Cres (mythology)

In Greek mythology, Cres or Kres (Κρής, gen. Κρητός) was a possible eponym of the island Crete. Stephanus of Byzantium distinguishes between two figures of this name: one was a son of Zeus and the nymph Idaea, and the other a Cretan autochthon.[1] According to Cinaethon of Sparta, Cres was the father of Talos.[2]

The autochthonous Cres is mentioned by Diodorus Siculus as the king of a whole earth-born nation, the Eteocretans ("true Cretans"), and the inventor of a number of items that were crucial for the development of the human civilization.[3] According to a tradition recorded by Stephanus, it was during Cres' reign that Tectaphus, son of Dorus, migrated to Crete from Thessaly, followed by Dorian and Achaean tribes, as well as by those of the Pelasgians that had not migrated to Tyrrhenia.[4]

Several authors identified Cres as one of the Curetes, possibly their king,[5] and therefore a caretaker of the young Zeus who was hidden by him in a cave on Crete.[6]

See also

References
  1. Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Krētē
  2. Cited in Pausanias, Description of Greece, 8. 53. 5
  3. Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, 5. 64. 1
  4. Stephanus of Byzantium s. v. Dōrion
  5. Anaximander in Solinus, 11. 5
  6. Arrian in Eustathius on Dionysius Periegetes, 498
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