Zeus, the king of gods and men, was born in a cave in Greece and was raised by a goat, Amalthea. It was also in the nearby islets of Paximadia that the twins Artemis and Apollo were born. When Crete was attacked by a giant lizard, Zeus defended the island and threw a lightning bolt against it, turning the beast to stone and into an island that is now called Dia. On the other hand, the small islands of Lefkai were created after a musical contest between the Sirens and the Muses. The latter, furious that they had lost, pulled all the feathers from the Sirens and threw them into the sea, thus forming those islands. The giant automaton Talos was the guardian of Crete and was killed when Medea pulled a spike that held the ichor, the divine blood, into Talos' body. Finally, it was the place where the palace of King Minos was located, under which Daedalus had built the labyrinth, in order to house the Minotaur, a monster formed from the union of Minos' wife, Pasiphae, and a bull. Daedalus and his son Icarus were kept captive here, but managed to escape by creating wings made of feathers and wax; however, Icarus flew too close to the sun, the wax melted and he fell to his doom. It was here that Theseus was brought in order to kill the Minotaur.
In Greek mythology, a Gorgon is a mythical creature portrayed in ancient Greek literature. While descriptions of Gorgons vary across Greek literature and occur in the earliest examples of Greek literature, the term commonly refers to any of three sisters who had hair made of living, venomous snakes, as well as a horrifying visage that turned those who beheld her to stone. Traditionally, while two of the Gorgons were immortal, Stheno and Euryale, their sister Medusa was not and she was slain by the demigod and hero Perseus. The large Gorgon eyes, as well as Athena 's "flashing" eyes, are symbols termed "the divine eyes" by Gimbutas (who did not originate the perception); they appear also in Athena's sacred bird, the owl. They may be represented by spirals, wheels, concentric circles, swastikas, firewheels, and other images. Anyone who would gaze into their eyes would be turned to stone instantly. Essential Reads: Engaging Books You Can't Miss
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