Crete-Discover the Unknown Crete

C H A P T E R 4
The dominion
of the powerful
Pressos
extended over
the whole
region of Sitia,
and a treaty
was even made
with the distant
Itanos in order
to avoid
surrender to
the rival city of
Hierapytna
Every Minoan
settlement had its
own mountain-top
sanctuary:
the sanctuary of
Pressos lay on the
peak of Prinias
with which it was
linked by friendship,
and Hierapytna
(Ierapetra), the
eternal rival,
especially as far as
the lucrative trade in
purple dye which was
extracted from a
particular species
of mollusc which
abounded in the
coastal waters was
concerned.
Pressos venerated
Zeus Dikteo and
practiced a strange cult, that of the "sacred
pig", as a result of which the populace was
forbidden to eat pork. Governed by a
democratic aristocracy, Pressos was an
extremely wealthy city that minted coins
with the effigies of Apollo, Hercules, Zeus
and Demeter. In the buildings from the
Greek/Hellenistic period, in the sanctuary
and in the tombs, precious finds have been
made: terracotta figures, painted lions,
helmets, shields and pectorals in bronze and
two Athenian amphorae of the sixth century
B.C. which probably belonged to a local
athlete who had won prizes at the
Panathenian Games.
When Ierapetra openly declared war on
Pressos, the inhabitants turned for
protection to the allied city of Itanos and
also to Ptolemy Philimetor, ruler of Egypt
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