Mount Ida
Mount Ida was the highest peak in Crete, home to the cave where the infant Zeus was hidden from his father Kronos and raised in secret by nymphs and the Kouretes.
The Story of Mount Ida
When Rhea bore Zeus, she hid the infant in the Dictaean Cave (or the Idaean Cave) on Mount Ida to prevent Kronos from swallowing him as he had his other children. She gave Kronos a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead. The nymphs fed the infant on the milk of the goat Amaltheia, while the Kouretes — armed dancers — clashed their shields and weapons to drown out the baby's cries. When Zeus grew to manhood, he descended from the mountain to overthrow his father and free his siblings. The Idaean Cave remained a cult site for millennia; archaeologists found bronze shields and votives dating back to the 9th century BC.
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🏛 placegeography
A sacred cave on Crete's Mount Dikte where Zeus was hidden as an infant to protect him from Cronus.
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The citadel of Troy, site of the legendary ten-year siege by the Greek forces
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The highest mountain in the Peloponnese, birthplace of Hermes, where the god fashioned the first lyre.
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A promontory at the southern tip of the Peloponnese believed to contain an entrance to the underworld
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