Location of the Holiday House

Villa Talea and the village of Exantis is situated near the north coast of central Crete. The nearest large town is Rethymnon which lies approx. 25 kilometres west of Exantis.

The Village of Exantis

The village of Exantis is one of the oldest villages in Geropótamos Municipality.

According to the local tradition the name of the village is inspired by the shape of one of the mountains in the area.

From the sea this mountain looks like a sextant (called an εξάντας (exantas) in Greek) and the seamen used it as a bearing when they were passing by this stretch of the Cretan coast.

Another story behind the name is, that six families used to live in the area - or sometimes it is claimed that six villages should have been here in the old days.

Thus, the name should stem from the word έξι (exi), which means six in Greek.

None of these explanations, however, are quite satisfying.
The mountain after which the village is supposed to have its' name is not called 'exantas' at all. It is called 'the top'. And it would be a bit strange if the mountain had lost its' name but the village hadn't.
And 'exi' would only explain the first syllabel in the name - not the entire name.

Instead one can try to decipher the name. 'Exantis' doesn't exist in modern Greek but an old dictionary from 1830 gives an explanation.

According to this the first syllabel έξ (ex) means 'from' 'away from' or 'outside of'. And the remaining part of the name αντης (antis) is derived from ατη (ati), which means hurt, damage og evil. Ati originally is the name of a goddess who in Greek mythology personifies evil og hurt.

And with this the explanation of the name of the village is given. Exantis means 'away from evil' - a peaceful place in other words.

If this is the correct explanation then we should be able to find older spellings of the name a little closer to its' meaning - and that's exactly the case. First time Exantis is mentioned in writing is in a Turkish population census from 1671 under the name of 'Iks-ati'.

In the early nineties around 100 people lived in the village. Today, perhaps as few as 50-60 individuals have permanent residence here. For a homepage about Exantis, please click here