THE GREAT GODDESS, called the Great Mother or Mother Earth. Symbol of the vegetation, she is represented either holding snakes or by the double axe, the symbol of their civilization.
DAEDALUS: The greatest inventor and artist of ancient times. Originating from Athens, he lived for many years in king Minos’ palace in Knossos, until he flew with his son Icarus. He constructed the Labyrinth, into which king Minos hid his monstrous son, the Minotaur.
DASKALOGIANNIS or Ioannis Vlahos. Leader of the Revolt at Sfakia in 1770, when Catherine the Great of Russia sent Orlov brothers to help the revolts at Peloponnesus and Crete.
ZEUS: The lord of men and gods, ruler of the earth and sky, and powerless only against the charm of women. Crete was his birthplace, since Rhea, his mother, hid him from the devouring stomach of his father, Cronus.
MINOTAUR: Son of king Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, and a bull that the gods had sent. Pasiphae asked Daedalus to make a life-like cow, into which she could get.
VENIZELOS: One of the greatest politics in the 20th century. He had been a minister of the Cretan Independent State, and the President of Greece.
TALOS: Indeed, in Crete existed the first automaton ever recorded, Talos, a robot made of bronze, who protected the island from invaders.
APOSTLE PAUL: One of the greatest personalities of Christianity and the writer of about half the books of the New Testament. He passed from Crete in his second missionary journey and commanded one of his most loyal followers, Titus, to remain in Crete and found churches.
KAZANTZAKIS: One of the most important Greek writers, certainly the most translated, with books such as “Zorba the Greek”, “Christ Recrucified”, “Freedom or Death”, and “The Last Temptation of Christ”.
EUROPA: A pretty princess from Phoenicia, abducted by Zeus. He brought her to Crete, and bore her three children, Radamanthys, Sarpidon and Minos, who would later become the king of Crete.
EL GRECO: His real name was Domenicus Theotocopoulos. Initially he was a painter in Candia, today’s Heraklion, then he moved to Venice and then to Spain, where he produced his best-known paintings.
