, he was waylaid and murdered by the jealous
competitors.But when the tidings of his death were brought to Minos, as he was
sacrificing to the Graces in Paros, he threw away the garland from his head and
stopped the music of the flute, but nevertheless completed the sacrifice; hence
down to this day they sacrifice to the Graces in Paros without flutes and garlands.
Cimmentary: This account of the murder of Androgeus is repeated almost
verbally by the Scholiast on Plat. Minos 321a. Compare Diod. 4.60.4ff.; Zenobius,
Cent. iv.6; Scholiast on Hom. Il. xviii.590. All these writers mention the distinction
won by Androgeus in the athletic contests of the Panathenian festival as the ultimate
ground of his undoing. Serv. Verg. A. 6.14 and Lactantius Placidus on Statius,
Achill. 192 say that, as an eminent athlete who beat all competitors in the games,
Androgeus was murdered at Athens by Athenian and Megarian conspirators. Paus.
1.27.10 mentions the killing of Androgeus by the Marathonian bull. According to
Hyginus, Fab. 41, Androgeus was killed in battle during the war which his father
Minos waged with the Athenians.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Another deed of Theseus they have represented in an offering, and the story about it is as follows: The land of the Cretans and especially that by the river Tethris was ravaged by a bull. It would seem that in the days of old the beasts were much more formidable to men, for example the Nemean lion, the lion of Parnassus, the serpents in many parts of Greece, and the boars of Calydon, Eryrmanthus and Crommyon in the land of Corinth, so that it was said that some were sent up by the earth, that others were sacred to the gods, while others had been let loose to punish mankind. And so the Cretans say that this bull was sent by Poseidon to their land because, although Minos was lord of the Greek Sea, he did not worship Poseidon more than any other god. They say that this bull crossed from Crete to the Peloponnesus, and came to be one of what are called the Twelve Labours of Heracles. When he was let loose on the Argive plain he fled through the isthmus of Corinth, into the land of Attica as far as the Attic parish of Marathon, killing all he met, including Androgeos, son of Minos. Minos sailed against Athens with a fleet, not believing that the Athenians were innocent of the death of Androgeos, and sorely harassed them until it was agreed that he should take seven maidens and seven boys for the Minotaur that was said to dwell in the Labyrinth at Cnossus. But the bull at Marathon Theseus is said to have driven afterwards to the Acropolis and to have sacrificed to the goddess; the offering commemorating this deed was dedicated by the parish of Marathon.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Catreus, son of Minos, had three daughters, Aerope, Clymene, and Apemosyne, and a son, Althaemenes. When Catreus inquired of the oracle how his life should end, the god said that he would die by the hand of one of his children. Now Catreus hid the oracles, but Althaemenes heard of them, and fearing to be his father's murderer, he set out from Crete with his sister Apemosyne, and put in at a place in Rhodes, and having taken possession of it he called it Cretinia. And having ascended the mountain called Atabyrium, he beheld the islands round about; and descrying Crete also and calling to mind the gods of his fathers he founded an altar of Atabyrian Zeus. But not long afterwards he [p. 309] became the murderer of his sister. For Hermes loved her, and as she fled from him and he could not catch her, because she excelled him in speed of foot, he spread fresh hides on the path, on which, returning from the spring, she slipped and so was deflowered. She revealed to her brother what had happened, but he, deeming the god a mere pretext, kicked her to death.
This extract is from: Apollodorus, Library and Epitome (ed. Sir James George Frazer, 1921). Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
Daughter of king Minos and queen Pasiphae of Crete.
Apollo fell in love with her and seduced her, and she bore him two
sons: Amphithemis and Garamas. Because of this, Minos banished Acacallis to Libya.
There, she was seduced by Zeus and bore him the son Ammon. Later, Hermes seduced
her, and by him she had Cydon, who went to Crete
and became the founder of the town Cydonia
on the island.
On Crete they called
the flower Narcissus Acacallis.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
Acacallis (Akakallis), daughter of Minos, by whom, according to a Cretan tradition, Hermes begot Cydon; while according to a tradition of the Tegeatans, Cydon was a son of Tegeates, and immigrated to Crete from Tegea (Paus. viii. 53.2). Apollo begot by her a son Miletus, whom, for fear of her father, Acacallis exposed in a forest, where wolves watched and suckled the child, until he was found by shepherds who brought him up (Antonin. Lib. 30). Other sons of her and Apollo are Amphithemis and Garamas (Apollon. iv. 1490, &c.). Apollodorus (iii. 1.2) calls this daughter of Minos Acalle (Akalle), but does not mention Miletus as her son. Acacallis was in Crete a common name for a narcissus. (Athen. xv.; Hesych. s. v.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Concubine of Minos, mother of Euxanthius
A nymph, a concubine of Minos. He begat with her sons Eurymedon, Nephalion, Chryses, and Philolaus
There are several cities in Crete, but the greatest and most famous
are three: Cnossus, Gortyna and Cydonia. The praises of Cnossus are hymned above
the rest both by Homer, who calls it "great" and "the kingdom of Minos," and by
the later poets. Furthermore, it continued for a long time to win the first honors;
then it was humbled and deprived of many of its prerogatives, and its superior
rank passed over to Gortyna and Lyctus; but later it again recovered its olden
dignity as the metropolis. Cnossus is situated in a plain, its original circuit
being thirty stadia, between the Lyctian and Gortynian territories, being two
hundred stadia distant from Gortyna, and a hundred and twenty from Lyttus, which
the poet named Lyctus. Cnossus is twenty-five stadia from the northern sea, Gortyna
is ninety from the Libyan Sea, and Lyctus itself is eighty from the Libyan. And
Cnossus has Heracleium as its seaport.
