Of the 29 ancient cities named after Heracles, only the city of Crete was called Herakleion. The rest were called Heraclea, which may have misled Pliny when he recorded the city as such. In fact, as Angelos Chaniotis argues, the place name must have been derived from the phrase “to Herakleion hieron” (the sanctuary of Heracles), so Herakleion was originally a sanctuary dedicated to Heracles, either the hero of Greek mythology or the homonymous Idaean Dactyl, around which a community dependent on Knossos gradually developed. Most of the cities dedicated to Heracles were located on the Mediterranean coast and were centres of maritime trade, perhaps reflecting the mythical voyages of the hero. The cult of Heracles may have reached Herakleion, also an important trading port, via Argos, the hero’s native city, which seems to have exerted considerable influence as a metropolis on neighbouring Knossos during the 5th and 4th centuries BC. However, the foundation of the sanctuary cannot have preceded the foundation of the settlement, which, according to recent excavations, seems to have existed since Minoan times.