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Today I'd like to introduce you to a deity you probably haven't heard of before. Her name is Potnia Chromaton, and her name means Lady of the Colors.

We met her serendipitously when we followed the legendary red thread that winds through the Labyrinth in the infamous Greek legend. While that story mis-identifies several Minoan deities as humans, it gave us some tidbits to grab hold of and follow back in time to the Bronze Age via comparative mythology and shared gnosis.

Lies, damn lies, and statistics - you've heard the saying. But sometimes, we really do have to look at the hard numbers to see what's really there, because our impressions can be incorrect, often wildly so.

Case in point: Minoan art.

In Ariadne's Tribe, we associate various animals, plants, and objects with our deities: the griffin with Therasia, the staff with Korydallos, geese and white and yellow flowers with Antheia, for instance. These items help us identify the deities in Minoan art. In that sense, they're kind of like name tags or labels.

But there's another collection of attributes that we associate with our deities as well. Like the ones I just mentioned, these can also help us identify the deity or their domain in the art. But more importantly, they indicate a special type of relationship between the deity and the humans who work in certain occupations or who raise certain food crops.

I've shared readings from my other novels on YouTube, so I figured I should do likewise for my latest work of fiction, Leap! A Love Story. It's my first foray into romance, and of course it has a Minoan theme. It's set in Phaistos, the second-largest Minoan city (after Knossos) in about the year 1650 BCE, a generation or two before the Thera eruption.

The main character is Adelphos, the Cattle Master of Phaistos. He's in charge of the temple's herds, including the bulls that are trained for leaping. Which puts him in regular contact with the bull leapers, one of whom catches his eye.

In the Ariadne's Tribe sacred calendar, we've just made our way through the Mysteries and are awaiting the arrival of the Autumn Equinox this Saturday, 23 September.

What does this date signify in our sacred calendar?

Food is such an important facet of human culture and a great way to connect with others. It's also a fabulous way to make a long-ago culture feel more real.

I've shared about Minoan food and cooking before, here and here. Today, I'm going to go all "ancient food blogger" on you with an actual recipe.

Considering that we can't read the Linear A records the Minoans left behind, we know a surprising amount about their religious practices. Much of it is what we would expect from a Bronze Age culture in the Mediterranean and adjacent regions: processions, libations, temples, shrines. The art and archaeology tell us as much.

But some of the Minoans' religious practices were distinct from their neighbors'.