In Greek mythology, two sacred mountains are called Mount Ida, the "Mountain of the Goddess": Mount Ida in Crete; and Mount Ida in the ancient Troad region of western Anatolia (in modern-day Turkey) which was also known as the Phrygian Ida in classical antiquity and is the mountain that is mentioned in the Iliad of Homer and the Aeneid of Virgil. Both are associated with the mother goddess in the deepest layers of pre-Greek myth, in that Mount Ida in Anatolia was sacred to Cybele, who is sometimes called Mater Idaea ("Idaean Mother"), while Rhea, often identified with Cybele, put the infant Zeus to nurse with Amaltheia at Mount Ida in Crete. Thereafter, his birthplace was sacred to Zeus, the king and father of Greek gods and goddesses.
The name Ida (Ἴδη) is of unknown origin. Instances of i-da in Linear A are often conjectured to refer to either this mountain or the homonymous one in Crete.Proclus considered it as the "mount of the Ideas", whence its etymology.
Crete's Mount Ida is the island's highest summit, sacred to the Goddess Rhea, and wherein lies the legendary cave in which baby Zeus was concealed from his father Cronus. It is one of a number of caves believed to have been the birthplace or hiding place of Zeus. On the flank of this mountain is the Amari Valley, the site of expansion by the ancient settlement at Phaistos. Its modern name is Psiloritis. The surrounding area and mountain used to be very wooded.