Cretan myths

In ancient Greece there are a couple of main myths about the island of Crete.  The first is about Zeus (the king of the gods), and the second is about King Minos (King of the ancient Minoan race) and Daedalus.

Far back in ancient times, Kronos ruled the universe after overthrowing his father Uranus.  In order to defeat a prophecy in which Kronos had been told he in turn would be displaced by his son, he swallowed all of his children immediately after birth.  When his wife was pregnant with her last child, she called on Uranus for help.  They all decided together that this child would be born in Crete, so Zeus was brought into the world in the Diktaean Cave and was brought up by the Nymphs.  The mother of Zeus tricked Kronos by wrapping a stone in a blanket and giving him that to swallow instead of the new born baby.

Minos was on of the sons of Zeus and also the chief of the Minoan religion.  He managed to unite one hundred different cities on the island and governed them all from his capital Knossos.

In order for Minos to win the throne of Crete, Minos asked Poseidon (the god of the sea) to lend him a bull to prove to the Cretans and to his brothers that he was the man chosen by the gods to succeed their king.  Minos promised afterwards that he would sacrifice the bull to Poseidon.  However, Minos broke his promise and kept the handsome bull in his fields to graze.  In its place Minos sacrificed an ordinary bull.  As a punishment, Poseidon caused Minos' wife to fall in love with the bull and their offspring was the famous Minotaur – a monster with a bull's head and the body of a man.

Minos ordered the Labyrinth to be built to house the Minotaur and every year the Athenians sent seven youths and seven maidens to be sacrificed to the Minotaur.  Theseus, the son of the King of Athens, fought and killed the Minotaur and found his way back out of the Labyrinth using the ball of wool that Ariadne (Minos daughter) had given him to tie to the entrance of the maze, so that he would be able to find his way out of the Labyrinth.

The myth of Daedalus reflects the technological and cultural development of Minoan Crete.  Daedalus was credited with carving all the statues in Crete and with building the huge palaces and the Labyrinth.  When Minos discovered that Daedalus had helped his wife in her affair with the bull, he locked Daedalus and his son Icarus up in the Labyrinth.  Daedalus was unable to bear the imprisonment and made wax wings for himself and his son so that they could fly out.  But there was a tragic end for these first airmen, Icarus disobeyed his father's orders and flew to close to the sun and his wax wings melted.  Icarus fell into the sea and was drowned.  Daedalus himself escaped and went to Sicily. 

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