The Cretan sheep cooperative farms “Kritika mitata” recently exported 5.500 live sheeps and lambs to Libya. Googling “Live sheep for Northern African Countries” I found out that there are inquires for continuous supply of live sheep for Libya. This sounds like very good news for Cretan economy.
Flocks of sheep and goats are nothing new for Crete. The raising of them occupies a central position among the economic activities of the island. Besides, the breeding of cattle and sheep was regarded by Diodorus as an invention of the Couretes, the Cretan daemons who “dwelt in the mountains, under the shade of thick trees, and in caves and other places that naturally afforded them a shelter and covering.”
Flocks of sheep and goats are nothing new for Crete. The raising of them occupies a central position among the economic activities of the island. Besides, the breeding of cattle and sheep was regarded by Diodorus as an invention of the Couretes, the Cretan daemons who “dwelt in the mountains, under the shade of thick trees, and in caves and other places that naturally afforded them a shelter and covering.”
Please, check out some articles on Cretan sheeps and lambs in prehistoric, classical and hellenistic Crete. They are very interesting indeed.
The administration of Mycenaean sheep rearing (flocks, shepherds, “collectors”), by Françoise Rougemont.
The diachronic analysis of pastoralism through comparative variables, by Lucia Nixon and Simon Price (from Annual of the British School at Athens 96: 395-424)
Problems of “Pastoralism” and “Transhumance” in Classical and Hellenistic Crete, by Angelos Chaniotis (from Orbis Terrarum 1, 1995, 39-89).