Idaion Andron
The Ideon Cave is on the east side of Mount Ida in central Crete, at an altitude of 1,498 metres. The cave is 20 kilometres after the village of Anogia and a few metres higher than the Nida Plateau.
The cave is not particularly important from the geological point of view but it has a tremendous archaeological and cultural value. According to Greek mythology, it is the place where the Cretan-born Zeus (the king of the ancient Greek gods) was hidden by his mother to save him from the rage of his father, Cronos. The Curetes (Kourites), the local warriors masked the baby’s crying with their noise, while Amalthea, a goat with gold horns, nursed him with her milk. Archaeological excavations by Prof. I. Sakelarakis have revealed a great number of golden, iron and other finds proving that the Idaion Andron was the largest place of worship on Crete from the Minoan until the Roman era. Even today, the rocky, carved altar of antiquity still dominates the entrance to the cave.
The whole story.Cronus swallowed his children so they would not be able to take his place..
Cronusand Rhea had had five children before Zeus, who all ended up in their father’s stomach.
When Rhea became pregnant with Zeus, she did not want him to share their fate, so she asked for the help of her parents, Uranus and Gaia.
Following their advice, she went to Crete and hid in a cave in the Cretan mountains to bring forth the child in secret, unknown to her child-eating husband. As soon as Rhea gave birth to Zeus, the healthy boy who was to become the Father of the Gods of Olympus, she gave him to the Curetes to look after. They danced and stamped, beat their drums and clashed their shields to cover the baby’s crying.
In order to deceive her husband Cronus, Rhea gave him a stone wrapped in swaddling clothes instead of the baby. He swallowed the supposed infant at once and relaxed once more in the certainty that his throne was not at risk from his children.
Little Zeus was growing up in the cave where he remained hidden in the mountains of Crete. The goat Amalthea and the nymph Melissa played an important part in his upbringing.
When Zeus eventually grew up went to find his father and take over from him, he sliced open Cronus’s belly and out leapt all the children he had swallowed in the past: Hera, Poseidon, Hestia, Demeter and Pluto (Hades). With their help, Zeus fought the Titans who controlled the universe, led by Cronus.
The war was long and cruel but it was finally won by Zeus and his siblings, who, together with Zeus’s children, made up the Twelve Gods of Olympus.
If you go in the winter maybe difficult to approach the parking place and the cache, because of the snow.