Welcome to our Community!
Cretans Association
of Toronto
est.1961
We would like to personally
welcome you to the "Cretans
Association of Toronto" Website.
and thank-you for visiting.
Perhaps there is no better
medium today than the world wide web for
sharing a thought, an idea and a culture
to an audience that might be dispersed far
and wide. We hope to develop this site into
much more than just another social club
website, but a celebration of our beautiful
island of Crete and what
it means to be Cretan.
-the Executive Committee
Homer mentions the great city
of Knossos in the Odyssey.
It was located on Crete,
the largest of the Aegean islands. Because
by legend King Minos ruled this city, the
civilization is thus termed Minoan. Sir
Arthur Evans discovered the buried remains
of this palace and adjoining buildings in
1900 which at its height covered about six
acres. This large multi-storied palace was
organized around a central court, but the
plan itself was complex, often called labyrinthine,
in reference to the legendary Cretan labyrinth.
The palace contained well-stocked magazines,
royal apartments, shrines, a throne room,
and service areas. Sir Evans excavated and
reconstructed much of the site with some
restorations in different materials (for
example, the restored stone columns were
originally wood).
In the following pages you
can learn all about our Association
and being Cretan in Toronto,
Canada. |