I’m sure the overwhelming response is black. After all, dark hair and eyes are consistent with Mediterranean coloring. What then, does one make of Apollo, whose hair was a golden blond? When I asked my Greek guide several years ago why Apollo was supposed to have blond hair, she replied that his hair fit in with his role as the sun god.
Fast forward a few years and a lot more research. It turns out that, although blond hair was uncommon, it was not that unusual. Some of the ancient pottery depicts warriors with blond hair and Achilles in fact was supposed to be fair. Another famous blond – Helen of Troy. She literally was fair. They were not the only ones.
DNA evidence confirms that although the prevailing hair colors were black and dark brown, blond and red hair were not unknown. Partly that was due to contact with people from the steppes.
My takeaway: people have always traveled from place to place, intermarrying with local populations. We are all mutts.
I hope to see everyone at the Cohoes Public Library this Saturday, 11 – 4.
One of the reviewers for On the Horns of Death commented on the fact Martis and her mother, as well as other women in the mystery, drink tea. She questioned whether this might be an anachronism.
In fact, I was not thinking of the teas we get from India and China but instead of an herbal tea made from herbs well known in Crete.
Both sage and dittany were known then. Dittany is an herb that has been used for centuries, right down to early America, as a medicinal plant. A potent and fragrant herb related to oregano, the name comes from Mount Dikte in Crete. And, of course, one of the names for Britomartis, the maiden in the Cretan pantheon, is Diktynna. It is marketed now as a tea called Dictamnus.
Sage is another herb we believe was known and used in ancient times. We use it primarily as a culinary herb but, like oregano today, it also was used as ritually and as a medicine.
Finally, an herb that is marketed as an herbal tea today is malotira. This herb grows at high altitudes on Crete and is valued for its medicinal properties. It is commonly used to treat respiratory illness and digestive problems as well as skin irritation. It has anti-inflammation, anti-fungal and anti-microbial properties.
When I described Martis and company drinking tea, I was visualizing an herbal concoction. Maybe one of the herbs alone, maybe a combination
For a long time, the image of Bronze Age Crete was of a pastoral and peaceful society. Since theories about the culture were developed from excavations, as well as the archaeologists’ own opinions, the truth about the details of this civilization has been difficult to ascertain.
Several years ago, an excavation revealed what appeared to be the sacrifice of a young man. His body was placed on a platform and an older man, theorized to be a priest, stood next to it with a bowl in one hand and a knife in the other. The remains of a woman were found a few steps behind the priest.
Since they were killed during an earthquake, when the building in which they stood fell down around them, it is thought the human sacrifice was designed to stop the earthquake and/or propitiate the God sending the earthquake.
Human sacrifice was not uncommon in the past. It was a serious event, designed to placate a God and prevent terrible occurrences such as famine, disease, and yes, earthquakes. A human life was the most valuable gift that could be given.
The Aztecs worshipped a violent God and sacrificed hundreds, possibly thousands, of captives to him. Joseph Campbell discusses the practice in Europe of ritually sacrificing the king so that his life could nourish the soil. Recently, more evidence of human sacrifice on Crete from the Mycenaean period (approx 1280 B.C.E.) came to light in Chania, Crete (old name Kydonia.)
Dr. Vlazaki disclosed the information during a lecture titled “Chania during Minoan Times”. Bones of many animals, ibexes, young pigs, sheep, goats and cattle were discovered. Among them was found a young girl’s skull, broken into fragments exactly like the animal skulls. Dr. Vlazaki indicated that the find should not be considered strange since Greek mythology describes many examples of sacrifices of virgins during periods of great disasters.
Since this latest find was dated to the Mycenaean period, after the Minoans, it seems that human sacrifice was being practiced hundreds of years after the Minoan culture had been conquered by the Mycenaeans. Put together with the previously discovered example of human sacrifice, the case for this practice by the Bronze Age Cretans seems strong.
Women, as expected, took care of children. And they were famous as spinners, weavers and dyers, as the previous posts demonstrate.
But what did the men do?
Well, farming was certainly a profession. Even many of the people who lived in Knossos owned farms. Besides goats and sheep and cattle, the farms grew grains and vegetables as well as the very important olives and grapes.
There were other professions, such as gold smith, jewelry maker, mosaic maker, but the primary job for men involved the sea. Minoan Crete had the best navy in the ancient world at this time. It was so superior that an Egyptian Pharaoh (one of the Ramses) sent a request to Crete for help pushing back the Sea Peoples. These people were sailing from Anatolia and attacking the rich cities of Egypt.
Besides the Navy, the men roamed far and wide, exploring the Mediterranean Sea and trading. (This was certainly a factor in the importance of women. The wives provided the woven goods for trade. As well, the women left behind ran the businesses while their husbands and other male family members were gone.)
Minoan fishing boat
Finally, fishing was an important part of this culture. The people who lived on the island ate from the sea. The mosaics show octopi, dolphins, and a variety of sea creatures. Fish bones, sheep bones and beef bones have been found during archaeological excavations.
