Listed 76 sub titles with search on: Homeric world for wider area of: "CRETE Island GREECE" .
KNOSSOS (Minoan settlement) CRETE
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.
AMNISSOS (Ancient city) HERAKLIO
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.
Then straightway he went up to the city and asked for Idomeneus; for he declared that he was his friend, beloved and honored. But it was now the tenth or the eleventh dawn since Idomeneus had gone in his beaked ships to Ilios. So I took him to the house, and gave him entertainment with kindly welcome of the rich store that was in the house, and to the rest of his comrades who followed with him I gathered and gave out of the public store barley meal and flaming wine and bulls for sacrifice, that their hearts might be satisfied. There for twelve days the goodly Achaeans tarried, for the strong North Wind penned them there, and would not suffer them to stand upon their feet on the land, for some angry god had roused it. But on the thirteenth day the wind fell and they put to sea. (Od. 19.185).
They were daughters of Zeus and Hera, who were present during a childbirth (Il. 11.270, 19.119). In the passage of the Odyssey, 19.103, only one Eilethyia, goddess of childbirth, is mentioned, to whom a cave was dedicated at Amnisus in Crete.
Daughter of Hera, daughter of Zeus and Hera, born at Amnisus, mother of Love, identified with Fate, came from Hyperboreans, cares for women in travail, holds a torch, Delians sacrifice to her, Hermionians sacrifice to her daily, the Ilithyias retard Alcmena's delivery, altar of Ilithyia, images, draped images, image seen only by priestesses, temples and sanctuaries, sanctuary of the Ilithyias, Ilithyia called 'Auge on her knees,' 'the spinner deft,' Olympian.
Eileithyia, who they say came from the Hyperboreans to Delos and helped Leto in her labour; and from Delos the name spread to other peoples. The Delians sacrifice to Eileithyia and sing a hymn of Olen. But the Cretans suppose that Eileithyia was born at Auunisus in the Cnossian territory, and that Hera was her mother. Only among the Athenians are the wooden figures of Eileithyia draped to the feet. The women told me that two are Cretan, being offerings of Phaedra, and that the third, which is the oldest, Erysichthon brought from Delos.
This extract is from: Pausanias. Description of Greece (ed. W.H.S. Jones, Litt.D., & H.A. Ormerod, 1918). Cited Mar 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks.
The goddess of birth, daughter of Zeus and Hera, who helped women
in labor. She was also a judge of pregnant women: the ones that had been good
she blessed with an easy birth, the ones that had no she gave a long and painful
one.
Eleutho/Eileithyia was born in a cave near Knossos
on Crete, and was he sister
of Ares, Hestia and Hebe. She was generally considered to be a virgin goddess,
but sometimes it was claimed she was Eros' mother, or the mystical hero Sosipolis.
The goddess and Sosipolis were worshipped in Olympia.
It was this goddess that prolonged the birth of Heracles on Hera's
demand. She was a companion of the Moirae.
This text is cited Sept 2003 from the In2Greece URL below.
Eileithyia (Eileithuia), also called Eleithyia, Eilethyia, or Eleutho. The ancients
derive her name from the verb eleuthein, according to which it would signify the
coming or helping goddess. She was the goddess of birth, who came to the assistance
of women in labour; and when she was kindly disposed, she furthered the birth,
but when she was angry, she protracted the labour and delayed the birth. These
two functions were originally assigned to different Eileithuiai (Hom. Il. xi.
270 xvi. 187, xix. 103; comp. Paus. i. 44. § 3; Hesych. s. v. Eileithuiai). Subsequently,
however, both functions were attributed to one divinity, and even in the later
Homeric poems the Cretan Eileithyia
alone is mentioned (Hom. Hymn. in Apoll. Del. 98, Od. xix. 188). According
to the Iliad the Eileithyiae were daughters of Hera, the goddess of marriage,
whom they obeyed (Hom. Il. xix. 119; comp. Pind. Nem. vii. init.; Ov. Met. ix.
285; Anton. Lib. 29). According to Hesiod (Theog. 922) Zeus was the father of
Eileithyia, and she was the sister of Hebe and Ares (Apollod. i. 3.1). Artemis
and Eileithyia were originally very different divinities, but there were still
some features in their characters which afterwards made them nearly identical.
Artemis was believed to avert evil, and to protect what was young and tender,
and sometimes she even assisted women in labour. Artemis, moreover, was, like
Eileithyia, a maiden divinity; and although the latter was the daughter of the
goddess of marriage and the divine midwife, neither husband, nor lover, nor children
of her are mentioned. She punished want of chastity by increasing the pains at
the birth of a child, and was therefore feared by maidens (Theocrit. xxvii. 28).
Frequent births, too, were displeasing to her. In an ancient hymn attributed to
Olen, which was sung in Delos,
Eileithyia was called the mother of Eros (Paus. i. 18.5. ix. 27.2).
