Cretans
group · 8 works · 13 mentions · 18 anchored passages
the Cretans · dêmos of the Cretans · men of Crete
in the texts
Anabasis
Cretan archers in the Greek army who reuse enemy arrows for long-range practice.
The Persian bows are also large, and consequently the Cretans could make good use of all the arrows that fell into their hands;
In these regions the Cretans made themselves exceedingly useful.
The events were, a stadium race for boys, most of them belonging to the captives, a long race, in which more than sixty Cretans took part, wrestling, boxing, and the pancratium;
Iliad
Achaean contingent led by Idomeneus and Meriones, found arming for battle.
Passing through the crowd, he came presently on the Cretans, arming round Idomeneus, who was at their head, fierce as a wild boar, while Meriones was bringing up the battalions that were in the rear.
And Idomeneus chief among the Cretans answered, "Thoas, no one, so far as I know, is responsible [ aitios], for we can all fight.
And Idomeneus leader of the Cretans answered, "You will find one spear, or twenty if you so please, standing up against the end wall of my tent.
On the Commonwealth
People of Crete cited as regarding brigandage as honorable, illustrating variation in moral custom.
And the institutions of life differ so much that the Cretans and the Aetolians think brigandage honourable, the Lacedaemonians used to claim that all the fields were theirs which they could reach with a spear.
The Histories
People of Crete who considered but ultimately refused to aid the Greek alliance after consulting the Delphic oracle.
” When this was brought to the ears of the Cretans, they would have nothing to do with aiding the Greeks.
But the Cretans, when the Greeks appointed to deal with them were trying to gain their aid, acted as I will show.
Presently all the Cretans except the men of Polichne and Praesus were bidden by a god to go with a great host to Sicania.
Odyssey
The people of Crete, described in the false Cretan tale as honoring the narrator's family and sending him to war.
nevertheless, my father Castor son of Hylax (whose lineage I claim, and who was held in the highest honor in the dêmos of the Cretans for his wealth, prosperity [ olbos], and the valor of his sons) put me on the same level with my brothers who had been born in wedlock.
"My house grew apace and I became a great man among the Cretans, but when Zeus counseled that terrible expedition, in which so many perished, the people required me and Idomeneus to lead their ships to Troy, and there was no way out of it, for the judgment of the dêmos insisted on our doing so.
The Rights of War and Peace
A people whose civil broils are cited by Plutarch as still sparing the priesthood.
Plutarch relates of the Cretans, that when all order among them was entirely broken by their civil broils, they abstained from offering violence to any member of the priesthood, or to those employed in the sacred rites belonging to the dead.
Republic
A Greek people credited with originating the practice of athletic nudity.
And when the practice of athletics began, first with the Cretans and then with the Lacedaemonians, it was open to the wits of that time to make fun of these practices, don’t you think so?
De Anima
A people branded as liars by the apostle Paul, cited as an example of national character.
the apostle too brands the Cretans as liars.