When we are introduced to Homer’s Iliad, which describes the events of the Trojan War of the XIII-XII centuries BC, we are confronted with the question of what is the difference between the Achaeans and the Danaans. The beginning of the plot becomes the dispute of the goddesses and the judgement of Paris. The topic […]

The Cretan Bull was a bull that appeared in the myth of the Labours of Heracles, as well as the myth of the Minotaur, in Greek mythology. It was the creature that Pasiphae (the wife of the Minos) fell in love with. Minos was king in Crete. In order to confirm his right to rule, rather than any of his brothers, […]

Europa was the mother of King Minos of Crete, a woman with Phoenician origin of high lineage, and after whom the continent Europe was named. The mythographers tell that Zeus was enamored of Europa and decided to seduce or ravish her, the two being near-equivalent in Greek myth. He transformed himself into a tame white […]

A part of this story is documented. The rest is based on the stories about the beginning of the conquest of Crete by the Ottomans This story began on the largest slave market in Europe, which was in the center of Constantinople. Anyone who happens to be in Istanbul can find it himself. This is […]

The Minoan civilization is an Aegean civilization that originated on the island of Crete and flourished in 2700-1450 BC. At the height of the flourishing Minoan civilization, a unification of Crete created the sea power of the King Minos and possibilities for a wide scale of Cretan commercial activities in the basin of the Aegean […]

Archaeologists often talk about builders of ancient cities and places where they found the remains of some famous in the distant past ruler. Many of their discoveries seem boring. However, there are scientists attracting interest in archeology, telling about what our ancestors ate and releasing recipes of forgotten meals. Several years ago, the Italian archaeologist […]

The small island of Mochlos, opposite of homonymous settlement in the east of Crete, about 25 mi from Agios Nikolaos, has tuned down the theory of the collapse of the Minoan Crete after a tsunami caused by a volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini. At the Minoan time the island of Mochlos was connected […]

Early in the morning of July 21, 365, a wave of a powerful earthquake originated somewhere between Paphos and Kourion, about 22 miles southwest of the Aphrodite stone, where is a boundary of African and European continental plates, and passed throughout the Mediterranean completely demolishing cities, beautiful antiques monuments, and killing thousands of people. Ammianus […]

The inhabitants of Crete identify themselves as a special people, distinct from the Greeks, and this is not uncommon for the islanders. The same perception of themselves as a people being distinct from Anatolian Turks is observed among Turkish Cypriots. And there are justifications for it, historical ones. For example, there are some of them […]