But Minos is said to have used as seaport Amnisus, where is the temple
of Eileithuia. In earlier times Cnossus was called Caeratus, bearing the same
name as the river which flows past it. According to history, Minos was an excellent
law-giver, and also the first to gain the mastery of the sea; and he divided the
island into three parts and founded a city in each part, Cnossus in the . . .(Comm.
1) And it (Cydonia), too, lies to the north. As Ephorus states, Minos was an emulator
of a certain Rhadamanthys of early times, a man most just and bearing the same
name as Minos's brother, who is reputed to have been the first to civilize the
island by establishing laws and by uniting cities under one city as metropolis
and by setting up constitutions, alleging that he brought from Zeus the several
decrees which he promulgated. So, in imitation of Rhadamanthys, Minos would go
up every nine years, as it appears, to the cave of Zeus, tarry there, and come
back with commandments drawn up in writing, which he alleged were ordinances of
Zeus; and it was for this reason that the poet says, "there Minos reigned
as king, who held converse with great Zeus every ninth year (Hom.Od. 19.178) (Comm.
2)
Such is the statement of Ephorus; but again the early writers have
given a different account of Minos, which is contrary to that of Ephorus, saying
that he was tyrannical, harsh, and an exactor of tribute, representing in tragedy
the story of the Minotaur and the Labyrinth, and the adventures of Theseus and
Daedalus.
Now, as for these two accounts, it is hard to say which is true; and
there is another subject that is not agreed upon by all, some saying that Minos
was a foreigner, but others that he was a native of the island. The poet, however,
seems rather to advocate the second view when he says, " Zeus first begot
Minos, guardian o'er Crete (Hom.Il 13.450).
In regard to Crete, writers agree that in ancient times it had good
laws, and rendered the best of the Greeks its emulators, and in particular the
Lacedaemonians, as is shown, for instance, by Plato and also by Ephorus, who in
his Europe has described its constitution. But later it changed very much for
the worse; for after the Tyrrhenians, who more than any other people ravaged Our
Sea, the Cretans succeeded to the business of piracy; their piracy was later destroyed
by the Cilicians; but all piracy was broken up by the Romans, who reduced Crete
by war and also the piratical strongholds of the Cilicians. And at the present
time Cnossus has even a colony of Romans.
So much for Cnossus, a city to which I myself am not alien, although,
on account of man's fortune and of the changes and issues therein, the bonds which
at first connected me with the city have disappeared: Dorylaus was a military
expert and one of the friends of Mithridates Euergetes. He, because of his experience
in military affairs, was appointed to enlist mercenaries, and often visited not
only Greece and Thrace, but also the mercenaries of Crete, that is, before the
Romans were yet in possession of the island and while the number of mercenary
soldiers in the island, from whom the piratical bands were also wont to be recruited,
was large. Now when Dorylaus was sojourning there war happened to break out between
the Cnossians and the Gortynians, and he was appointed general, finished the war
successfully, and speedily won the greatest honors. But when, a little later,
he learned that Euergetes, as the result of a plot, had been treacherously slain
in Sinope by his closest associates, and heard that the succession had passed
to his wife and young children, he despaired of the situation there and stayed
on at Cnossus. There, by a Macetan woman, Sterope by name, he begot two sons,
Lagetas and Stratarchas (the latter of whom l myself saw when he was an extremely
old man), and also one daughter. Now Euergetes had two sons, one of whom, Mithridates,
surnamed Eupator, succeeded to the rule when he was eleven years old. Dorylaus,
the son of Philetaerus, was his foster brother; and Philotaerus was a brother
of Dorylaus the military expert. And when the king Mithridates reached manhood,
he was so infatuated with the companionship of his foster brother Dorylaus that
he not only conferred upon him the greatest honors, but also cared for his kinsmen
and summoned those who lived at Cnossus. These were the household of Lagetas and
his brother, their father having already died, and they themselves having reached
manhood; and they quit Cnossus and went home. My mother's mother was the sister
of Lagetas. Now when Lagetas prospered, these others shared in his prosperity,
but when he was ruined (for he was caught in the act of trying to cause the kingdom
to revolt to the Romans, on the understanding that he was to be established at
the head of the government), their fortunes were also ruined at the same time,
and they were reduced to humility; and the bonds which connected them with the
Cnossians, who themselves had undergone countless changes, fell into neglect.
But enough for my account of Cnossus.
Commentary
1. The thought, if not the actual Greek words, of the passage here omitted from
the Greek MSS. can be supplied from Diod. Sic. 5.78, who, like Strabo, depends
much upon Ephorus for historical material: "(Cnossus in the) part of the
island which inclines towards Asia, Phaestus on the sea, turned towards the south,
and Cydonia in the region which lies towards the west, opposite the Peloponnesus".
