EASTERN CRETE

C H A P T E R 2
The Cave of Milatos
The grotto of
Milatos is formed
of a series of
caverns and
corridors stretching
several miles
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Turning one's
gaze towards the
mountains, one
notes a low hill
with the white
church of Ayios
Elias: this was the
peak sanctuary
of Malia, in which
the votive
offerings to the
gods were
deposited
Journeying towards the coast one arrives
at the village of Milatos built not far from the
ruins of the ancient Militos (or Miletus),
already inhabited in the Late Minoan period
and mentioned by Homer, Strabo and
Pausanias. Myth tells that the local ruler,
Pindareos, stole Zeus's favourite dog and
gave it to Tantalus. For this impudence
Pindareos and his wife were cruelly
punished by the gods and condemned to
death, while their daughters became slaves
of the Furies. In the third century B.C. Miletus
was destroyed by the inhabitants of
Lyttos: only a few stones and some
tombs carved out of the rock remain
visible.
Even more terrible is the story
of the cave of Milatos, site of a
ferocious massacre at the hands of
the Ottomans. In the February of
1823 around 3600 inhabitants of
the area, men, women and children,
rebels, priests and ordinary citizens, took
refuge in the deep cavern of Milatos to
escape the cruelties of General Hassan
Pasha. Betrayed by a Turkish townsman, the
cave was besieged for a long period and
many died of hunger and thirst. Deceived by
the Turks' false promise that in the case of
surrender they would spare women and
children, the men left the cavern, but to the
cry of "death to the infidels" the massacre of
the fugitives began. Every last one of them
was killed. In a large space inside the grotto
a catafalque has been laid out with
commemorative stones and a small cave
church dedicated to St. Thomas where each
year the martyrs of Milatos are
commemorated.
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