Ariadne's Tribe: Minoan Spirituality for the Modern World
Walk the sacred labyrinth with Ariadne, the Minotaur, the Great Mothers, Dionysus, and the rest of the Minoan family of deities. Ariadne's Tribe is an independent spiritual tradition that brings the deities of the ancient Minoans alive in the modern world. We're a revivalist tradition, not a reconstructionist one. We rely heavily on shared gnosis and the practical realities of Paganism in the modern world. Ariadne's thread reaches across the millennia to connect us with the divine. Will you follow where it leads?
Find out all about Ariadne's Tribe at ariadnestribe.com. We're an inclusive, welcoming tradition, open to all who share our love for the Minoan deities and respect for our fellow human beings.
The Minoan Menagerie Part 2: Animals of the Sky
Last time, we looked at some of the land animals the Minoans depicted in their art: cattle, monkeys, lions, and so on. Today, we're going to explore the Minoans' images of animals of the sky, the domain of our Sun goddess Therasia - so, essentially, birds, though I think bees also count.
Sometimes it's easy to tell which type of bird is being shown. For instance, that's a swallow flying by some lilies in the image at the top, which is a segment of the Spring fresco from Akrotiri. Here's the whole thing, with quite a few swallows:
_Affresco_della_primavera_da_Akrotiri,_Arte_Minoica_NAMA_BE_1974.29,_rondini,_gigli,_senza_gimp.jpg)
Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Or these three doves resting atop columns in a terracotta model from Knossos:
Image CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Or this rock dove in the Blue Bird fresco from the House of the Frescoes, one of the outbuildings surrounding the Knossos temple complex. Note that Minoan artists used the color blue to depict surfaces that appear grey, so this isn't actually a *blue* bird - the markings on its neck and its overall shape identify it as a rock dove.
Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
But there are many birds that we can't identify beyond just saying that they're birds. For instance, this lovely little alabaster pendant:
Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Or the birds on this bell jar figurine's headdress (she's from Gazi):
Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
How about the bird on this alabastron from the Kalyvia cemetery at Phaistos. It's clearly a water bird of some sort - it's carrying a fish in its claws. But what kind of water bird?
Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Then we have some objects that are even less directly bird-like, though they still depict birds. Bird rhytons are a common find at Minoan archaeological sites. They're vessels with beaked heads and some semblance of wings and/or tail. Here's a typical one:
Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
And then there are the very generic birds, which can often be quite lovely. This is one of my favorites, a delicate little bird that's flying in the hollow of a bowl from Palaikastro:
Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This is just a small sampling of the birds in Minoan art; they definitely take up their full third of the land/sky/sea triplicity. But I would be remiss if I didn't include the other flying creature that shows up in Minoan art: the bee. Perhaps the most famous Minoan bees of them all are the ones on this gold pendant from Malia:
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Image CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
But I'm also quite fond of this one as well. The eyes would originally have been inlaid with some kind of colored stone - maybe amber or carnelian.
Image CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
So there you have it, the birds and the bees, Minoan style. Next time, we'll have a look at the sea creatures the Minoans were fond of depicting in their art.
Check out Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4 of this series as well.
In the name of the bee,
And of the butterfly,
And of the breeze, amen.
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