By Nicolas Bard

For many decades there were a few families of Crete, who grew up with their boys with one and only purpose: when they become men, to take revenge on the name and honor of the family. The vendetta is a remnant of the distant past and has its roots in antiquity, and in some rudimentary codes of then -law.

It is essentially a murder, which is committed to the motive for revenge for another murder, injustice or insult. The vendetta also appears in other parts of Greece, such as Mani, as well as in several countries in the Middle East and the Mediterranean.

Depending on the culture to which this vengeful administration of justice was answered, it also hired a different title, such as the principle of retaliation, tuition or anti -prosecution. More specifically, Aristotle’s texts refer to the customary “law of retaliation” on the basis of which “who commits an offense only as a trial we have done right will be done” (Ethical Nicomachia). Other later wording speaks of the principle of the tie. An exemplary case is the case of Ottoman law, in which the crime of homicide was only justified by murder or “redemption of blood”, that is, with financial compensation to the victim’s relatives.

The Cretan vendetta is based on the unwritten “blood law”.

The word comes from the Latin “vendico”, which means “revenge”. In Crete it has been meeting since many years and still survived as one of the most characteristic events of Cretan peculiarity to this day. In essence, the vendetta is a social code, which is compiled by the concepts of honor and protection. Levisons to start this private war between two families in Megalonissos is the protection of reputation, individual and consequently family honor, after any infringement. The vendetta, however, has always had its own, unwritten rules. The purpose of the retaliation has never been women and children, nor a weak person from a family, but always her blossom, the best of the generation.

The loudest and bloody vendetta that Crete knew was that among the families of Sarzetakis and Pentari in Chania. It lasted 70 years, while many of the direct or indirectly involved sought refuge in other parts of Greece away from the island. Since 1910 the two families were killing successive members of each other for real estate.

The vendetta ended silently in 1985, having measured over 100 victims. The reason was the mediation of people with prestige, and in particular the fact that MP Evangelos Pentaris, a descendant of the other, voted for the President of the Republic, the descendant of Christos Sartzetakis.

Far from the modern urban centers of Crete, in well -hidden mountain villages on the island, the vendetta still exists, perpetuating a macabre custom and an irrational practice, which endangers the lives of many people and bypasses the current laws of the state. Most, of course, want to stop once and for all, and never mourn any family again any loved ones. His camera where there is Greece recorded the testimonies of locals and outlined the situation on the island today.