Crete macrocarpa" forest in Europe. Samaria Gorge is a World Biosphere Reserve and Richtis Gorge is protected for its landscape diversity. Crete has a rich mythology mostly connected with the ancient Greek Gods but also connected with the Minoan civilisation. According to Greek Mythology, The Diktaean Cave at Mount Dikti was the birthplace of the god Zeus. The Paximadia islands were the birthplace of the goddess Artemis and the god Apollo. Their mother, the goddess Leto, was worshipped at Phaistos. The goddess Athena bathed in Lake Voulismeni. The ancient Greek god Zeus launched a lightning bolt at a giant lizard that
Group of Zeus and Ganymede it formed part of an aristocratic ideal. As a god, Zeus could naturally transgress those limits and steal the youth away. The terracotta group appears to be the earliest work of Greek art in which the eyes are depicted in an expressive way and the figures do not simply stare straight ahead as previously the norm. Group of Zeus and Ganymede The Group of Zeus and Ganymede is a multi-figure Late Archaic Greek terracotta statue group, depicting Zeus carrying the boy Ganymede off to Mount Olympus. It was created in the first quarter of the fifth century and is now