Crete’s Minoan Palace of Knossos is only 5 kilometers from Heraklion.
It is a lot more interesting to tour Knossos knowing about the myth of Theseus. Legend has it that King Minos, from Crete, had won a battle over Athens. As a result, every 9 years, Athens had to send 7 boys and 7 girls to Crete to feed the Minotaur. The Minotaur lived in a Labyrinth inside the palace and was half man and half bull
Theseus volunteered to go and try to kill the monster. He promised his father, Aegeus, that if successful, he would return with white sails, but if he had been killed, the sails would be black.
On Crete, Theseus fell in love with Ariadne, King Minos’ daughter. She gave him a ball of thread to find his way out of the Labyrinth. The hero managed to defeat the beast, leave the Labyrinth, and sail away with Ariadne. But Ariadne was left behind in Naxos on the way back. In despair over the loss of Ariadne, Theseus forgot to change the sails of his boat. His father, seeing the ship approaching with black sails, believed his son was dead and threw himself into the sea. He died and with his death the Aegean Sea got his name.