2. Five different interpretations of this passage have been set forth, dependent
on the meaning and syntax of enneoros: that Minos (1) reigned as king for nine
years, (2) was nine years old when he became king, (3) for nine years held converse
with Zeus, (4) every nine years held converse with Zeus, and (5) reigned as king
when he had come to mature age. (Paus. 3.2.4 adopts the first. Heracleides of
Pontus On the Cretan Constitutions seems to have adopted the third, saying that
Minos spent nine years formulating his laws. But Plat. Minos 319c and Plat. Laws
624d says that Minos visited the cave of his father "every ninth year";
and Strabo (as 16. 2. 38 shows) expressly follows Plato. Hence the above rendering
of the Homeric passage. Apart from the above interpretations, Eustathius (note
on Odyssey 10.19, on a different passage) suggests that enneoros might pertain
to "nine seasons, that is, two years and one month" (the "one month,"
however, instead of "one season," seems incongruous). This suggests
that the present passage might mean that Minos held converse with Zeus during
a period of one season every other year.
The site is best known
for its great Minoan palace and deep Neolithic deposits, but it was a flourishing
city in the Geometric and archaic periods and during the Classical and Hellenistic
eras it was again the principal city of the island. In the 4th and 3d c. it was
frequently at war with Lyttos, and after the destruction of Lyttos in the late
3d c. B.C., it was intermittently at war with Gortyn. The Roman invasion, which
Knossos resisted, resulted in the elevation of Gortyn to be capital of the island,
but Knossos was made a colony (Colonia Julia Nobilis) in 36 B.C., and was occupied
as a prosperous city continuously up to the early Byzantine period. There is some
evidence for a temporary decline in the early 3d c. A.D.
The Geometric and archaic cities were situated N of the Minoan palace
and settlement, and the Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman cities remained in this
same area, eventually covering a little less than a square km. Little is known
of the Classical and Hellenistic towns, although temples on the old palace site,
on Lower Gypsades, and on or near the foot of the acropolis hill all seem to belong
to the 5th or 4th c. That by the acropolis hill is known mainly from a fine metope
relief showing Herakles and Eurystheus. The agora too, lying at the center of
the city, was probably already sited by the Classical period.
In the Roman period the agora was flanked on the W by a large basilica,
while to the S stood another public building often identified as a temple but
possibly the public baths. The basilica, like much else at Knossos, may not have
been built until the 2d c. A.D. Northwest of it, the remains of a small amphitheater
are known, now partially overlain by the modern road. To the W of this road, and
S of the amphitheater is the so-called Villa Dionysus. This is the best-known
and -preserved example of the wealthier Roman town houses at Knossos, most of
which are known only from fragmentary remains of walls and ill-recorded mosaics.
The villa is built around a peristyle courtyard, to the W of which is a large
square room with a mosaic showing the heads of Dionysus and maenads in medallions.
In the SW quarter of the building is a small household shrine. Recent excavations
suggest that the main period of occupation was in the 2d c. A.D. Contemporary
houses of a lower quality have recently been excavated immediately N of the Minoan
"Little Palace." Earlier Roman houses, built in the Neronian period,
were found beneath them, and around them were stretches of the narrow paved streets
which served them.
On the N edge of the city a Christian church with an E apse, nave,
and two aisles was built in the late 5th or early 6th c. It was erected over an
earlier cemetery which included tombs of the 2d to 4th c. A.D. Other cemeteries
were situated to the W and S of the city, and both dug and built tombs have been
discovered. In the S and SE slopes at the foot of the acropolis hill, rock-cut
Roman chamber tombs can still be entered.
Water was supplied to the city by an aqueduct coming from the S. Finds
from the site are found in the Herakleion Archaeological Museum and the Stratigraphical
Museum, Knossos.
K. Branigan, ed.
This text is from: The Princeton encyclopedia of classical sites,
Princeton University Press 1976. Cited Nov 2002 from
Perseus Project URL below, which contains 65 image(s), bibliography & interesting hyperlinks.
Knosos, more correct than Cnossus, Knossos, if we follow the language of coins; also Gnosus. The royal city of Crete, on the northern coast, at a small distance from the sea. Its earlier name was Caeratus, which appellation was given also to the inconsiderable stream that flowed beneath its walls. It was indebted to Minos for all its importance and splendour. That monarch is said to have divided the island into three portions, in each of which he founded a large city; and fixing his residence at Cnosus, it became the capital of the kingdom. It was here that Daedalus cultivated his art and planned the celebrated labyrinth.
This text is cited Oct 2002 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Main city of the Island of Crete,
south of the Aegean Sea.
Cnossus was the capital city of the kingdom of the legendary king
Minos, who gave his name to a highly developed civilization of the Bronze Age,
the Minoan civilization, that flourished from about 3000 to 1400 B. C. in the
island of Crete and was rediscovered
at the beginning of the century by the digs of Sir Arthur Evans (1900) who uncovered
the remnants of the palace of Cnossus. More archaeological work through this century
has allowed us to know a lot more about this civilization and the palaces that
were at the center of its organization.
If texts written in a system called Linear A used in Crete
from the XVIIIth to the XVth century B. C. have not yet been deciphered, those
more recent (XIVth to XIIth century B. C.) written in the syllabic script known
as Linear B have been deciphered in 1952 and give us a vivid picture of the life
in palaces such as that of Cnossus.
For the Greeks of classical times, Minos was the son of Zeus and Europa.
He was praised as a model lawgiver, the author of the most admired laws of Crete,
that he was said to owe Zeus himself, whom he kept visiting every nine years in
the cave of Mount Ida where
the god was born and had been raised. As a result of his justice as a king, Minos
was, along with his brother Rhadamanthus who had served as a judge in Crete,
one of the judges of the souls of the dead in Hades.
