"Crete is a land, in the midst of the wine-dark sea, beautiful and fertile, surrounded by water; and there are many people, countless, and ninety cities" (Homer's Odyssey T, 172-174) "A truly admirable race, which learned to maintain its national characteristics and pure language unscathed despite the adventures of forty centuries: bravery, mixed with a sense of independence, often bordering on defiance, lively intelligence, fiery imagination, a language full of images, spontaneous and unpretentious, love for every form of adventure, an indomitable freedom, which goes hand in hand with an insatiable desire for prominence... A fruitful country, which continuously produces the most worthy people in the Church and the State, in sciences and letters, in the economy and in war..." (L. Petit, Latin Archbishop of Athens)