THE CAVE
Located halfway between Iraklion and Rethymo, Psiloritis is the highest mountain on the island of Crete. According to the Greek mythology, Rea gave birth to the god Zeus hidden in Ideon Antron, a cave of Psiloritis, so Zeus could be hidden and not being devoured by Cronus, his father. But even long before ancient Greece, Psiloritis was already considered a sacred place. The first remains of humans inhabiting the Ideon Antron cave date from the end of the Neolithic period, and as early as 2,000 BC there are remains that prove the use of the cave as a center of rituals and tributes to the Gods. The same mountains were one of the main centers of the ancient Minoan civilization, in the Bronze Age. And already in the 20th century, Psiloritis was the scene of some of the most bloody episodes in Crete's recent history during the German occupation of World War II: hidden in the peaks of Psiloritis, the Cretans harassed the German troops to force them to retire. The Nazis razed entire villages in their retreat, killing more than a third of the population.
In the heart of the mountain, just a few kilometers away from Ideon Antron, you will find the village of Anogeia. Its inhabitants remain anchored in the double isolation that implies living on a high mountain inside an island. Anogeia has been inhabited by practically the same 22 surnames for centuries; with little immigration, almost no tourism, and clinging to traditions that go back several generations. Men are shepherds or butchers; women are still mourning the dead of the revolts against Turks and Germans; young people marry according to the same rites as their great-grandparents, children are baptized in the numerous Orthodox churches scattered throughout the mountain, and the culture of Cretan weapons reaches its highest point here. Time has stopped for a mountain wrapped in legends and the community that inhabits it.
"The Cavern" is a journey that departs from this stage to travel to a land inhabited by faith, beliefs, legends and Cretan popular culture. A game in which reality and supposedly concrete facts function as the Platon’s shadows of knowledge: symbols and representations that encompass much more generic concepts. A journey from the present to the roots of Ancient Greece, one of the main Mediterranean civilizations, the cradle of the formation of Western thought, whose legacy and influence is key to understand not only the present civilization of the Mediterranean peoples, but also by extension, the origin of man and his beliefs as we know them today.
