The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-21
CRETE, HOME OF THE GODS.
ONLY PLACE WHERE THE OLD
GREEK SURVIVES.

From the Chicago Times-Herald.
From midmost of Ida, from shady
RecesseS that murmur at morn,
They have brought and baptized her Our
A goddess new born.
Where old Jupiter as powerful as he
was in the DAYS before the new gods came
and drove him from his seat on high Olym-
pus there would be no doubt as to the re-
suit OF the war in Crete. For it was in
Crete the god of gods was born and raised,
and it was in Crete he was entombed when
his night passed away and the thunder
bolts slipped from his dying hand, red no
longer. into the hands of other and newer
deities. What Mecca is to the Mohamme-
dan, Benares to the Hindu and Jerusalem
TO the Christian, that would be Crete to
the believer Of the Greek religion; and so
it is now. in way, to the modern scholar
who lives in the beauties of Greek myth
os. fable. and story. There is not spot
on the face Of the broad earth that is so
crowded with memories of Paganism
Beautiful as is Crete. We are all of us
familiar with the stories of a religion that
has given 20 the poets OF all ages their pest
inspira ton. But now many OF US remen-
her our humanities SO well as to be able
10 give local ma hltauOn 10 tne SOuS ana
EsoddeSSes the heroes and the hair MINOR
jals with which the poetry of the ages is
enhanced?
when Homer was late conner, Wheh Ju-
Illus Caesar was the newst man upon earth
crete was ancient! Ihe immortal soHs
were truly immortal II that word may be
applied 10 anything, even by way OF HB-
ure of speech. SO long as letters 1--we, 50
long viii the gods survive. And Crete
gave 10 Pie world its greatest god, for what
god is greater than Jove2 The patriot
Cretan. 1EHtius for liberty. scorning the
rule OF the Turk looking toward Greece
for aid and comfort mstlncuNely repell-
ing sG4iust the domination of such man
as Acfu. H7mld. mas the sympathy of eV-
an mar Who has heard the legends Of the
island aud for wnom the Greek gods are
more cnau q mere reference. True, the
,-~sts- of to-fav does not realize his splen-
did heri-ase. BUT that he has the spirit
Of his ancient fathers. the blood Wnlcn
courSea in the veins OF the Cretans who
fought and conquered Troy still flows in
his own veins is a fact beyond all contro-
Nersy.
with small mental effort we can recon
struct the ancient Crete and launch our
selves back into the stream of time when
il was flowing past the gorgeous temples
of Jupiter. then great and a living god,
with his millions of woTshippers; when
Minerva and Venus and BacChus and Juno
and Priapus ruled the affairs of men and
Apollo was not a sun myth. Those were
the days OF the glory of Crete. In ovid
time Crete was decadent-eVen dead; and
Daedalus and 1carus, IneseuS ana Arr
adne, the sirens and the Minotaur were as
much tradition as they are to-day Let
us glance at Crete and its association
with the myths. Many places claimed the
birth of Jupiter but the most ancient
seems to credit Crete. Hesiod counte-
nances the story that the great Jupiter
was born in Crete. Rhea, his mother,
gave birth to him in a cavern near the
site of Gnossus, afterward the seat of the
empire of the strong King Minos. The
Melian nymphS received him in their
arms. He was rocked in a cradle of gold
by Adrastea. He was fed on ambrosia
and on nectar, brought by an eagle that
drew ii from one of the rocks of old Ida.
And time was when the Cretans showed
with pride the cavern in which the infant
Jove was born and the very platform upon
the side of tine great mountain on which
he gamboled in play with the Corybantes
To say nothing of the tomb in which the
poor immortals bones were placed when
he died.
70 crete we go for the story of Daeda-
lus and Icarus, told by Ovid in such sweet
Latin. The story was an ancient one even
in Homers day, and the eXiled Roman
sent in his exile TO one of the Aegean isles,
simply framed the picture with golden
edge that has given to 1t most of its value
II Is not always wise to underValue the
ancient poets just because they were
heather. In the story of Daedalus and
his son Icarus (who took the place of
murdered nephew whose talents eclipsed
those of the som Is concealed a moral as
high valued and deep as that of any of
the proverbs of Solomon. The story of
1carus is so identified with Crete that one
can look to 10 other place for associa-
lions with the most inspired of antique
sculptors, Sarpedon-he who later tow
cred amid the field" in the Trojan war
had been driven by his brother Minos from
Crete and Minos took the throne Daeda-
lus sought him, and Minos told him to
build the labyrinth and Daedalus built
1T. WhereupOn hangs the story of The
seus and Ariadne-tne theme of art and
poetry unlimited. Daedalus built the lab
yrinth ana in its deadly passages the
Athenian youths and maidens were pent
up, to be deXoured by the monster Mno-
the silken thread of Ariadne, the kings
daughter, gave the cleW to the labyrin-
thine mysteries, and was carried off in
triumph by the hero as a reward.
To Crete we must go for the tabled River
Lethe, draught from the sweet tasting
waters of which drowned ali sorrow and
gave sleep eternal in and eternal night. >"
In Crete IL was that the sirens lived, or
say, rather, il was on the shores of Crete
they sang their seductive songs that lur-
ed the mariner TO his destruction Thus
viii Homer tell you how ULYSSES stopped
the ears of his sailors with wax and order
ed his men TO bind him to the mast lest
ships TO steer toward the rocks and lose
oil. To-day you may see the very poo
IN which the sirens bathed and the very
rocks upon which many a good shin as
good ships went In those days, was dashed
10 pieces. IL is Suda Bay, as said in these
'thin-faced times of ours" and Cape NAL
aka, with Akrotirion looking up in the dis
lance Ihere is no coast scenery, not
even IN the wonderful sub-trOpical Iati-
tudes of our own Pacific. that can com
pare with the witness and stern beauty
OF the sirens retreat in Crete II was
from Suda-perhaps before the bav and
rocks HAD such a modern name-that the
Teutons drew their beautiful fable of
Lorel VI
You have read Homer. You know how
Agamemnon went with his great fleet TO
troy 10 aVenge a private wrong" You
are familiar with the story of that splen-
nld enc and the part the immortal gods
played IN it. Greece seems 70 be predomf-
nant m that best of poems. But when the
truth Is known, the part of Greece was
merely secondary. II was Crete that led
the war on Troy. When Helen plunged
the Achaions into that memorable strug-
gle ldomeneus was the sovereign Of the
island. He espoused the cause of the
Greeks-tor were not the Greeks and the
Cretans of one hlood2-and led his navy
10 the front. More than eighty good ships
were sent from Crete-from Gnossus or
Cnossus, the seat of the klngdom-to Troy
bearing the flower and prime of the free
manhood of the rugged island. Idomeneus
himself was present and was no small part
or mat famous strife Remember that this
Is not fable. hut history. For these were
comparatively recent times and the sue
cessor of the immortal Minos was simply
helping his first cousins. the Greeks At
the close of the Trojan war tdomeneus re
turned TO bis kingdom only TO find that Il
had forgotten his greatness. Homer tells
ms that AT that time in Crgtq fha pnopfe