Mythology

• The birth of Zeus on Crete

According to greek mythology Zeus, the King of gods, was born in Crete. Cronus, his father, trying to avoid a prophecy that he would lose the ruling of the sky from one of his children, swallowed all his newborns. Rhea, his wife, terrified and chased by her husband, found refuge in Crete and gave birth to her last child Zeus, in a cave (some say at Psychro on Dicte, other the Idaion cave on Ida). She fooled Cronus by giving him a rock in diapers to swallow and covering the noise of the newborn’s cry by the loud singing and dancing of demons “Kourites”.

• Zeus and Europa

Mythology also claims that Zeus fell in love with princess Europa (from which we get the modern name for our continent), disguised as a bull and brought Europa to Crete. Their union produced a son, Minos, who ruled Crete and turned it into a mighty island empire of the seas.

• Minotaur and Labyrinth

When Minos asked Poseidon for a sign that would mean he would become the King of Crete, from the sea emerged a beautiful bull that Minos refused to sacrifice, thus irritating Poseidon who punished Minos by making his wife Pasiphae fall in love with the white bull. Pasiphae, with the help of a wooden cow made by Daedalus, was united with the bull and gave birth to Minotaur, who had the body of a human and the head of a bull.
According to myth, this creature lived in King’s Minos palace’s underground, in the famous Labyrinth constructed by Deadalus. It was a huge structure with spiraling and interconnecting paths that were so intricate that once shut inside no-one could escape. For years Minos demanded a tribute of youths from Athens to feed the creature as punishment for the accidental killing of his son, Androgeos, while he was visiting Athens.
The famous Athenian hero Theseus defeated Minotaur with the help of Princess Ariadne, daughter of King Minos and queen Pasiphae, who fell in love with him and asked for Deadalus help. Deadalus gave Ariadne a flaxen thread for Theseus to tie to the door of the Labyrinth as he entered, and by which he could find his way out after killing the monster, simply by following the thread back. Theseus succeeded, and escaped Crete with Ariadne.

• Daedalus and Icarus

Minos, enraged at the loss of his daughter Ariadne, not to mention the killing of his pet Minotaur, shut Daedalus and his son Icarus into the Labyrinth, knowing that Theseus could not have accomplished the deed without inside help. Daedalus managed to get out of the Labyrinth – after all, he had built it and knew his way around. Daedalus decided that he and his son Icarus had to leave Crete and get away from Minos, before he brought them harm. And the only way to accomplish that was only by air, since Minos controlled the land and all sea routes.
So Daedalus created gigantic wings made by osier connected with wax, and taught his son how to fly. However, he drew Icarus attention not to fly close to the sun because the heat would make the wax melt. Daedalus and Icarus managed to escape the Labyrinth and flew to the sky, free. The flight of Daedalus and Icarus was the first time that man managed to fight the laws of nature and beat gravity. Although Icarus was warned not to fly close to the sun, he got carried away by the amazing feeling of flying and freedom, approached the sun causing his wings to melt and resulting to falling into the sea and be drown. The sea where he fell was named after him (Icarian sea) and there is also a nearby small island called Icaria.