Her worship appears to have been first established among the Dorians
in Crete, where she was believed
to have been born in a cave in the territory of Cnossus.
From thence her worship spread over Delos
and Attica. According to
a Delian tradition, Eileithyia was not born in Crete,
but had come to Delos from
the Hyperboreans, for the purpose of assisting Leto (Herod. iv. 35). She had a
sanctuary at Athens, containing
three carved images of the goddess, which were covered all over down to the toes.
Two were believed to have been presented by Phaedra, and the third to have been
brought by Erysichthon from Delos
(Paus. i. 8.15). Her statues, however, were not thus covered everywhere, as Pausanias
asserts, for at Aegion there
was one in which the head, hands, and feet were uncovered (Paus. vii. 23.5). She
had sanctuaries in various places, such as Sparta
(Paus. iii. 17.1, 14.6), Cleitor
(viii. 21.2), Messene (iv.
31.7), Tegea (viii. 48.5),
Megara (i. 44.3), Hermione
(ii. 35.8), and other places.
The Elionia, who was worshipped at Argos
as the goddess of birth (Plut. Quaest. Rom. 49), was probably the same as Eileithyia.
(Bottiger, Ilithyia oder die Hexe, Weimar, 1799; Muller, Dor. ii. 2.14)
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
KNOSSOS (Minoan settlement) CRETE
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
LYKTOS (Ancient city) KASTELI
A comrade and charioteer of Meriones, who came from Lyctus and was slain by Hector (Il. 17.610).
KNOSSOS (Minoan settlement) CRETE
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
CRETE (Island) GREECE
Homer calls the island "of the hundred cities" (Il. 2.649). In the Odyssey, the poet mentions that there were ninety cities (Od. 19.174).
FESTOS (Minoan settlement) HERAKLIO
Phaestus, city of the island of Crete near Gortys, participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catlogue of Ships (Il. 2.648, Od. 3.296).
GORTYS (Ancient city) HERAKLIO
Gortys or Gortyn, an important city of the island of Crete, participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.646)
"Meanwhile Menelaos and I were on our way home from Troy, on good terms with one another. When we got to Sounion, which is the point of Athens, Apollo with his painless shafts killed Phrontis the steersman of Menelaos' ship (and never man knew better how to handle a vessel in rough weather) so that he died then and there with the helm in his hand, and Menelaos, though very anxious to press forward, had to wait in order to bury his comrade and give him his due funeral rites. Presently, when he too could put to sea again, and had sailed on as far as the Malean heads, Zeus counseled evil against him and made it blow hard till the waves ran mountains high. Here he divided his fleet and took the one half towards Crete where the Cydonians dwell round about the waters of the river Iardanos. There is a high headland hereabouts stretching out into the sea from a place called Gortyn, and all along this part of the coast as far as Phaistos the sea runs high when there is a south wind blowing, but past Phaistos the coast is more protected, for a small headland can make a great shelter. Here this part of the fleet was driven on to the rocks and wrecked; but the crews just managed to save themselves. As for the other five ships, they were taken by winds and seas to Egypt (Od. 3.276).
KNOSSOS (Minoan settlement) CRETE
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).
LYKASTOS (Ancient city) TEMENOS
Lycastus, city of the island of Crete, participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.647).
LYKTOS (Ancient city) KASTELI
Lyctus, city of the island of Crete, participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.647, 17.611).
MILATOS (Ancient city) NEAPOLI
Miletus, metropolis probably of the ionian Miletus, participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.647).
RYTION (Ancient city) ASTEROUSSIOI
Rhytium, city of the island of Crete, participated in the Trojan War and is listed in the Homeric Catalogue of Ships (Il. 2.648).
KNOSSOS (Minoan settlement) CRETE
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.
MILATOS (Ancient city) NEAPOLI
While Odysseus was thus yielding himself to a very deep slumber that eased the
burden of his sorrows, his admirable wife awoke, and sitting up in her bed began
to cry. When she had relieved herself by weeping she prayed to Artemis saying,
"Great Goddess Artemis, daughter of Zeus, drive an arrow into my heart and
slay me; or let some whirlwind snatch me up and bear me through paths of darkness
till it drop me into the mouths of overflowing Okeanos, as it did the daughters
of Pandareus. The daughters of Pandareus lost their father and mother, for the
gods killed them, so they were left orphans. But Aphrodite took care of them,
and fed them on cheese, honey, and sweet wine. Hera taught them to excel all women
in beauty of form and understanding; Artemis gave them an imposing presence, and
Athena endowed them with every kind of accomplishment; but one day when Aphrodite
had gone up to Olympus to see Zeus about getting them married (for well does he
know both what shall happen and what not happen to every one) the storm winds
came and spirited them away to become handmaids to the dread Erinyes. Even so
I wish that the gods who live in heaven would hide me from mortal sight, or that
fair Artemis might strike me, for I would fain go even beneath the sad earth if
I might do so still looking towards Odysseus only, and without having to yield
myself to a worse man than he was. Besides, no matter how many people may grieve
by day, they can put up with it so long as they can sleep at night, for when the
eyes are closed in slumber people forget good and ill alike; whereas my miserable
daimon haunts me even in my dreams. This very night I thought there was one lying
by my side who was like Odysseus as he was when he went away with his host, and
I rejoiced, for I believed that it was no dream, but the very truth itself."
