Case file · Folklore / legend
The cave of Zeus's birth (Psychro)
Greek myth says Zeus was born or hidden in a cave on Mount Dikte in Crete, guarded from his father Kronos and nursed by the goat Amalthea. Around 1900 scholars identified the Psychro cave on the Lasithi plateau as that cave.
1900 CE · 35.16, 25.45 · status: disputed
The account
The cave held a Minoan sanctuary with many votive offerings, which supported the identification. Tourism now presents it as the Diktaean Cave.
The sceptical view
The identification with Dikte is disputed by later scholars; the myth itself is of course myth.