The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-23
AN ISLE OF ADVENTURE.
Crete Is Remarkably Rich I'm Lee
gendary Literature.

From the Chicago Tlmes-Herald
If the little Island of Crete feels the
eyes of all Europe upon her at present
this is not the first time she has played
an important part in the world Time
was when her hills and valleys sheltered
a hundred cities, and sent out bold cor
sairs, who wrought their will over the
seas of the known world. The history Of
Crete begins with the beginning of time
for in Crete was born no less a person
than Zeus the father of gods and men. 1t
was to this hospitable island that Rhea
his mother, fled when in terror lest her
unborn child should perish at the hands
of his unnatural parents Cronos, who had
fallen into the amiable habit of swallow
ing his children By the advice of her
friends Uranus and &c she fled to Lyotos,
in Crete, concealed her august babe In a
cave of Mount Aegaeon, and gave her
voracious husband a stone wrapped in a
cloth, which he swallowed i'm the firm
belief that 1t was his son. But not hav-
ting the stomach of an ostrich, the grand
father of gods and men was afterward
compelled to disgorge the stone, besides
some of the swallowed children, and the
unfillal Zeus set it up In his own honor
at Delphi.
The poets-in those happy days history
was in the hands of poets-do not all
agree in the facts-as what biographers
ever do? But they are practically united
in declaring that in Crete the Thunderer
was born, and that here, fed by nymphs
with goats milk and honey, he grew to
the full stature of his divinity, and acquir-
ed the strength which enabled him 10 de-
liver the Cyclops and Giants. with their
assistance conquer the Titans and smut
them up in Tartarus, and thence, armed
by the grateful Cyclops with thunder and
~ tfaxrf 1y n n
quest of gods and men. The ancient Gre
tans, the flying Cretans," as other ma
lions called them, pointed out not only
the birthplace but the tomb OF Zeus, pre-
ferrlng to bury him in their tight little
island rather than admit his Hellenic Inn
mortality on Mount Olympus.
II was to Crete that Zeus, in the form
of a bull carried the Phoenician princess
Europa, and here she became the mother
of the great king Minos and the just
Rhadamauthus, who were promoted after
death TO be Judges of souls In the lower
world. on the death Of the reigning
King of Crete, Minos, being the son of
the king of heaven not unnaturally aim
ed at the sovereignty of this small por-
ton of the earth. To attest his claims,
he declared to all DIRECTORS that any
thing he asked Of the god would be grant
ed him. Accordingly, as he was offering
UP a sacrifice TO Poseidons, he prayed
that lnlll might come tOrth nom the
sea for the sacrifice. The bull appeared.
and Minos won his crown. But because
of the beauty of the animal Minos could
not bear to sacrifice 1t, and long train of
ills punished his perfidy to the god The
bull became the father of the Minotaur,
that devouring monsters with the body OF
a man and the head of a bull, TO whose
labyrinth the Athenians were compelled
TO send every year tribute OF seven
youths and seven maidens, until at last
their hero Theseus slew him.
King Minos gave wise laws TO Crete,
and no wonder, for Teus himself had in
structed him in law-giving. The sage
Lycurgus admired his system OF gov
eminent and in many points modelled the
Spartan laws upon 1t. Hercules deliver
ed the island from wild and noxious ami
mails. Thus favored. and standing mid
way between Europe and Asia, IL became
a cosmopolitan stopping place. Homer
mentions FIVE races which dwelt and
quarreled there. Among the rich forests
OF Mount Ida were richer mines. The
soil was fertile and wen watered. The
island developed rapidly; everything grew
better in Crete than elsewhere. II be-
came noted for wines and honey and