Helen's Daughter

Among other things, Minoan artwork is known for its plethora of floral depictions.  It seems that the Minoans, like their Egyptian contemporaries, loved flowers, and wanted them in their homes; archaeologists have found not only fresco fragments with many species of Aegean and Cretan flowers, but the remains of hanging flower pots.  In fact, several floral species known today, including crocus and narcissus, retain some form of their original Minoan names.

Rather than parrot information from my sources, I am linking my readers to an exhaustive but wonderful article on flowers in ancient Crete.  Andras Zeke, the webmaster, has a marvelous blog on the Minoans, with particular emphasis on Linear A, so stay and peruse the articles.

I would also like to take this opportunity to say hello to several new readers.  My articles here are meant to be nibbles of information from the Mycenaean and Minoan periods, entertaining and informative without being too dry or scholarly.  I use my research to write my novels, and currently have a novel out on Kindle: Helen's Daughter, about Hermione, the daughter of Helen of Troy.  What, you didn't know Helen had children?  Yes, she did!  Head on over to Amazon and Smashwords to sample the novel and find out!

A Minoan maze and bull fresco found near Avaris, Egypt.  Minoan artists were apparently working in Egypt around the time of Tuthmose III.  It has been theorized that, as the Minoan civilization on Crete went into decline, out-of-work artists settled in Egypt and decorated houses and palaces either for Egyptians who liked the Minoan style, or for wealthy Minoan expatriates seeking a better life in Egypt.

Out-of-work Minoan artists also took their skills to Mycenaean Greece, and, from recent archaeological discoveries in the Levant, to the Canaanite cities.

Fresco painting in the ancient world was buon fresco, which means painting on a thin layer of fresh, wet lime plaster.  The process involved laying down a layer of plaster, waiting an hour, then painting.  Fresco painters would have had seven to eight hours to complete their work, until the plaster became too dry to work any longer; the plaster would be completely dry within twelve hours. 

The process of mixing pigments with wet plaster would have fixed the colors and made the fresco more durable; had the Mycenaeans and Minoans worked a secco, or on dry plaster, their paintings probably would not have survived.  However, it was this same chemical process of mixing pigments with the alkaline plaster that limited the color palette.  This is why you see only reds, yellows, blues, whites, and blacks in Mycenaean and Minoan frescoes.

Apparently young girls on Thera shaved their heads until they reached a certain age.  This hairstyle is found only in this image from Akrotiri, and not at any other Minoan site, suggesting that the Therans had their own unique customs.

The saffron gatherer is part of a larger series of images in which women gather in the saffron harvest and make offerings to a seated goddess.  It's been suggested that only women were allowed to participate in saffron collection, which may or may not have been true.  Saffron does have certain uses in female reproductive health, and, like poppies, may have had some sacred significance.  There has been much debate over the meaning of the images in the Akrotiri frescoes.

Tiles found at Knossos, in a room just north of the Hall of the Double Axes and Grand Staircase.  Several more of these were discovered in the cache; they were probably attached to a wooden chest to create the look of a Minoan town.

Note: The feet depicted above come from another image.

This week, I picked up some gorgeous reproduction early 20th century Italian cards depicting Minoan life.  These must have been painted after Sir Arthur Evans's reconstructions at Knossos, but prior to World War II.  I cannot read the Italian text on the back to tell you more, except that these cards were issued by the Liebig Company.

There are six cards in the series, but for now I will share two with you.  Click on the image to enlarge it, and see how many famous Minoan motifs you can spot.  Also, note that the women's bosoms are all covered.  Not a single bare breast in sight.

Anemospilia is a lonely site, standing on a windswept slope of Mount Juktas, facing north toward Knossos and the Aegean.  Its very name means "Cave of the Winds."

In 1979, archaeologists Yanni and Efi Sakellarakis discovered the remains of a building complex which appeared to be a Minoan temple with four rooms.  It had been destroyed and burned during an earthquake which had occurred sometime around 1700 B.C., at a time when palaces and towns all over Crete suffered widespread destruction.

The Sakellarakises discovered a skeleton (the "acolyte") in the outer corridor, too badly smashed to determine even age or sex; the individual had been trying to flee the collapsing building.  In another chamber, they found a male lying on his back with his arms drawn up to shield his face from the falling roof beams, and a female lying face down in one corner, where she'd fled seeking shelter. 

But the biggest surprise waited on the altar.  By now, it was apparent that the earthquake had interrupted some sort of ritual.  As the altar was excavated, bones started to appear.  And then, it slowly dawned on the archaeologists that the victim wasn't an animal at all, but a young man, trussed up with his arms behind his back, and his knees drawn up to his chest.  Forensic analysis of his bones indicated he had already perished and his blood had drained out when the earth shook and the building caught fire.

Poseidon's wrath had interrupted a human sacrifice in progress--the first and only such ritual of its kind ever discovered in Minoan Crete.

In the 1980s, John Prag and Richard Naeve, who had undertaken the reconstructions of the individuals at Mycenae's Grave Circle B, were called in to give faces to the four victims of the Anemospilia disaster.  Unfortunately, the "acolyte" and the sacrificial victim were too badly damaged to reconstruct, but the team was able to give faces to the priest and priestess.

The priest stood 5 feet 10 inches tall, and was between thirty and forty years old when he died.  The priestess was 5 feet tall, and in her early to mid-twenties.  She suffered from anemia, and examination of her teeth revealed that she would have had severe halitosis in life.

Women's fashion in the Aegean Bronze Age is a large topic, so this post will deal only with clothes, and leave hair and cosmetics for later.  From fresco evidence, it appears Mycenaean women got their fashion sense from the Minoans. 

The basic garment which women wore every day was the shift dress, as shown in the below plate of a woman offering wine to a mounted soldier.  It's basically a long tunic banded across the shoulders and along the hem for added strength.  This garment would have been cut from wool, and worn with a short or long sleeved linen under dress, depending on the weather. 

The more familiar Aegean garment is the flounced skirt, which, if you look at the images very carefully, you can see is actually a wraparound garment.  The skirt was made from a long rectangle to which rows of flounces were sewn; it was then tied around the waist and cinched in with a girdle.  Women would have worn some type of under skirt or petticoat underneath, and for special occasions, would have sewn little bells or appliqués to the flounces to produce a tinkling sound.  Some votive statues like the famous Snake Priestess depict women wearing aprons, but these garments seem to be restricted to religious rituals, perhaps for catching blood during a sacrifice.

The below painting of ladies in the Queen's Megaron at Knossos is charming but somewhat misleading.  It's unlikely that Minoan or Mycenaean women walked around bare-breasted all the time.  Naked breasts denoted fertility, especially given the ample bosoms on display in Bronze Age art, so this was a ritual affair; the women in the painting would be preparing for a ceremony, not spending an average Minoan afternoon in the royal apartment.  The open bodice was worn like a bolero jacket, held in place with a corset that was probably made from leather. 

Above, a lady depicted  on a Theran fresco offering a necklace to a goddess.  Notice the seam of her wraparound skirt, and her exposed breasts.

The Minoan Snake Priestess from the 2004 Olympic Opening Ceremonies in Athens.  She is wearing the ritual apron.  In case you're curious, the costume appears to be a mixture of cloth and synthetic material, maybe rubber, and her breasts possibly a silicone or latex, similar to those worn by drag queens.

Other, more concealing types of bodices were worn.  In the Blue Ladies fresco from Knossos, you can see how the bodice is open all the way down the front yet still covers the breasts; it would have been wore with a shift underneath, which was either opaque enough to conceal the chest, or diaphanous, depending the wearer's mood.