Paximadia ( el, Παξιμάδια, "
rusk
A rusk is a hard, dry biscuit or a twice-baked bread. It is sometimes used as a teether for babies. In some cultures, rusk is made of cake, rather than bread: this is sometimes referred to as cake rusk. In the UK, the name also refers to a whea ...
s") are two small uninhabited islands in the gulf of
Mesara
The Messara Plain or simply Messara ( el, Μεσσαρά) is an alluvial plain in southern Crete, stretching about 50 km west-to-east and 7 km north-to-south, making it the largest plain in Crete.
On a hill at its west end are the ruin ...
located approximately south of
Agia Galini in
Rethymno regional unit. They are in the
Libyan Sea
The Libyan Sea ( Greek , Latin ''Libycum Mare'', Arabic البحر الليبي) is the portion of the Mediterranean Sea north of the African coast of ancient ''Libya'', i.e. Cyrenaica, and Marmarica
(the coast of what is now eastern Libya ...
next to the southern coast of
Crete
Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...
. Due to their proximity to one another, the two islands appear as one from a distance.
Name
Locals often refer to the islands as ''Elephantaki'' because it looks like a baby elephant that is lying down, in the water, with its trunk facing west. The name attributed to the islands today is due to their resembling dry Cretan biscuit known as ''Paximadi'' (the plural being ''Paximadia''). In ancient Crete they were also known as ''Dionysioi'' after the god
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; grc, wikt:Διόνυσος, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstas ...
and also as ''Letoai'' or ''Letoa'' ( grc, Λητῴα)
Ptolemaeus, Geography, §3.15.11
/ref> after the goddess Leto
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Leto (; grc-gre, Λητώ , ''Lētṓ'', or , ''Lātṓ'' in Doric Greek) is a goddess and the mother of Apollo, the god of music, and Artemis, the goddess of the hunt.Hesiod, ''Theogony'404–409/ref> ...
who was worshipped at Phaistos
Phaistos ( el, Φαιστός, ; Ancient Greek: , , Minoan: PA-I-TO?http://grbs.library.duke.edu/article/download/11991/4031&ved=2ahUKEwjor62y3bHoAhUEqYsKHZaZArAQFjASegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1MwIv3ekgX-SxkJrbORipd ), also transliterated as Phaesto ...
, where she was also known as ''Fitii'' in ancient times.
Mythology
In Cretan mythology it is believed that the goddess Leto gave birth to the god Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
and the goddess Artemis
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified with ...
on these islands.
Beaches
There are isolated sand beaches on these islands that can be reached via boat from Aghia Galini.
Literature
The Paximadia islands played a central role in the German novel ''Der kretische Gast'' (The Cretan Guest) by Klaus Modick.
See also
*List of islands of Greece
Greece has many islands, with estimates ranging from somewhere around 1,200 to 6,000, depending on the minimum size to take into account. The number of inhabited islands is variously cited as between 166 and 227.
The largest Greek island by ...
References
{{Cretan islands
Landforms of Rethymno (regional unit)
Uninhabited islands of Crete
Mediterranean islands
Islands of Greece