Crete
Crete was the largest Greek island and the seat of the Minoan civilisation, home to King Minos, the labyrinth, and the bull-cult that produced some of mythology's most famous stories.
The Story of Crete
Zeus himself was born and hidden in a cave on Mount Ida in Crete, nursed by the goat Amaltheia while the Kouretes clashed their shields to mask his cries from Kronos. Crete later became the kingdom of Minos, who ruled from Knossos. Poseidon sent a white bull from the sea; when Minos refused to sacrifice it, Poseidon caused his wife Pasiphaë to desire it, producing the Minotaur. Daedalus built the labyrinth to contain the beast and later escaped the island on wings of wax and feathers. When archaeologists excavated Knossos in 1900, they found a palace of over 1,000 rooms.
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The great Phoenician island-city whose princess Europa was abducted by Zeus in the form of a bull
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A gold-rich island in the northern Aegean colonised from Paros and associated with the hero Heracles
Libya
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The ancient Greek name for the entire continent of Africa, personified as a daughter of Epaphus and Memphis
Samothrace
🏛 placeIsland of the Kabeiroi Mysteries
Samothrace was a mountainous island in the northern Aegean, home to a mystery cult second only to Eleusis.
Chalcis
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A major city on the island of Euboea renowned for its metalworking and its role in Greek colonisation
Ilium
🏛 placeGeography
The citadel of Troy, site of the legendary ten-year siege by the Greek forces
Knossos
🏛 placePalace of Minos and the Labyrinth
Knossos was the vast Bronze Age palace complex in Crete — seat of King Minos and the mythological site of the Labyrinth.
Lemnos
🏛 placeIsland of Hephaestus
Lemnos was a volcanic island in the northern Aegean sacred to Hephaestus, where the god of the forge landed after Zeus hurled him from Olympus.
Salamis
🏛 placeGeography
An island in the Saronic Gulf where the Greeks won a decisive naval victory over Persia and where Ajax was king
Ithaca
🏛 placeIsland kingdom of Odysseus
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Corcyra
🏛 placeisland, Ionian Sea
A large island off the northwestern coast of Greece, identified in antiquity with the mythical Phaeacia where Odysseus was shipwrecked.
Phrygia
🏛 placekingdom, Anatolia
An ancient kingdom in central Anatolia famous in Greek myth for King Midas and the cult of the Great Mother goddess Cybele.