Dikteon Cave, Childhood home of Zeus

On a hot day last week my guest Ian Murphy and I made the trek across Crete to Mount Ida and the Dikteon Cave.

It is about a three hour drive although less that 200 kilometres. Such is travelling on Crete through the rugged mountains. We took a wrong turn and discovered the wonderful village of Mochos- a place to which I certainly want to return.




















Zeus appears to have had his roots in Crete.

Many other places make this claim as well but this Canuck is convinced that it was here that Zeus came into existence in the minds of the people long ago. Why- because I can.

Before any written record that can be read Zeus was worshipped on Crete.

It may be that when the Linear A texts are deciphered [the Minoan writings] they will record an earlier version of Zeus' evolving story than previously known

According the oldest Greek myths Zeus was born to the sister and brother Rhea and Cronus

The goddess Rhea appear to mean "ground" or Mother Earth and she was mother to all the Olympian gods although not an Olympian herself. The second largest moon of Saturn is named for her.

Cronus had killed his own father - Uranus- to become the most powerful god and knew one of his children was to dethrone him.

So Cronus ate his sons and daughters as they were born so none could challenge him.




Rhea was disturbed by this pattern of behaviour so when the 6th child was born on Crete, Zeus, she tricked Cronus with a stone which he swallowed believing it to be Zeus.
She then secreted Zeus away to the Dikteon Cave, where he was raised by the nymph Adamanthea.




Cronus was the god of earth, air and water so hiding him was a challenge. Adamanthes suspended him on a rope in the middle of the cave so Cronus could not know where he was.

The Dikteon Cave is found within Mount Ida- the highest mountain on Crete at 2500 m or just over 8000 feet.


The mountains on Crete are quite dangerous as they are limestone and full of caves and holes into which many explorers and hikers have disappeared. Remember the old movie- "Journey to the Centre of the Earth?" The survivors of that movie emerged on Crete.


To get to this side of Mt Ida requires a trip across the spectacular Plateau of Lisithi and up to Psychro - which means the "cold village" and is one of the few villages in the Mediterrean that is above 800 meters. It gets several feet of snow in the winter.











I have a bad knee so I had an excuse to take a donkey so Dora took me to the top of the trail to the Dikteon Cave while Ian took the "scared way" and thus is a true worshipper of Zeus.

The cave is almost vertical and defends steeply into a cool, damp gloom. I can only imagine the ancient people with some sort of fire torch making their way down the treacherous rock falls with the slimy algae growths on the rock. The torch would have cast strange and terrifying images as the stalagmites and stalactites emerge from the ceiling and down the walls, walls etched in coatings akin to those found in the horror movie Alien 1.

The entrance to the cave is down a set of steep steps and care has to taken as these are damp and slippery.

This map of the cave depicts the stairways- not a boardwalk as I had first assumed when I saw it. 















The subdued cave lighting is just enough to make one's way around safely and to see the incredible rock formations yet dark enough to let the imagination wander. It is weird and magnificent at the same time and I can easily see why such a place was attributed spiritual significance for surely a god did live here.

According to an old legend mortals were forbidden to enter the scared cave. Laius, Cerberus, Celeus and Aegolius were determined to enter the cave to collect the sacred honey from the countless sacred bees that make this home.

Entering the cave they found the swaddling clothes of Zeus who was enraged and threw thunder bolts at them. I guess we could conclude they found themselves in deep "s..t on more than one level at the same time. But it was impossible to die in the sacred cave so Themis and the Fates turned the men into birds to save them from eternal torture at the hands of Zeus.

Another myth has it the Minos, king of the Minoans, met his father Zeus in this cave every nine years to receive the renewed laws of people.

This myth resulted in the myth that Minos became the absolute judge of all and after his death became the judge of Hades where all injustices of life were accounted for in the afterlife.

Another myth says that Minos was born in this cave. When Zeus abducted Europa from Phoenicia where she was a princess, he took her here and after their union Minos was born.

 Epimenides was attributed as being one the wisest men of he ancient world. He visited this cave and fell asleep. He awoke many years later having not aged but having acquired his great wisdom and insightful divine knowledge.

The Diktone Cave has been a special place for millennia and remains such a place to this day.

I feel wiser for just having been here

Worshippers throughout many centuries made their own pilgrimages to this cave to worship Zeus and offer sacrifices such as these incredible, but impractical, bronze shields from the Bronze age. These appear to have been buried in the cave as offerings to Zeus. 

Thank you for reading this post. I would welcome some feedback or questions and of course any inaccuracies that you may have found.