#minoan civilization

[erosdoceamargo]

they lived, they served cunt, and then disappeared from history

[potnialabyrinthoio95]

Minoan bull-leaping girls

Art by capelinssm

[the-cricket-chirps]

Dolphins Fresco, Palace of Knossos (& detail)

c. 1700-1450 B.C.

[typhlonectes]

A 3500-year-old Minoan octopus vase from Palaikastro. Now on display at the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in Crete, Greece.

via: American Institute of the Humanities

[metanoias-substack]

Minoan frescoes. The 1600s BC was a great time for fashion.

[whimsimarion]

Dolphins inspired by Minoan frescoes.

References below the cut.

[city-of-ladies]

"The prominence of female divinity in Minoan culture might well have reflected the prominence of Minoan women in daily life. In Shang dynasty China, the authority of goddesses such as the Eastern and Western Mothers was echoed to some degree by the authority of women in elite society and even the army. Fu Jing and Fu Hao, wives of King Wu Ding, led men into battle before being honoured in death with monumental tombs containing the victims of human sacrifice, battle axes, knives and arrowheads. In Egypt, many of the images of Hatshepsut were destroyed or defaced after her death when her name was removed from the official list of rulers by her male successors, who sought to claim direct descent from her husband. It is possible that images of powerful Minoan women were subject to similar mistreatment.

While there is no evidence that Minoan women ruled in the same manner as Hatshepsut, or joined battle like the women of Shang China, the sheer number of artworks depicting them centrally placed and on a larger scale than men has prompted some historians to speculate that Minoan society was matriarchal or matrilineal. ‘Neopalatial Crete,’ writes one scholar, ‘presents the best candidate for a matriarchy – if one ever existed.’ There is nothing to say that the position of Minoan women was in any way secondary to that of men. 

Minoan women were certainly not confined to the weaving room. Sculptures show them playing lyres, flutes and zithers, sashaying in flounced chevron-patterned skirts and raising their arms in the air in ecstasy. In the ‘Grandstand Fresco’ from Knossos the women are more carefully delineated in paint than the men. Each woman has her own identity, her own style. The women appear to occupy the main rooms of the palace while the men congregate as an anonymous mass beyond. Women depicted seated – a sign of divinity or authority – are often being approached by men or animals. A highly enigmatic fresco at Thera (Santorini), for example, features a woman wearing large hoop earrings, a snake in her hair, and a neck-chain of ducks, sitting on a dais with a griffin beside her while a blue monkey pays her court.

 On a gold ring, a female deity, we may presume, is seated beneath a tree, where she receives flowers from two women. A smaller figure of a man with a double-headed axe over his head hovers between them.  By depicting the man beneath the axe, and on a smaller scale than the women, the engraver of the ring perhaps hoped to convey that he was a divine vision, almost a thought-bubble, originating in one of the female worshipper’s heads. Trees, as Arthur Evans recognised, were sacred in Minoan culture, and were perhaps believed to be capable of inspiring divine visions in those who honoured them. Such artworks contribute to the picture of Minoan women exerting considerable religious authority in the palace complexes and society more widely. 

Minoan women also played a crucial role in ritual. The early Minoans sometimes interred their dead twice by exhuming the bones of their family members and resettling them later in jars. The more usual custom, however, was to bury the dead in chamber tombs or stone beehive-shaped ‘tholos’ tombs, clay sarcophagi or, in the case of infants, under the floorboards of the home. The colourful paintings on a rare limestone sarcophagus from Hagia Triada, circa 1400 bc, show three men carrying young animals and a model boat to the deceased, who stands in front of his tomb, ready to receive his provisions for the afterlife. There are also three women present, the first of whom pours a libation into a cauldron placed between two upright axes mounted by birds; the second carries further vessels; the third – darker skinned like the men and thus possibly of lower social status – has a lyre. On the other side of the sarcophagus the women assist in the sacrifice of a bull on an altar. Other wall paintings show women involved in rituals of their own involving blood.  A fresco from Akrotiri features a group of women, one of whom sits beside a sunken room or ‘lustral basin’ with a bleeding foot. A tree also bleeds. It is possible that lustral basins were used for purification by women during or after menstruation."

The Missing Thread: A Women's History of the Ancient World, Daisy Dunn

[ditoob]

go athenian boy go

[kat-cant-draw]

i just realized i havent posted any Minoan girl art on tumblr so here you go 🏺 (might need to turn your brightness up to see this one)

[balena82]

Minoan civilization

[a-gnosis]

What places and times do you take inspiration from for your designs for the Greek pantheon? Demeters crown and Rheas weird hat seem interesting

I've taken a lot of inspiration from the Minoan civilization that flourished on Crete and the other Aegean islands during the Bronze Age. And the Mycenaeans on the Greek mainland who were very influenced by the Minoans. The Mycenaeans spoke an early form of Greek and some of the names of the Greek gods can be traced back to them, though it is not possible to to tell whether they had the characteristics and responsibilities attributed to them later. The script of the Minoans on the other hand, has not yet been deciphered, so we don't know anything about their religion or even what language they spoke.

In my comics the Olympian gods were born during the Late Minoan and Mycenaean period (c. 1700-1100 BCE), so I often use their clothes and hairstyles as inspiration for the gods, but sometimes also the fashion from the Archaic and Classical periods, since I have those periods as models for the "present time" in the comics. Demeter's crown was taken from a Minoan figurine called the Poppy Goddess. Rhea wears a similar hat as women of importance (or goddesses) sometimes are depicted with in Minoan and Mycenaean art.

[potnialabyrinthoio95]

The Prince of lilies and a gryphon

Art by capelinssm

[csodaturmix]

🧜‍♀️Historical Mermay🧜‍♀️ by @/chloe.z.arts

Minoan Mermaid

[nepalsaysrawr]

Breaking News: Lost Minoan Fresco Unearthed for the First Time in Decades

In what seemed to be a twist of fate, construction workers building an apartment in Heraklion, Greece, discovered a fresco which was believed to have dated back from the Greek Bronze Age. The fresco depicted three dancing female entities against a blue background, similar to those from the Ladies in Blue fresco, except for the fact that the entities bore similar resemblances to characters from the popular Vocaloid franchise, due to their unusual hair colors. According to one construction worker, who asked not to be named, "It reminded me of my daugther's Vocaloid obsession back home. Everyday she'd sing all those Vocaloid songs everytime she'd go home from school."

It is currently hypothesized that the three female entities were music goddesses, venerated by the Minoans, before mutating into the Muses, patron deities of the arts in Greek myth.

[whimsimarion]

Based on @kurj's beautiful bull-leaping drawings (sorry for tagging you again, it's just I have noticed that Tumblr hides my recent art pieces from the tags for some unknown reason)

It was really fun doing this piece.

References used:

[luszter]

stone vessel, rhyton in the form of a bulls head Crete, neopalatial period, late minoan IB or II-IIIA1, ca. 1550-1500 BC material: serpentine / black steatite tip of muzzle to top of head (without horns): 20 cm findspot: Knossos, little palace