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Crete, Mythology
Ariadne
Daughter of Minos and Pasiphae. She fell in love with the Athenian hero, Theseus, when he came to Knossos to kill the Minotaur. Although she helped him greatly to succeed in his quest, with the famous skein of thread that she gave him, the ungrateful Theseus left her in Naxos where his ship put in on the way back to Athens. The god Dionyssos found her there, married her and took her up to mount Olympus.
Daedalus (or Daedalos) An Athenian craftsman and the greatest inventor of ancient times. He was sent into exile for a crime he had committed in Athens. In this way, he found himself at the court of King Minos who employed him as an architect and sculptor at the Palace of Knossos. The king was very pleased with the variety of work done by Daedalus and most of all with the Labyrinth where the Minotaur was imprisoned. But when he found out that Daedalus had made the wooden cow in which his wife Pasiphae had had intercourse with a bull, and that Daedalos had advised his daughter Ariandne to give the skein of thread to Theseus, he became very angry with him and gave orders for him to be put to death. Daedalus, however, forestalled him and escaped by air, having made wings for himself and his son Ikaros. Ikaros was killed during the flight, but Daedalus landed and took refuge in the city of Camico in Sicily. After a long search, Minos found him there, but the inventive Daedalus managed to kill his pursuer by means of a trick.
Europe Daughter of the king of Tyre, Aginor and of Telephassa. One day, Zeus saw her playing with her friends on the beach and he fell in love with her. He appeared before her in the form of a likeable bull, the unsuspecting girl sat on his back and the Zeus-bull rushed into the water, carrying his darling on his back, and took her to Crete. They made their love-rest in an idyllic riverside place at the spot where Gortyna was later built. When he grew tired of her, he gave her to the king of Crete, Asterionas, who married her and adopted the three children she had had with Zeus (Minos, Sarpidonas and Radamanthys). When she died, the Cretans paid tribute to her with divine honours an gave her name to one of the earth’s continents. |