This extract is cited Nov 2003 from Homer, Odyssey of Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks
Pandareos. A native of Miletus, the son of Merops, who stole from Minos of Crete a living dog made of gold, the work of Hephaestus, which was the guardian of the temple of Zeus, and gave it to Tantalus to keep it safely. When Zeus demanded the dog back, Pandareos fled with his wife Harmothoe to Sicily, where both were turned into stones. Of his two other daughters (Merope and Cleodora, or Camira and Clytea), Homer ( Od.xx. 66-78) relates that they were brought up by Aphrodite after their early bereavement, and were endowed by Here with beauty and wisdom, by Artemis with lofty stature, and by Athene with skill in handiwork; but while their foster-mother went to Olympus to implore Zeus to grant the maidens happy marriages, they were carried off by the Harpies, and delivered to the Erinyes as servants, and thus expiated their father's guilt (Odyss. xx. 65- 78; Pausan. x. 30, 1).
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
Polygnotus has painted the daughters of Pandareos. Homer makes Penelope say in a speech that the parents of the maidens died because of the wrath of the gods, that they were reared as orphans by Aphrodite and received gifts from other goddesses: from Hera wisdom and beauty of form, from Artemis high stature, from Athena schooling in the works that befit women. He goes on to say that Aphrodite ascended into heaven, wishing to secure for the girls a happy marriage, and in her absence they were carried off by the Harpies and given by them to the Furies. This is the story as given by Homer. Polygnotus has painted them as girls crowned with flowers and playing with dice, and gives them the names of Cameiro and Clytie. I must tell you that Pandareos was a Milesian from Miletus in Crete, and implicated in the theft of Tantalus and in the trick of the oath.
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.
Cragus, which has eight promontories and a city of the same name. The scene of the myth of Chimaera is laid in the neighborhood of these mountains. Chimaera, a ravine extending up from the shore, is not far from them. At the foot of Cragus, in the interior, lies Pinara, one of the largest cities in Lycia. Here Pandarus is held in honor, who may, perhaps, be identical with the Trojan hero, as when the poet says, "The daughter of Pandareus, the nightingale of the greenwood," for Pandareus is said to have been from Lycia.(Strabo 14.3.5)
KNOSSOS (Minoan settlement) CRETE
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.
MILATOS (Ancient city) NEAPOLI
Aedon. A daughter of Pandareus, wife of Zethus, king of Thebes, and mother of Itylus. Envious of Niobe, the wife of her brother Amphion, who had six sons and six daughters, she resolved to kill the eldest of Niobe's sons, but by mistake slew her own son Itylus. Zeus relieved her grief by changing her into a nightingale, whose melancholy tunes are represented as Aedon's lamentations for her child.
Even as when the daughter of Pandareus, the nightingale (Aedon) of the greenwood, sings sweetly, when spring is newly come, as she sits perched amid the thick leafage of the trees, and with many trilling notes pours forth her rich voice in wailing for her child, dear Itylus, whom she had one day slain with the sword unwittingly, Itylus, the son of king Zethus; even so my heart sways to and fro in doubt, whether to abide with my son and keep all things safe, my possessions, my slaves, and my great, high-roofed house, respecting the bed of my husband and the voice of the people, or to go now with him whosoever is best of the Achaeans, who woos me in the halls and offers bride-gifts past counting.
This extract is cited Nov 2003 from Homer, Odyssey of Perseus Project URL bellow, which contains comments & interesting hyperlinks
KNOSSOS (Minoan settlement) CRETE
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).
CRETE (Island) GREECE
The native Cretans and one of the five tribes of the island (Od. 19.176).
One of the five tribes of the island (Od. 19.176).
Homer mentions that there were Dorians dwelling in the island of Crete (Od. 19.177).
Homer mentions that Pelasgians dwelt on the island of Crete (Od. 19.177).
Homer mentions that Achaeans dwelt in the island (Od. 19.175).
DIA (Island) HERAKLIO
Then I saw Phaedra, and Procris, and fair Ariadne daughter of the magician Minos, whom Theseus was carrying off from Crete to Athens, but he did not enjoy her, for before he could do so Artemis killed her in the island of Dia on account of what Bacchus had said against her.
KYDONIA (Ancient city) CHANIA
A river near Cydonia (Od. 3.292).
Iardanus. A river in the north of Crete, which flowed near the town Cydonia
Jardanus, old name of river Acidas
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