Psychro Cave

35.16274325.445212Koordinaten: 35 ° 9 ' 46 "N, 25 ° 26' 43 " O

The Cave of Psychro (Greek Ψυχρό ) (also known as Zeus Cave and Diktäische Cave) is located at the place Psychro above the Lasithi Plateau on the Greek island of Crete, about 48 km south-east of Heraklion. She was an important place of worship of the Minoans, as evidenced by findings that ( about 2800 BC) date back to the frühminoische era. This cult is possibly the Greek myth in conjunction, after Zeus had been born in this cave and was fed by Amalthea and the Curetes. The Cave of Psychro was identified as this mythical cave in ancient times Δικταίον Αντρον ( Dikteion Antron " cave Diktäische " ) was called. Another birth cave is located in the Ida Mountains ( idäische cave).

The Diktäische cave in mythology

According to the report of Hesiod about the birth of Zeus:

" Thither [ Crete ] Gaia brought by black night it [the new-born Zeus ] quickly after Lyktos, took her in his arms on him and buried him in a deep cave, beneath the wooded hills on the Aegaeon their holy places ... "

In Apollodorus this report will be amended to state that the young Zeus the concern of the Curetes and the Daughters of Melisseus ( " honey man " ), the nymphs Adrasteia and Ide, was passed. The nymphs nurtured the infant with the milk of Amalthea, while the Curetes guarded the boy, and with their spears struck loudly against their shields so as to drown out the cries of the newborn, thus he would not be found by his father Kronos, who intended so, to devour her son.

According to Athenaeus, the generation of noise by the loud grunting of a pig was worried at the teat was nourished the young Zeus. For this reason, the pig for the Cretans was a sacred animal, and no Cretans was ready to eat pork.

Except in the legend of the birth of Zeus even in the Report on the Abduction of Europa Lucian of Samosata plays a role diktäische cave. There namely the divine marriage between Europe, the Phoenician princess, and her kidnapper Zeus takes place:

"... And Zeus in his own shape led Europen, which now glowed with sweet blush and did not raise his eyes dared, as they certainly now realized what it was doing, the diktäischen cave. "

Other sources in ancient literature can be found in Strabo ( Geographica 10,4,12 ), Dionysius of Halicarnassus ( Antiquitates Romanae 2.61 ) and Diodorus ( Libraries 5.70). However, in these reports is probably the Idäische cave meant the Psiloritis mountains.

Excavations

Around 1880, a hunter found in the cave, the bronze statuette of a bull. This triggered a treasure hunt through the residents of the surrounding villages, in which a large number of bronze objects and clay figurines were found primarily in the upper part of the cave. The news of these discoveries prompted Joseph Hatzidakis, then President of Education Friends of Heraklion, and the Italian archaeologist Federico Half Men to visit the cave in 1886 and carried out an informal excavation.

The actual archaeological development of the cave began in 1895. Early as the year before, the British archaeologist Evans (known as the excavator of Knossos ) Lasithi visited and bought by the inhabitants of some finds from the cave. Now he started together with his colleague John Linton Myres, a systematic exploration of the cave room. Initially this was limited to the near-surface layers and the column spaces of the stalagmites, as the limited resources did not allow a clearing of the numerous fallen down from the ceiling rock pieces. In the continuation of the excavation in 1896 a young man named Yorgos Margojannakis Evans reported on the discovery of a " broken stone with letters". As it turned out, it was the fragment of a sacrificial table made ​​of soapstone with three cavities for libations. The characters proved to be linear A.

The following year, 1897, the French archaeologist Joseph Demargne conducted an unofficial excavation and found another piece of the sacrificial table, another table of offerings of the same material with only one cavity, as well as pottery and a golden ribbon.

Demargne was also involved in the next official excavation, which was carried out by the British archaeologist David George Hogarth, director of the British School at Athens, in 1899. The excavation methods Hogarth are open to criticism from today's perspective, in particular the use of explosives in excavation is now uncommon. Hogarth used gunpowder to smash the fallen caprock. After all, it apparently managed to secure a large share of the finds from the near-surface layers and the stalactite columns. Apart from a brief statement no documentation of the excavation has been published.

The known finds from the official and unofficial excavations were compiled by John Boardman in a monograph published in 1961.

The artifacts are scattered over different museums:

• Ashmolean Museum ( Oxford): Observations by Evans;
• Louvre ( Paris): Observations by Demargne;
• British Museum (London) and Fitzwilliam Museum ( Cambridge ): Part of the collection of Hogarth, mainly Tongegenstände;
• Archaeological Museum (Heraklion ): Main part of the findings of Hogarth and finds of Hatzidakis and semi Lord;
• Archaeological Museum ( Agios Nikolaos ): some recent findings.