Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: Zeus

Chania is the second largest settlement on the island after Heraklion. This area appears to have been inhabited since the Neolithic Age. It was built as a city in the Minoan period (3000–1900 BC) under the name Kudonija. According to ancient tradition, the city was founded by the mythical King Minos. Cydonia reemerged after the end of the Minoan period as an important city-state. The first major wave of settlers from mainland Greece was by the Dorians who came around 1100 BC. In Homer's Odyssey the inhabitants of Kydonia are mentioned twice. After centuries of war between the Cretan cities, the island became a Roman province in 67 BC. Due to its pro-Roman stance, the city was granted the status of a free city. The Roman conquest of Crete marked the end of the civil wars and the beginning of a long period of peace and economic prosperity. After the end of the Roman Empire and the division of the empire in 395, Chania was ruled by the Byzantine Empire (395–824) and then by the Emirate of Crete (824–961). During the second Byzantine period (961–1204), the city was known in Greek as Chania. To ward off further Arab invasion, the Byzantines heavily fortified the city, using materials from ancient buildings in the surrounding area.After the fall of Constantinople during the 1204 Fourth Crusade, Crete was sold to the Venetians In 1252, the Venetians managed to subdue the Cretans and Chania flourished as a commercial centre of a fertile agricultural region. Contact with Venice led to close intertwining of Cretan and Venetian cultures. The city walls were reinforced at this time, but could notnot prevent an Ottoman army from capturing it from the Venetians after a two-month siege. Many Cretans fled to escape persecution while numerous Turkish Muslim settlers arrived changing the ethnic mix of the city. The city remained under Ottoman control despite fighting during the Greek War of Independence and the Cretan Revolts in the 19th century until Crete moved towards independence that eventually led to Crete's union with Greece on 1 December 1913. The Archaeological Museum of Chania is located in the suburb of Chalepa housed in a large modern building. The abduction by Europa by Zeus in form of a bull / 360 - 340 BC

Crete, the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, is located about 100 km south of the Peloponnese. Crete was the center of Europe's first advanced civilization, the Minoans, from 3000 to 1400 BC. The Minoan civilization was overrun by the Mycenaean civilization from mainland Greece. Crete was later ruled by Rome, then successively by the Byzantine Empire, Andalusian Arabs, the Byzantine Empire again, the Venetian Republic, and the Ottoman Empire. In 1898 Crete, whose people had for some time wanted to join the Greek state, achieved independence from the Ottomans, formally becoming the Cretan State. Crete became part of Greece in December 1913. Heraklion is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete. With a municipal population of about 180.000 it is the fourth largest city in Greece. The greater area of Heraklion has been continuously inhabited since at least 7000 BCE, making it one of the oldest inhabited regions in Europe. As a major center of the Minoan civilization it often considered Europe's oldest city. The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is one of the largest museums in Greeceand the best in the world for Minoan art, as it contains by far the most important and complete collection of artefacts of the Minoan civilization of Crete. The museum began in 1883 as a simple collection of antiquities; it was about the time when the Minoan civilization was beginning to be rediscovered, and shortly before the first excavations using proper scientific methods. It was also during the period when Crete was a virtually autonomous part of the Ottoman Empire, after the Pact of Halepa of 1878, later followed by the independent Cretan State (1898-1913). The political situation helped to keep Cretan finds on the island during a crucial period of discoveries. The museum is located in the town centre. It was built between 1937 and 1940 on a site previously occupied by the Roman Catholic monastery of Saint-Francis which was destroyed by earthquake in 1856. The bronze shield depicts Zeus, surrounded in the centre by Curetes with drums Ideon Andron 7th to 8th century BC.