Another part of Minos' story that is worth mentioning is that of the
Minotaur. This creature, half man, half bull, was the product of the love of Minos'
wife, Pasiphae, for a bull that had been sent to Minos by Poseidon to show him
that he favored him as king of Crete
(this bull, that Minos, according to his pledge to Poseidon, should have offered
in sacrifice to the god, had been rendered furious by Poseidon after Minos broke
his vow at the sight of so beautiful an animal and decided to keep it in his flock
; known as the bull of Crete,
he was later captured by Heracles as part of his labors and brought back to Crete
where he was set free by Hera and was eventually killed by Theseus in the plain
of Marathon. When Minos saw
the result of his wife's unnatural love, he asked Daedalus to build a huge palace,
the Labyrinth, in which he locked the Minotaur up.
Later, Minos waged a war against Athens
to avenge his son Androgeus. In order to end the war, the Athenians, weakened
by famine and plague, had to accept Minos' conditions that every nine years (or
each year, according to other sources) they would send to Crete
seven youths and seven maidens as a tribute to be offered the Minotaur. It is
Theseus who put an end to this obligation: he volunteered to be part of one shipment
and, once in Crete, he killed
the Minotaur and managed to get out of the Labyrinth with the help of a thread
that Ariadne, the daughter of Minos who had fallen in love with him, had given
him before entering the maze to mark his way while proceeding. He was thus able
to bring back his companions alive to Athens.
Bernard Suzanne (page last updated 1998), ed.
This extract is cited July 2003 from the Plato and his dialogues URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Gnosus, subsequently Cnossus, or Gnossus (Knosos, Knossos, Gnossos:
Eth. and Adj. Knosios, Knossios, Gnosios, Gnossios, Gnosius, Gnosiacus, fem.
Gnosis, Gnosias: Makro-Teikho). The royal city of Crete, situated to the N. of
the island, SE. of Matium, and 23 M. P. from Gortyna (Peut. Tab.). It originally
was called Caeratus (Kairatos, Strab. x.) from the small river of that name which
flowed beneath its walls. (Callim. Hymn. Dian. v. 44.) Tritta (Hesych. s. v. Tritta),
was a name that had been some time applied to it. Pliny (iv. 20), who places Cnossus
among the inland cities, and Ptolemy (iii. 17. § 10), are quite wrong in the positions
they assign to it. Strabo's text is undoubtedly corrupt; and this may in part
serve to account for the difficulty that has been found in reconciling the statements
of this writer, who was so intimately connected with Cnossus, with the known position
of the city. Its foundation was attributed to the hero of Cretan romance, Minos,
who made it his chief residence. (Hom. Od. xix. 178). Cnossus and its neighbourhood
was the chosen seat of legend; and the whole district was peculiarly connected
with Zeus. At the river Tethris, or Theron, according to tradition, the marriage
of Zeus and Hera was celebrated. (Diod. v. 72.) The most received mythus assigned
the birth-place as well as the tombs of the Father of gods and men to this locality.
The well-known Cretan labyrinth is uniformly attached to Cnossus. It was described
as a building erected by Daedalus, and the abode of the Minotaur (Diod. i. 61;
Apollod. iii. 4). This monument could never have had any actual existence, but
must be considered simply as a work of the imagination of the later poets and
writers. The Homeric poems, Hesiod and Herodotus, are all equally silent on the
subject of this edifice. The labyrinthial. construction is essentially Aegyptian,
and it would seem probable that the natural caverns and excavated sepulchres still
to be seen near Cnossus, and which were originally used for religious worship,
suggested, after the introduction of Aegyptian mythology into Greece, the idea
of the labyrinth and its fabled occupant.
Cnossus was at an early time colonized by Dorians, and from it Dorian
institutions spread over the whole island. It preserved its rank among the chief
cities of Crete for some time, and by its alliance with Gortyna obtained the dominion
over nearly the whole island. Polybius (iv. 53) has given an account of the civil
wars which distracted Crete, and in which Cnossus took part. Afterwards it became
a Roman colony. (Strab. x.) All the now existing vestiges of the ancient metropolis
of Crete are some rude masses of Roman brick-work, parts of the so-called long
wall, from which the modern name of the site has been derived. Chersiphron, or
Ctesiphon, and his son Metagenes, the architects of the great temple of Artemis,
were natives of this city, as well as Aenesidemus the philosopher, and Ergoteles,
whose victories in the Olympian, Pythian, and Isthmian games, are celebrated by
Pindar (Olynmp. xii. 19). For coins of Cnossus, both autonomous and imperial.
The usual type is the labyrinth; the forms, since they represent only a poetical
creation, are naturally varied.
This text is from: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854) (ed. William Smith, LLD). Cited June 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Tel: +30 2810 231940
Fax: +30 2810 241515
Knossos is the heart of the Minoan civilization, according to tradition the seat of the
legendary king Minos and the birthplace of thrilling stories, such as the myths of the Labyrinth with
its Minotaur and of Daidalos and Icaros. The site was inhabited continuously from the Neolithic
period (7000-3000 BC) until the late Antiquity. The first epigraphical testimony derives from the 14th
century BC Linear B tablets, where the city is referred to as Ko-no-so. The Minoan settlement of
Knossos develops especially during the palatial era, which is defined by the periods of the Old
(19th-17th centuries BC) and New Palaces (16th-14th centuries BC) respectively. In the latter period
the Minoan civilization reaches its peak, with a vigour that is reflected at all levels: population growth
and subsequent residential expansion, economic prosperity and social complexity, flourishing of the
material culture with the palatial art reaching its apogee. In 1450 BC the palaces of Crete are destroyed
by causes, for which there is no consensus among researchers. Nevertheless, the fall of the palaces
marks the end of the Minoan civilization. Only the palace of Knossos will survive for a century still, as
the seat of the new rulers of Crete, the Mycenaeans. The city of the historical times left behind scarce
remains, mainly sanctuaries and graves; throughout Greek antiquity, Knossos will survive in the literary
sources, from the time of Homer till the Hellenistic historian Diodorus Sikeliotes, as the glorious kingdom
of the mythical Minos. Knossos flourished again during the Hellenistic period, while in 67 BC the city was
occupied by the Roman consul Quintus Caecilius Metelus Creticus and became a Roman colony. In the
medieval times, a few kilometers northwards of Knossos, would emerge the new capital of the island, the
city of Chandax, namely the contemporary Heraklion.
