My girlfriend was conceived in Crete, by her Greek father and her Italian mother.
She tells me that the feeling you get in Crete and the way Cretans think of life and death (what you call "something mysterious is lurking below") can be explained by the story of the Arkadi Monastery [1]: during the Cretan Revolt against the Ottoman empire in 1866 943 Greeks, mostly women and children, sought refuge in the monastery. After three days of battle and under orders from the hegumen (abbot) of the monastery, the Cretans blew up barrels of gunpowder, choosing to sacrifice themselves rather than surrender.
She tells me that the feeling you get in Crete and the way Cretans think of life and death (what you call "something mysterious is lurking below") can be explained by the story of the Arkadi Monastery [1]: during the Cretan Revolt against the Ottoman empire in 1866 943 Greeks, mostly women and children, sought refuge in the monastery. After three days of battle and under orders from the hegumen (abbot) of the monastery, the Cretans blew up barrels of gunpowder, choosing to sacrifice themselves rather than surrender.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arkadi_Monastery