Europe
A prestigious remembrance of the very ancient relationship between Crete and Anatolia, Europe, the one with "the broad forehead" or "the gaze that embraces vast expanses", is, according to the versions of the myth, the fruit of the union of the first king of Phoenicia, Phoenix (or Agenor), with Telephassa, the sister of Cadmos, the legendary king of Thebes.
One day, the carefree young Europe, accompanied by her mother and her cortege, was playing in the meadows of Tyre (or Sidon), her native city, a Phoenician town on the Mediterranean coast.
Zeus, dazzled by the beauty of the young girl, draws up a whole plan to seduce her but without getting caught by Hera, his official wife, known for her memorable household scenes. He thus metamorphoses into a bull and mixes with the royal herd that Hermes had led to the shores of Tyre. Looking like a snow-white bull, according to Ovid's overflowing imagination, with his transparent horns and remarkable neck muscles, Zeus manages to attract the attention of the young girl, who eventually rides on the bull's back. The bull is suddenly startled and, jumping from one wave to another, brings Europe to Crete, to Phaistos (or Gortyne). Under a plane tree, which has never lost its foliage since, the union between Zeus and Europe takes place. From this union three sons, oh so illustrious and legendary, will be born: Minos, the king of Knossos, Sarpedon who receives from Zeus the privilege of living for three generations of men, and Rhadamanthe who is supposed to have transmitted the laws to the inhabitants of the islands of the Aegean Sea.
After the birth of their three children, Zeus entrusted Europe and his three sons to Asterion, king of Crete, who had no descendants. To show his gratitude to Asterion, Zeus gives him as a gift Talos, the fierce guardian who watches over the Cretan coasts.
The Cretan myth of Europe is frequently attached to the constellation of the bull, while the coins of Gortyne, depicting the figure surrounded by rays, allow us to imagine that Europe was the personification of a luminous meteor or a shining star. The figure of Europe is also associated with the full moon: abducted at dawn by the sun-bull, she reappears at night, from the bottom of the sea.Minos
The remarkable rise of the Cretan civilization is irrefutably linked to the palace of Knossos and Minos, its legendary king. In fact, the palace of Knossos is ruled only by "minos", a title attributed to the Cretan kings whose first name the Greeks later made into a first name, when they created their original myths. An ambiguous character, Minos is praised by ancient poets for his qualities that earned him the favour of the gods. Historians, such as Thucydides, remember Minos as a powerful and fearsome leader, at the head of the undisputed Minoan thalassocracy, a maritime empire established for centuries on the coasts and islands of the Aegean Sea. According to Homer, Minos was the first king of Crete. He attends the councils of the gods presided over by his heavenly father and is one of the three judges who render justice to the kingdom of Hades, among the people of the shadows.
Minos marries Pasiphae, the daughter of Helios and Perseus, sister of Etes and Circe. From this union were born, among others, Androgea, Ariadne, Phaedra and Glaucus. Worthy of a legendary character, Minos, of course, indulges in extramarital relations. However, these women perish violently, mainly because of Pasiphae, who is used to deploy his magical abilities to eliminate his competitors. Thus, the women who fall into the arms of the king of Crete die, mainly when Pasiphae's magic tricks make them produce monsters. But now Procrea escapes her fate by offering Minos the sex of a goat, which from now on will give birth to horrible creatures, such as vipers and scorpions, instead of lovers. Behind this tale of Apollodore, where men, beasts and monsters mix, lies, most probably, this stage in the history of Athens, when the city, having succumbed to the thalassocratic force of Crete, was, according to the best known legend, obliged to pay as ransom to Knossos, every year, 7 boys and 7 girls destined to satisfy the hunger of the Minotaur.