The location of ancient Knossos was first spotted in 1878 by the Cretan antiquarian and
merchant Minos Kalokairinos.
Arthur Evans
conducted systematic excavations at the site between 1900 and 1931, bringing to light the palace, a
large section of the Minoan city, and its cemeteries. Since then, the site and its wider region have been
excavated by the British School of Archaeology at Athens and the local Archaeological Service. The
restoration of the palace to its present form was carried out by Arthur Evans. Conservation and
consolidation works are carried out by the Archaeological Service of the Ministry of Culture, imposed
by the need to preserve and protect the monuments uncovered.
Tel: +30 2810 231993
Fax: +30 2810 238495
Tel: +44 207 8628732
Fax: +44 207 8628733
Tel: +30 210 7210974, 7292146
Fax: +30 210 7236560
Epimenides. A poet and prophet of Crete.
His father's name was Dosiades or Agesarces. We have an account of him in Diogenes
Laertius (i. c. 10), which, however, is a very uncritical mixture of heterogeneous
traditions, so that it is difficult, if not altogether imposible, to discover
its real historical substance. The mythical character of the traditions of Epimenides
is sufficiently indicated by the fact of his being called the son of a nynmph,
and of his being reckoned among the Curetes. It seems, however, pretty clear,
that he was a native of Phaestus
in Crete (Diog. Laert. i. 109;
Plut. Sol. 12; de, Defect. Orac. 1), and that he spent the greater part of his
life at Cnossus, whence he is sometimes called a Cnossian.
There is a story that when yet a boy, he was sent out by his father
to fetch a sheep, and that seeking shelter from the heat of the midday sun, he
went into a cave. He there fell into a sleep in which lie remained for fifty-seven
years. On waking he sought for the sheep, not knowing how long he had been sleeping,
and was astonished to find everything around him altered. When lie returned home,
he found to his great amazement, that his younger brother had in the meantime
grown an old man.
The time at which Epimenides lived, is determined by his invitation
to Athens when he had already arrived at an advanced age. He was looked upon by
the Greeks as a great sage and as the favourite of the gods. The Athenians who
were visited by a plague in consequence of the crime of Cylon, consulted the Delphic
oracle about the means of their delivery. The god commanded them to get their
city purified, and the Athenians
sent out Nicias with a ship to Crete
to invite Epimenides to come and undertake the purification. Epimenides accordingly
came to Athens, about B.
C. 596 or Olymp. 46, and performed the desired task by certain mysterious rites
and sacrifices, in consequence of which the plague ceased. The grateful Athenians
decreed to reward him with a talent and the vessel which was to carry him back
to his native island. But Epimenides refused the money, and only desired that
a friendship should be established between Athens and Cnossus. Whether
Epimenides died in Crete or
at Sparta, which in later
times boasted of possessing his tomb (Diog. Laert. i. 115), is uncertain, but
he is said to have attained the age of 154, 157, or even of 299 years. Such statements,
however, are as fabulous as the story about his fifty-seven years' sleep.
According to some accounts, Epimenides was reckoned among the seven
wise men of Greece (Diog. Laert. Prooem. § 13; Plut. Sol. 12); but all that tradition
has handed down about him suggests a very different character from that of those
seven, and he must rather be ranked in the class of priestly bards and sages who
are generally comprised under the name of the Orphici; for everything we hear
of him, is of a priestly or religious nature: he was a purifying priest of superhuman
knowledge and wisdom, a seer and a prophet, and acquainted with the healing powers
of plants. These notions about Epimenides were propagated throughout antiquity,
and it was probably owing to the great charm attached to his name, that a series
of works, both in prose and in verse, were attributed to him, though few, if any,
can be considered to have been genuine productions of Epimenides, the age at which
he he lived was certainly notan age of prose composition in Greece.
Diogenes Laertius (i. 112) notices as prose works, one on sacrifices,
and another on the Political Constitution of Crete.
There was also a Letter on the Constitution which Minos had given to Crete;
it was said to have been addressed by Epimenides to Solon; it was written in the
modern Attic dialect, and
was proved to be spurious by Demetrius of Magnesia.
Diogenes himself has preserved another letter, which is likewise addressed to
Solon; it is written in the Doric dialect, but is no more genuine than the former.
The reputation of Epimenides as a poet may have rested on a somewhat surer foundation;
it is at any rate more likely that he should have composed such poetry as Chresmo
and Katharmoi than any other (Suidas, s. v. Epimenides; Strab. x ; Paus. i. 14.4).