From the preponderance of female figures on seals and in frescoes, archaeologists believe Crete worshipped a Supreme Goddess, probably a fertility Goddess from Neolithic times. (Similar to Astarte.)There is some dispute whether the statuary depicting women with snakes in their hands are representations of the Goddess or Priestesses engaged in a ritual.
note the tiered skirt, the short-sleeved jacket and the tight belt around the waist.
Besides the Supreme Goddess, there was a pantheon of Gods and Goddesses. Poseidon, the God of the Oceans and Earthquakes, is one. (He was adopted by the mainland Greeks with almost no change.) Dionysus is another God, a very old one. A vegetation God, he is the God of wine as well as the Master of Animals. Unlike the Gods and Goddess of Classical Greece, Dionysus is not immortal. He is born each spring, grows to manhood throughout the year, and dies in winter.
One particularly interesting feature of Dionysus is his birth, in a cave and nourished by nanny goats. Sound familiar? The Cretan Zeus, a relative latecomer to the pantheon, is ascribed the same birth story. In Classical times, the same tale is told of Zeus’ birth, (although with a myth about the Titans surrounding it.) Zeus, of course, was elevated to the major God for the Classical Greeks.
The Goddesses are more complicated. Were they individuals or aspects of the Supreme Goddesses? Maybe a mix of the two? Aphrodite is connected to the Bronze Age and her name is pre-Greek. Artemis was a virgin, and the hunt was sacred to her, just as the Classical Greeks believed. Hera was another important Goddess. Shrines to her have been found in Crete. She was responsible for childbirth, a task she shared with Artemis. In the Classical Greek pantheon, she was reduced from being an important Goddess in her own right to Zeus’s jealous wife.
Britomartis meaning Sweet Virgin or Sweet Maiden, was worshipped by the fishermen. Her other name is Diktynna for the nets the fishermen used. I took her name and used the second half, Martis as the name of the protagonist in In the Shadow of the Bull and the sequels.
What about the Minotaur? Was the bull-headed man a God?We know that bulls were very very important in Ancient Crete. The statuary and frescos of bull leapers and the many representations of bulls is proof of that. But, was the Minotaur sacred? I choose to believe that the Minotaur was a creation of the Mainland Greeks, representing something they did not understand – rituals involving masked priests.
As excavations and study of this amazing culture continues, I’m sure we discover more about their religion.
From the frescos, the statuary and other artworks, we know women had a lot of power in Bronze Age Crete. Seals show a female figure as several times the size of the male figure; that is assumed to be a representation of a Supreme Goddess with a less important consort or son beside her.
Other works show figures in the traditional clothing: the short, tight short-sleeved jackets and long skirts, with elaborate headdresses. Two very famous statues show these women holding snakes (which were sacred.) These, it is theorized, are the Priestesses.
In many cultures, women were expected to know prayers/spells and make regular offering to the Gods to safeguard their homes and families. The Bronze Age was an age when many women died in childbirth (estimates rise as high as half) and miscarriages and stillbirths were common. Women employed amulets, prayers, and appeals to wise women to help them attract their love, inspire pregnancy, make the birth easy, keep the baby safe and more. These practices continued up through Roman times.
Christianity does not have priestesses. The only formal avenue for women in their worship is to become a nun. The spells, love potions, amulets and so one went underground, to women who became feared as witches.
In Ancient Crete, women would have been responsible for the prayers and sacrifices to keep their homes safe. Clearly, as shown by the above statue, there were other women whose responsibilities were far greater.
In In The Shadow of the Bull,
I imagined a class of Priestesses who lived separately and were responsible for all the rituals involving appeals to the Goddess. This was their profession. I suspect these women would have also attained a high degree of political power as well so, in my reconstruction of the world, I made the female ruler also the High Priestess with the others below her.
I will be taking a break for the next few weeks but I will return the last week of October.
Women have always worked. And up until the modern era, their jobs they’ve done remained fairly consistent.
First and foremost, the care of children. The work that women have done has been tasks that can be scheduled around childcare.
Across cultures, women have been responsible for food production – babies can be brought to the garden – and clothing their families. Although men did some farming, they owned oxen, most of the crops they relied upon were not cereals but orchard crops such as olives and grapes.
Weaving, up until modern times, has always been one of a woman’s primary jobs. Without the textiles the women made, there would be no cloth. Flax – and linen – known since Neolithic times, was joined by wool. Wool is easy to work with since it has a little more stretch than linen. Wool comes in a variety of shades, black gray, cream and more. It takes dyes easily as well How can we be sure they were weavers? Spindles and looms weights have been discovered in the excavations. I saw them myself in Akrotiri, a town buried by ash and now being revealed.
The Minoan men traded these textiles all over the Mediterranean.
The designs were very complicated, so complicated we can only assume a long learning curve, especially if the patterns had to memorized. One of the popular patterns consisted of heart spirals set point to point with red diamonds in the center. Colored spirals were another favorite. How do we know this? Statuary and wall painting depict gorgeously clad women in elaborate clothing dancing, picking saffron, and more. And not just in Crete either. The patterns have been recorded by Egyptian artists.
