History of Crete Venice, overthrew official Venetian authorities and declared an independent Cretan Republic. The revolt took Venice five years to quell. During Venetian rule, the Greek population of Crete was exposed to Renaissance culture. A thriving literature in the Cretan dialect of Greek developed on the island. The best-known work from this period is the poem "Erotokritos" by Vitsentzos Kornaros (Βιτσένζος Κορνάρος). Another major Cretan literary figure was Nicholas Kalliakis (1645–1707), a Greek scholar and philosopher who flourished in Italy in the 17th Century. Georgios Hortatzis was author of the dramatic work "Erophile". The painter Domenicos Theotocopoulos, better known as El Greco,
And Their Name Was Treason living with his parents at the time. The band released an independent EP, "Halos for Heros, Dirt for the Dead", which helped them secure a recording contract. The EP contained an early version of "If Looks Could Kill", titled "If Looks Could Kill...then You'd Be Dead". According to McKinnon, "And Their Name Was Treason" was recorded "probably within 3 days", in Andrew Wade's bedroom at his parents house (credited in the album booklet as The Wade Studio). The members later said they had "no idea" what were they doing when they were recording the album. The album features samples from