It is, however, very doubtful whether he wrote the Genesis kai Theogonia of the
Curetes and Corybantes in 5000 verses, the epic on Jason and the Argonauts in
6500, and the epic on Minos and Rhadamanthys in 4000 verses; all of which works
are mentioned by Diogenes. There cannot, however, be any doubt but that there
existed in antiquity certain old-fashioned poems written upon skins; and the expression,
Epimenideion derma was used by the ancients to designate anything old-fshioned,
obsolete, and curious.
An allusion to Epimenides seems to be made in St. Paul's Epistle to
Titus (i. 12). Comp. Fabric. Bibl. Grace. vol. i. pp. 30, &c., 844; Hockh, Kreta,
vol. iii. p. 246, &c.; Bode, Gesch. der Hellen. Dichtk. vol. i. p. 463, &c., and
more especially C. F. Heinrich, Epimenides aus Creta, Leipzig, 1801, 8vo.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited April 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Aenesidemus (Ainesidemos), a celebrated sceptic, born at Cnossus, in Crete, according
to Diogenes Laertius (ix. 116), but at Aegae, according to Photius (Cod. 212),
probably lived a little later than Cicero. He was a pupil of Heracleides and received
from him the chair of philosophy, which had been handed down for above three hundred
years from Pyrrhon, the founder of the sect. For a full account of the sceptical
system see Pyrrhon.
As Aenesidemus differed on many points from the ordinary sceptic, it will be convenient
before proceeding to his particular opinions, to give a short account of the system
itself.
The sceptic began and ended in universal doubt. He was equally removed
from the academic who denied, as from the dogmatic philosopher who affirmed; indeed,
he attempted to confound both in one, and refute them by the same arguments (Sext.
Emp. i. 1). Truth, he said, was not to be desired for its own sake, but for the
sake of a certain repose of mind (ataraxia) which followed on it, an end which
the septic best attained in another way, by suspending his judgment (epoche),
and allowing himself literally to rest in doubt (i. 4). With this view he must
travel over the whole range of moral, metaphysical, and physical science. His
method is the comparison of opposites, and his sole aim to prove that nothing
call be proved, or what he termed, the isostheneia, of things. In common life
he may act upon Phainomena with the rest of men : nature, law, and custom are
allowed to have their influence; only when impelled to any vehemlent effort we
are to remember that, here too, there is much to be said on both sides, and are
not to lose our peace of mind by grasping at a shadow.
The famous deka tropoi of the sceptics were a number of heads of argument
intended to overthrow truth in whatever form it might appear. The opposite appearances
of the moral and natural world (Sext. Emp. i. 14), the fallibility of intellect
and sense, and the illusions produced upon them by intervals of time and space
and by very change of position, were the first arguments by which they assailed
the reality of things. We cannot explain what man is, we cannot explain what the
senses are: still less do we know the way in which they are acted upon by the
mind (ii. 4-7): beginning with ouden horizo, we must end with ouden mallon We
are not certain whether material objects are anything but ideas in the mind: at
any rate the different qualities which we perceive in them may be wholly dependent
on the percipient being; or, supposing them to contain quality as well as substance,
it may be one quality varying with the perceptive power of the different senses
(ii. 14). Having thus confounded the world without and the world within, it was
a natural transition for the sceptic to confound physical and metaphysical argluments.
The reasonings of natural philosophy were overthrown by metaphysical subtleties,
and metaphysics made to look absurd by illustrations only applicable to material
things. The acknowledged imperfection of language was also pressed into the service;
words, they said, were ever varying in their signification, so that the ideas
of which they were the signs must be alike variable. The leading idea of the whole
system was, that all truth involved either a vicious circle or a petitio principii,
for, even in the simplest truths, something must be assumed to make the reasoning
applicable. The truth of the senses was known to us from the intellect, but the
intellect operated through the senses, so that our knowledge of the nature of
either depends upon the other. There was, however, a deeper side to this philosophy.
Everything we know, confessedly, runs up into something we do not know: of the
true nature of cause and effect we are ignorant, and hence to the favourite method,
apo tou eis apeiron ekballein, or arguing backward fiom cause to cause, the very
imperfection of human faculties prevents our giving an answer. We must know what
we believe; and how can we be sure of secondary causes, if the first cause be
wholly beyond us? To judge, however, from the sketch of Sextus Empiricus (Pyrrh.
Hyp.), it was not this side of their system which the sceptics chiefly urged:
for the most part, it must be confessed, that they contented themselves with dialectic
subtleties, which were at once too absurd for refutation, and impossible to refute.
The causes of scepticism are more fully given under the article Pyrrhon.
One of the most remarkable of its features was its connexion with the later philosophy
of the Ionian school. From the failure of their attempts to explain the phenomena
of the visible world, the Ionian philosophers were insensibly led on to deny the
order and harmony of creation: they saw nothing but a perpetual and ever-changing
chaos, acted upon, or rather self-acting, by an inherent power of motion, of which
the nature was only known by its effects. This was the doctrine of Heracleitus,
that "the world was a fire ever kindling and going out, which made all things
and was all things." It was this link of connexion between the sceptical and Ionian
schools which Aenesidemus attempted to restore. The doctrine of Heracleitus, although
it spoke of a subtle fire, really meant nothing more than a principle of change;
and although it might seem absurd to a strict sceptic like Sextus Empiricus to
affirm even a principle of change, it involved no real inconsistency with the
sceptical system. We are left to conjecture as to the way in which Aenesidemus
arrived at his conclusions : the following account of them seems probable. It
will be seen, from what has been said, that the sceptical system had destroyed
everything but sensation. But sensation is the effect of change, the principle
of motion working internally. It was very natural then that the sceptic, proceeding
from the only arche, which remained to him, should suggest an explanation of the
outward world, derived from that of which alone he was certain, his own internal
sensations. The mere suggestion of a probable cause might seem inconsistent with
the distinction which the sceptics drew between their own absolute uncertainty
and the probability spoken of by the Academics indeed, it was inconsistent with
their metaphysical paradoxes to draw conclusions at all : if so, we must be content
to allow that Aenesidemus (as Sextus Empiricus implies) got a little beyond the
dark region of scepticism into the light of probability.