No wonder Nephele, Martis’s mother is horrified when Martis refuses to become a weaver.
It was not until the Industrial Revolution and mechanization of weaving that hand weaving ceased to be an in-house task and a profession.
First, a note. My website went down on Friday for some as yet unknown reason. However, after a discussion with Bluehost, it is now working again. So, this is the blog I would have written on Thursday.
This Bronze Age civilization was the pinnacle of sophistication and culture in the Mediterranean. Their art – the paintings, mosaics, sculpture, jewelry – even their pottery – was much sought after. Excavations on mainland Greece, Turkey and Egypt have found remnants of these trade goods.
They were also noted for their textiles, especially a purple dye. The murals, sculptures, and sculptures reveal clothing dyed many colors. Indigo was known. (In fact, our name for this blue comes from the Greek name – which went into Latin – for Indian. The dye was originally exported from India. Madder was also known, although the Minoans also knew of the cochineal beetle for scarlet.
But the dye for which they are known is Tyrian purple, a deep color extracted from tens of thousands of murex snail shells. The dye was so expensive that it became known as Royal purple.
The one color they did not have was green unless they overdyed blue and yellow. A green dye was discovered in the 1800’s, but since it was made with copper arsenide, it was incredibly toxic.
While researching Bronze Age Crete and Greece for my mystery series: First book – In the Shadow of the Bull – I spent a lot of time reading the Greek myths.
Most of us have at least a passing knowledge of the Greek myths. These are from the Classical period, a millennia at least from the heyday of Bonze Age Crete. That does not mean, however, that Crete was not hugely influential in these myths.
Take the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, for example. Here’s the backstory. The Greeks revered Zeus. Poseidon wanted to be honored too so he sent a white bull to Minos, the King of Crete. Minos’s wife Parsiphae fell in love with the bull. She tasked Daedalus (yes, the inventor with the wax wings whose son was Icarus) to build a special wooden box in the shape of a cow. Once inside the box, she had intercourse with the bull. Nine months later she bore a half-man, half-bull. The Minotaur.
The myth reeks of patriarchy and a desire to, in modern parlance, throw shade on Cretan beliefs.
First, in Crete Zeus was not the primary God. He was an upstart, more akin to a harvest God, who died and was reborn.
We also don’t know if Crete had a King. Certainly it was a goddess centered, matrilineal culture. Many archeologists have assumed Crete had kings, but for decades these archeologists were men. Men, moreover, who lived with a strongly patriarchal structure. It is possible the Priestess’s consort acted as a wanax, or governor. Kingships came with the Mycenaeans, i.e. the mainland Greeks who finally occupied Crete.
Several ancient cultures revered the bull or, in Indo-Europe (the steppes) the horse. One of the rites was mock intercourse with this symbol of fertility by the Queen/Priestess. This act was supposed to guarantee good crops, lots of livestock and of course healthy children for the coming year.
But what about the Minotaur?
Well, many many ancient and not so ancient cultures employ masks in religious rites. Animals are a frequently the subject. Is it so far a stretch to believe that the Minotaur is a masked man involved in a religious rite? I theorize that a rite performed in ancient Crete involved intercourse between the High Priestess’s consort who wore a bull mask.
Besides painting Theseus as a hero (which I dispute but more about that later), this myth spins Crete as decadent and deserving of conquest. By the Myceneans, naturally.
The date for the release of In the Shadow of the Bull is now July 4 for the UK. No word on the release date in the US yet.
In an attempt to reveal what we know of this ancient culture, I thought I would begin with the bull. Bulls were sacred. I’ve read varying explanations. Is it because the Bull represented the male principle, even in a society with a Supreme Goddess? Is it because of the connection with Poseidon. also a God in this culture. (I have mentioned previously how much the Classical Greeks borrowed from the Minoans).
Whatever the reason, the mosaics, the statuary, the rites practiced were all centered around the Bull.
One of the practices was bull dancing or bull leaping. This is a feature of the Theseus myth. Since it was written by the occupying Greeks, it has a negative spin. In the myth, Minos, the ruler of Knossos, requires tribute from the mainland: 7 young women and 7 young men, to face the fearsome Minotaur in the labyrinth. (The creation of the Minotaur is another myth, a rather creepy one.) Theseus volunteers to be one of the tributes. Minos’ daughter Ariadne gives Theseus a ball of string and he is able to kill the Minotaur and lead the other tributes to safety.
Frescoes from Knossos show young men and women (probably teenagers) leaping over a charging bull. The bull dancer grasped the horns and flipped over the bull’s back. Another member of the team caught and steadied him as he landed. There seems to be no doubt that these performances occurred.
Remnants of mazes pictured in mosaics have also been found. But labyrinth, a synonym for a maze, is actually from the word labyrs, a sacred two headed axe used in religious rituals.
A stylized version of the bull’s horns, called the Horns of Consecration, were used everywhere. Examples have survived in Knossos.
