The House of the Ladies

After a break of almost two decades, excavation has recently been resumed and is still in progress. From the evidence revealed so far, a reasonably clear picture of the building is possible. The House of the Ladies was three-storeyed, at least in its west wing where, because there has been less erosion of the deposits, the lower courses of the walls of the third storey are still preserved. Communication between storeys was via two staircases: a main one in front of the entrance, at the south-west corner of the building, and a service one almost in the centre. On account of its large dimensions - some ten rooms on each floor - the building was provided with a light-well, in contact with the north flight of the service stairway. This light-well, a typical feature of palatial architecture in Crete, is the only known example at Akrotiri. From its size and the presence of the light-well it seems that the House of the Ladies was an imposing edifice which, judging by its equipment, must have been a wealthy private residence. The north wing of the building comprised a suite of three rooms (1, 2, 6), access to which, at least in the upper storeys, must have been via the corridor around the light-well. The middle one of these rooms (Room 1) was decorated with wall-paintings, the dominant theme of which was a scene of female figures, after which the house has been named. Since most of the fragments of these wall-paintings were found on top of the paved floor of the second storey, there can be no doubt that they belonged to the decoration of that storey. The damage the building suffered during the volcanic eruption was somewhat peculiar in that although the walls of the ground floor of the east wing were almost completely destroyed, those of the storeys above were not seriously affected. They simply subsided on the ruins, still remaining virtually vertical. Because of this destruction and the considerable erosion in this area, it is difficult to reconstruct the depicted theme in toto or to establish its spatial arrangement. The restoration proposed here is based on evidence available from investigations to date.

ICONOGRAPHIC PROGRAMME

Room 1 seems to have been divided into two parts, eastern and western, by a small partition wall at right angles to its north side. That this was the arrangement is also deduced from the neutral, blank plaster surface which separates the painted compositions of the two areas on the south wall. The present state of the walls precludes a more detailed description and furnishes no clues about the position of the door which led into the room. However, from the degree of preservation of the wall-paintings it would seem that this entrance was in the eastern section.

       Western Section:     A small niche in the west wall and a small window or niche in the north one, which are restored with the restitution of the wall-paintings, do not seem to have affected the iconographic programme of the artist, who evidently ignored them completely. The lower zone of the wall-painting, which extends over three walls - south, west and north -, comprises a broad reddish-yellow surface with an undulating upper limit, presumably an attempt at rendering uneven ground. The upper zone consists of a system of narrow black, red and blue bands alternating with white. Between these two zones the main theme of the middle zone is developed: a representation of blossoming plants growing out of the uneven ground. The stems spring from clusters of outwardly curving lanceolate leaves and bear a flower made up of a calyx of lanceolate sepals at the base of a single bell shaped petal. The stamens - seven in all - project above the rim of the flower and are tipped by an equal number of anthers. The colours used by the artist in rendering the plants are black for the outlines, blue for the main parts of the shoot and flower, and yellow for the anthers. Particularly interesting is the grouping of the plants in clusters of three stalks surroundedby two triads of leaves and the fixed number of seven stamens.

Concerning the species of plant, two opinions have been expressed to date. S. Marinatos, recognizing some hybridism, initially saw in these plants the ancient Greek ornithogalon (Star of Bethlehem - Ornithogalum Nutans). After more systematic observation, however, he revised this view and declared the plants to be the Pancratium lily (Pancratium Maritimum). Later, P. Warren suggested the plants were papyrus, a familiar subject in Minoan art. The characteristic trait of the Pancratium lily is that it grows on sandy beaches, hence its popular name of sea daffodil. It has a pungent heady perfume and abounds even today on the shores of Thera. Since its height is no more than 30 to 40 cm, it must be regarded as a magnification, if it is indeed the plant depicted in the House of the Ladies; this is a trait quite alien to Minoan art, which displays a distinct predilection for miniaturization. However, H. Baumann's illustration side by side of a pressed sea daffodil head and the flower from the House of the Ladies leaves little doubt as to the validity of Marinatos's proposal that this is indeed the plant portrayed. As far as the magnification is concerned, this may be an idiosyncracy of Cycladic art. Marinatos uses it as a criterion for attributing special religious significance to the composition.

       Eastern Section:      The lower zone of the wall-painting in the eastern section of Room 1 consists of a broad black band, while the upper zone comprises a system of alternating narrower black and red bands. Between these two zones the principal theme of the wall-prainting was developed on at least two walls - the north and south. It is possible that the composition extended over the east wall too, but the condition of the wall-paintings is so bad this cannot be confirmed. Nevertheless, from the surviving sections it is evident that the wall-paintings of the eastern part of the room had a unitary theme. The entire middle zone was divided in to two surfaces by a triple - black, blue, black - wavy band in an apsidal arrangement. The surface above the arches is covered by a system of small stellate lozenges with markedly concave sides, so that their angles form rays. Outlined in black and painted blue, these lozenges are placed at the intersections of the more or less parallel diagonal stippled red lines which intersect in such a way that the entire surface is divided into a reticulation of diamonds.

Beneath the curves of the arched bands female figures are shown in various actions, standing on the level ground formed by the band of the lower zone. Although the restoration of the figures in the course of the conservation of the paintings is probably accurate, the scene remains ambiguous.On the south wall a female figure with luxuriant black hair and a light red streak on her cheek moves left (east). She wears an ear-ring, presumably of gold, a short necklace, a short-sleeved bodice and a long flaring skirt of Minoan type, below which her feet project. It is almost certain that her arms were stretched in front of her, indicating the figure's participation in an activity depicted in the missing section further east. The figure from the north wall of the room also moves eastwards (right). Her face has been restored on the basis of that of the figure on the south wall. She too has rich, flowing black tresses and a red streak on the cheek. She wears a gold ear-ring and a bracelet on her left arm, if the fragment does indeed belong to this figure. The position of the arms made it impossible to depict a necklace. The figure is shown bending forward at an angle of about 70°, so that her inordinately large breast is exposed and hangs down from the decolletage of her bodice. This lady's feet also protrude from beneath her Minoan style skirt. Again the position of the arms indicates that she is participating in some activity taking place in front of her (east) where, in the course of the reconstruction, a fragment of wall-painting probably showing part of the arm of another female figure has been placed. Exactly below the surviving fragments of the arms of the bare-breasted figure, is preserved part of the representation of another Minoan skirt.

The fragmentary state of the wall-painting on both walls of the eastern section has led to numerous tentative restitutions and various interpretations. The fragment of the Minoan skirt preserved in front of the leaning, bare-breasted lady has been interpreted as a garment offered to a missing figure 'probably a priestess', and the whole wall-painting as 'a scene of the robing of the priestess'. Furthermore, a series of small, built-in clay chests found in the excavation of the underlying first storey have been interpreted as sacred repositories, and certain vessels, such as conical rhyta, nippled jugs and a triton shell, found together with a host of other vessels in the ground floor of the adjacent Room 7, have been qualified as cultic. Thus Room 1 as a whole has been interpreted as a shrine. The bare-breasted figure is undoubtedly shown engaged in some ritual act. Likewise the surviving part of the skirt may belong to some other, seated female figure, to whom the preserved arm may be attributed, if it is displaced slightly to the left. Thus the composition could be interpreted as a representation of a ritual scene, the focal point of which was in the eastern part of the room, towards which the figures move. Though it is difficult to determine the content of this scene, it need not necessarily be designated as religious. It could just as easily symbolize an important moment in the life of women. Moreover, the other criteria - vessels and clay chests - invoked in interpreting the room as a shrine are open to question, since they are merely every day objects commonly found in the houses at Akrotiri.

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