Other scattered opinions of Aenesidemus have been preserved to us,
some of which seem to lead to the same conclusion. Time, he said, was to on and
to proton soma (Pyr. Hyp. iii. 17), probably in allusion to the doctrine of the
Stoics, that all really existing substances were somata: in other words, he meant
to say that time was a really existing thing, and not merely a condition of thought.
This was connected with the principle of change, which was inseparable from a
notion of time : if the one had a real existence (and upon its existence the whole
system depended), the other must likewise have a real existence. In another place,
adapting his language to that of Heracleitus, he said that "time was air" (Sext.
Emp. adv. Logicos, iv. 233), probably meaning to illustrate it by the imperceptible
nature of air, in the same way that the motion of the world was said to work by
a subtle and invisible tire. All things, according to his doctrine, were but Phainomena
which were brought out and adapted to our perceptions by their mutual opposition:
metaphorically they might be said to shine forth in the light of Heracieitus's
fire. He did not, indeed, explain how this union of opposites made them sensible
to the faculties of man : probably he would rather have supported his view by
the impossibility of the mind conceiving of anything otherwise than in a state
of motion, or, as he would have expressed it, in a state of mutual opposition.
But Phainomena are of two kinds, ioia and koina (Sext. Emp. adv. Log. ii. 8),
the perceptions of individuals, and those common to mankind. Here again Aenesidemus
seems to lose sight of the sceptical system. which (in speculation at least) admitted
no degrees of truth, doubt, or probability. The same remark applies to his distinction
of kinesis into metabatike and metabletike, simple motion and change. He seems
also to have opposed the perplexity which the sceptics endeavoured to bring about
between matter and mind; for he asserted that thought was independent of the body,
and "that the sentient power looked out through the crannies of the senses" (Adv.
Log. i. 349). Lastly, his vigorous mind was above the paltry confusion of physical
and metaphysical distinctions; for he declared, after Heracleitus, "that a part
was the same with the whole and yet different from it". The grand peculiarity
of his system was the attempt to unite scepticism with the earlier philosophy,
to raise a positive foundation for it by accounting from the nature of things
for the never-ceasing changes both in the material and spiritual world.
Sextus Empiricus has preserved his argument against our knowledge
of causes, as well as a table of eight methods by which all a priori reasoning
may be confuted, as all arguments whatever may be by the deka tropoi. I. Either
the cause given is unseen, and not proven by things seen, as if a person were
to explain the motions of the planets by the music of the spheres. II. Or if the
cause be seen, it cannot be shewn to exclude other hypotheses: we must not only
prove the cause, but dispose of every other cause. III. A regular effect may be
attributed to an irregular cause ; as if one were to explain the motions of the
heavenly bodies by a sudden impulse. IV. Men argue from things seen to things
unseen, assuming that they are governed by the same laws. V. Causes only mean
opinions of causes, which are inconsistent with phenomena and with other opinions.
VI. Equally probable causes are accepted or rejected as they agree with this or
that preconceived notion. VII. These causes are at variance with phenomena as
well as with abstract principles. VIII. Principles must be uncertain, because
the facts from which they proceed are uncertain.
It is to be regretted that nothing is known of the personal history
of Aenesidemus. A list of his works and a sketch of their contents have been preserved
by Photius (Cod. 212). He was the author of three books of Purrhoneiai Hupotuposeis,
and is mentioned as a recent teacher of philosophy by Aristocles (Apud Euscb.
Praeparat. Exang. xiv. 18). It is to Aenesidemus that Sextus Empiricus was indebted
for a considerable part of his work.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Sep 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Chersiphron, or, as the name is written in Vitruvius and one passage of Pliny,
Ctesiphon, an architect of Cnossus in Crete, in conjunction with his son Metagenes,
built or commenced building the great temple of Artemis at Ephesus. The worship
of Artemis was most probably established at Ephesus before the time of the Ionian
colonization; and it would seem, that there was already at that distant period
some temple to the goddess. (Paus. vii. 2. Β§ 4.) We are not told what had become
of this temple, when, about the beginning of the 6th century B. C., the Ionian
Greeks undertook the erection of a new temple, which was intended for the centre
of their national worship, like the temple of Hera at Samos, which was built about
the same time by the Dorian colonies. The preparation of the foundations was commenced
about B. C. 600. To guard against earthquakes, a marsh was chosen for the site
of the temple, and the ground was made firm by layers of charcoal rammed down,
over which were laid fleeces of wool. This contrivance was suggested by Theodorus
of Samos. The work proceeded very slowly. The erection of the columns did not
take place till about 40 years later (B. C. 560). This date is fixed by the statement
of Herodotus (i. 92), that most of the pillars were presented by Croesus. This
therefore is the date of Chersiphron, since it is to him and to his son Metagenes
that the ancient writers attribute the erection of the pillars and the architrave.
