Rhaucus or Rhaukos () was a town of

ancient Crete The history of Crete goes back to the 7th millennium BC, preceding the ancient Minoan civilization by more than four millennia. The Minoan civilization was the first civilization in Europe. During the Iron Age, Crete developed an Ancient Greece-i ...

. From the story told about the Cretan bees by

Antenor __NOTOC__ Antenor (, ''Antḗnōr''; BC) was an Athenian sculptor. He is recorded as the creator of the joint statues of the tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton funded by the Athenians on the expulsion of Hippias. These statues were ...

in his ''Cretica'' it seems that there were two cities of this name in Crete. The existence of two places so called in the island might give rise to some such legend as that which he mentions. The site of one Rhaucus is at or near modern

Agios Myronas Agios Myronas (, formerly Άγιος Μύρων ''Agios Myron'') is a village in the Heraklion regional unit of Crete, Greece, named for Saint Myron of Crete. In 2021, its population was 569. Agios Myronas is built on two hills. The school's clo ...

, between

Knossos Knossos (; , ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major centre of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on th ...

and

Gortyna Gortyna (; also known as Gortyn (Γορτύν)) was a town of ancient Crete which appears in the Homeric poems under the form of Γορτύν; but afterwards became usually Gortyna (Γόρτυνα). According to Stephanus of Byzantium it was or ...

, and from its proximity to

Mount Ida In Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida in Crete, and Mount Ida in the ancient Troad region of western Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey), which was also known as the '' Phrygian Ida' ...

, we can infer that it is the more ancient.

References

Populated places in ancient Crete Former populated places in Greece {{AncientCrete-geo-stub