According to another version, Minos imposes this macabre burden on the Athenians as reparation for the death of his son Androgea. This death had been caused by Aegeus, king of Athens and father of Theseus, who, displeased with the triumph of Androgeus in the Panathenaeans, imposes on him as an additional and fatal test to eliminate the bull of Marathon. Minos avenged his son and attacked Athens, which at that time was already devastated by epidemics and famine. The besieged city engaged in unsuccessful expiatory sacrifices. It was then that the oracle advised the Athenians to satisfy any will of Minos in order to free themselves from their plagues. Thus the tribute of the young boys and girls who perished in the labyrinth, the palace of the Minotaur, is imposed.The Minotaur and the Labyrinth
We cannot approach the myth of the Minotaur or follow him in his labyrinth without risking getting lost if we do not follow the thread that leads us back to Minos. So the story begins when the king of Knossos ascends the throne, assisted by Poseidon. But one day, drunk with power, Minos refuses to sacrifice a bull to the honor of his protective god. Poseidon, outraged, decides to punish the king of Knossos: either the bull escaped the sacrifice would ravage Crete or Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, would feel desire for the bull. The devotion is set on Pasiphae who, after his union with the bull, will give life to the Minotaur. The love fruit of a human being and a beast, the Minotaur cannot be anything else than a monster. It has the head of a bull and the body of a man. Minos, frightened by this horrible offspring, decides to separate it for life from the world of humans. He calls upon his mythical architect, Daedalus, to build a sinuous palace from which it would be impossible to escape. The term "labyrinth" means "palace of the double axe" and most probably evokes the extreme complexity of the palace of Knossos. In any case, the legend of the labyrinth has crossed Greek mythology and imagination as the symbol of a rare and extraordinary building from which only love and cunning allowed Theseus to escape in one day!
Talos
According to the Cretan tradition, Talos is sometimes the father of Hephaestus, sometimes a giant forged in bronze created by Daedalus in favour of Minos. He is in charge of watching over Crete and it is for this reason that he travels the island from one end to the other, three times a day. When Minos is away, he is also in charge of looking after Europe. He is depicted on the coins of Phaistos looking like a naked, winged young man about to throw the stone held in his hand. Talos had only one vein running from the throat to the embankment and held in place with a nail!!! That single vein was his vulnerable spot, which cost him his life. Indeed, when the giant wanted to prevent the Argonauts from stopping in Crete on their way back from Colchis, Medea managed with her magic tricks to enchant Talos and drive him mad. Distraught and completely confused by the visions inflicted by Jason's companion, Talos removes the nail that assured his life, his only vein empties of its ichor, and the bronze giant dies immediately on a rock.
Other versions describe Talos as a ruthless giant who throws himself into the flames until his metal torch turns red. Then he squeezed those who wanted to land on the island to his chest, inflicting a horrible death on them.
Talos' attributes sometimes refer to a primitive Hephaestus or celestial fire, or to the storm. The stone this mythical creature holds in his hand, which was supposed to be his weapon against the Argonauts, most likely represents lightning. Could it be Talos, then, who is behind the expression "lightning"?Daedalus and Icarus
An Athenian by descent, with a genealogy that links him to Cecrops, the mythical founder of Athens, Daedalus is the renovator artist par excellence of the ancient Greek world. He arrives in Crete exiled by the Areopagus after murdering his nephew and assistant Talos, who was obviously beginning to overshadow him. Renowned for his talent in architecture, sculpture and mechanical arts, he only becomes a mythical hero when he builds the labyrinth, the palace designed to imprison the Minotaur. It was in this very building that Minos locked up Daedalus and his son Icarus, either because the legendary architect had helped Pasiphae unite with the bull, or because he had provided Ariadne with the thread, thanks to which Theseus was able to eliminate the Minotaur and find the exit to the labyrinth. Whatever the case, Daedalus will once again show his genius and innovative spirit; he recovers birds' feathers, fixes them with wax to his shoulders and those of Icarus, and, through the air, they manage to fly away! Now the young Icarus, reckless and foolhardy, approaches the sun. The wax melts and the son of Daedalus drowns in the sea that now bears his name, the Icarian Sea. Daedalus arrives, despite everything, in Sicily, where he continues to practice his profession as an architect, enjoying the protection of King Cocalos.
Zeus of Crete
The legendary cycle attached to Zeus covers several stages of the mythological story of ancient Greece. The best known legend, which we owe to Hesiod, presents Crete as an adoptive land for the future "father of gods and men". Indeed, the cave flanked by Mount Ida, in the heart of the island, is only the circumstantial cradle that allowed Zeus to survive far from the devouring and infanticidal mania of his father, Cronos. Now, according to Cretan mythology, long before Zeus became immortal, the native Zeus, Zeus of Crete, Cretaceous, was born, dies and is reborn every year, and it was on Mount Ida that his tomb was located, according to Callimachus. Obviously, this version is another way of evoking the cycles of nature; it is present in Euripides, when he mentions the festivities that took place in Crete, sometimes in honour of the celestial Zeus, sometimes in honour of the Zeus of the underworld. On the other hand, the cult that was reserved for Zeus on Mount Ida had a mystical character, which further separates the Cretaceous Zeus from the Zeus of Olympus. But it is precisely these differences between the two versions that give Greek mythology its full meaning and serve as a common thread when, while strolling through the labyrinth of myths, one tries to find the historical outcome.