Of course the plan could not be extended after the erection of the pillars; and
therefore, when Strabo (xiv.) says, that the temple was enlarged by another architect,
he probably refers to the building of the courts round it. It was finally completed
by Demetrius and Paeonius of Ephesus, about 220 years after the foundations were
laid ; but it was shortly afterwards burnt down by Herostratus on the same night
in which Alexander the Great was born, B. C. 356. It was rebuilt with greater
magnificence by the contributions of all the states of Asia Minor. It is said,
that Alexander the Great offered to pay the cost of the restoration on the condition
that his name should be inscribed on the temple, but that the Ephesians evaded
the offer by replying, that it was not right for a god to make offerings to gods.
The architect of the new temple was Deinocrates. The edifice has now entirely
disappeared, except some remnants of its foundations. Though Pliny (like others
of the ancient writers) has evidently confounded the two buildings, yet his description
is valuable, since the restored temple was probably built on the same foundations
and after the same general plan as the old one. We have also descriptions of it
by Vitruvius, who took his statements from a work on the temple, which was said
to have been written by the architects themselves, Chersiphron and Metagenes (vii.
Praef.12). There are also medals on which the elevation of the chief portico is
represented. The temple was Octastyle, Dipteral, Diastyle, and Hypaethral. It
was raised on a basement of 10 steps. Its dimensions were 425 X 220 feet. The
columns were 127 in number, 60 feet high, and made of white marble, a quarry of
which was discovered at a distance of only eight miles from the temple, by a shepherd
named Pixodarus. Thirty-six of the columns were sculptured (perhaps Caryatides
within the cella), one of them by the great sculptor Scopas (Plin. xxxvi. 14.
s. 21: but many critics think the reading doubtful). They were of the Ionic order
of architecture, which was now first invented (Plin. xxxvi. 23. s. 56, and especially
Vitruv. iv. 1.7, 8). Of the blocks of marble which composed the architrave some
were as much as 30 feet long. In order to convey these and the columns to their
places, Chersiphron and Metagenes invented some ingenious mechanical contrivances
(Vitruv. x. 6, 7, or x. 2.11, 12, ed. Schneider; Plin. xxxvi. 14. s. 21). The
temple was reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world, and is celebrated in
several epigrams in the Greek Anthology, especially in two by Antipater of Sidon.
From this account it is manifest that Chersiphron and Metagenes
were among the most distinguished of ancient architects, both as artists and mechanicians.
(Plin. H. N. vii. 25. s. 38, xvi. 37. s. 79, xxxvi. 14. s. 21; Vitruv. iii. 2.7,
vii. Praef.16; Strab. xiv.; Liv. i. 45; Diog. Laert. ii. 9; Philo Byzant. de VII
Orb. Mirac.)
This text is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Son of Chersiphron of Cnosus
Iophon the Cnossian, a guide, produced responses in hexameter verse, saying that Amphiaraus gave them to the Argives who were sent against Thebes. These verses unrestrainedly appealed to popular taste. Except those whom they say Apollo inspired of old none of the seers uttered oracles, but they were good at explaining dreams and interpreting the flights of birds and the entrails of victims.
Sculptor, father of sculptor Amphion.
Acestor (Akestor), a sculptor mentioned by Pausanias (vi. 17.2) as having executed a statue of Alexibius, a native of Heraea in Arcadia, who had gained a victory in the pentathlon at the Olympic games. He was born at Cnossus, or at any rate exercised his profession there for some tine. (Paus. x. 15.4.) He had a son named Amphion, who was also a sculptor, and had studied under Ptolichus of Corcyra (Paus. vi. 3.2); so that Acestor must have been a contemporary of the latter, who flourished about Ol. 82. (B. C. 452.)
Amphion. A sculptor, son of Acestor, pupil of Ptolichus of Corcyra, and teacher of Piso of Calaureia, was a native of Cnossus, and flourished about B. C. 428 or 424. He executed a group in which Battus, the colonizer of Cyrene, was represented in a chariot, with Libya crowning him, and Cyrene as the charioteer. This group was dedicated at Delphi by the people of Cyrene. (Paus. vi. 3. 2, x. 15.4)
Ergoteles, the son of Philanor, won two victories in the long foot-race at Olympia, and two at Pytho, the Isthmus and Nemea. The inscription on the statue states that he came originally from Himera; but it is said that this is incorrect, and that be was a Cretan from Cnossus. Expelled from Cnossus by a political party he came to Himera, was given citizenship and won many honors besides. It was accordingly natural for him to be proclaimed at the games as a native of Himera.
Corybantica (Korubantika). A festival and mysteries celebrated at Cnossus in Crete, in commemoration of one Corybas, who, in common with the Curetes, brought up Zeus, and concealed him from his father Cronus in that island. Other accounts say that the Corybantes, nine in number, independent of the Curetes, saved and educated Zeus. A third legend states that Corybas was the father of the Cretan Apollo who disputed the sovereignty of the island with Zeus. But to which of these three traditions the festival of the Corybantica owed its origin is uncertain, although the first, which was current in Crete itself, seems to be best entitled to the honour. All that we know of the Corybantica is, that the person to be initiated was seated on a throne, and that those who initiated him formed a circle and danced around him. This part of the solemnity was called thronosis or thronismos.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited Nov 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
In earlier times Cnossus was called Caeratus, bearing the same name as the river which flows past it. (Strabo 10.4.8)
Tel: +30 2810 346185, 330598
Fax: +30 2810 346208
Receive our daily Newsletter with all the latest updates on the Greek Travel industry.
Subscribe now!
