Nature as Ideology: Landscapes on the Theran Ships

A close look at the imagery painted on the hulls of the ships in the south and north friezes reveals the subtle way in which emblems drawn from coherent landscapes in the natural world are used in cumulative combination to symbolise the idea of collaborative dominance over land and sea. This is entirely in accord with the way in which Minoan civilisation expressed its social and political ideologies (including that of its thalassocracy) through the framework of nature, and goes some way towards supporting the notion that the navy shown on these friezes represents a confederation under Minoan leadership.

I. INTRODUCTION

Among the Theran paintings, the miniatures from the West House have aroused the most controversy. They constitute the only set of murals in Aegean art that could be termed 'narrative', in some sense at least.

Theories of meaning have been many and multifarious. In this paper I shall concentrate on the imagery painted on the hulls of the ships, and although no general interpretation of the narrative will be attempted, some light may be thrown on the ideological message of the painting: military or peaceful celebration?

L. Morgan's theory that the theme of the paintings is a seasonal festival with a focus on maritime interest has lots to recommend it. It has been the most coherent attempt to find an overall meaning (Morgan 1988, 164). While accepting the celebratory character of the south frieze, I have argued in the past for an element of aggression and dominance (Marinatos 1984, 52-61). In the meantime, the additional fragments, discovered and discussed by C.A. Televantou (1994), have added to our overall understanding of the pictorial programme. It has now become clear that there were several towns or settlements depicted on the north wall scene and that some kind of war activity was implied in the 'programme of the friezes. There is a parade of warriors marching up to a town. Possibly they are defenders, not attackers of the settlement, since the inhabitants of the town do not display any sign of agitation; nevertheless, it is quite certain that the involvement of the fleet had a military character. I concur with I. Kilian-Dirlmeier (this volume) that we are not discussing a fleet here but a navy.⁽¹⁾

A question that has a bearing on the subject is whether the ships depicted on the two walls are different. Televantou says that all the vessels were warships, and their function was to convey warriors (Televantou 1994, 243). Most sea battles were fought on land anyway in those days. Kilian-Dirlmeier concurs that the ships of both walls were war vessels. The difference then would be that the decorated ships of the south frieze were parading in festive celebration; perhaps they belonged to the leaders of the confederation? In any case, this does not detract from their military character.

II. THE PAINTING ON THE SHIPS

That the hulls of the ships of the south wall frieze were painted has not gone unnoticed. Both Morgan (1988) and Televantou (1994, 242-249) describe them meticulously. Morgan (1988, 131) rightly speaks of emblems evocative of the 'power of the conqueror'. What has not been emphasised is that the paintings on the hulls of the ships constitute actual landscapes, not mere isolated motifs; moreover that the landscapes are purposefully distributed on the ships in such a way that, when seen together, the ships represent the totality of nature.

To facilitate our discussion, the ships will be numbered: the order of numbering is from left to right and top to bottom (see Fig. 1).

       Ship no. 1: hanging spirals above a wavy line (Fig. 2)

The hanging spirals at the top of the hull of ship 1 are bordered by a single wavy line at the bottom. They might represent the waves as they break against the ship's hull, in which case the spirals stand for the surface of a wavy sea. The pattern here is abstract and ornamental rather than naturalistic, and resembles one of the Kea ships which has a zig-zag pattern framed by circles and stars below (Morgan 1990, 255, fig. 2).

       Ship no. 2: coast (Fig. 3)

The second ship has rocks with hooklets. Excellent parallels for coastlines in painting can be found among the West House miniatures themselves (Doumas 1992, figs. 30-31). They form deep uneven curvatures framed by Y-shaped outlines (discussed in Morgan 1988, 32-33). On the ship's hull the coastline is somewhat stylised, the Y-shaped projections predominating. The stylisation of the convention in pottery has been explored both by Morgan (1984) and Niemeier (1985). The coastal outline is placed on the upper border of the ship's hull; below swim dolphins, of which one has been well preserved and two further ones are barely discernible. In the drawing (Fig. 3) the dolphins are slightly restored. The first can be seen among the paddles (Doumas 1992, fig. 36). Note also the dolphins painted on the hull of a ship from the Kea miniatures (Morgan 1990, fig. 1). There is thus no question that the imagery reflects the coast, as opposed to the waves of the surface of the sea represented by the hanging spirals.

       Ship no. 3: land and sea together with powerful predators (Fig. 4)

One of the ships alone represents a composite landscape: a combination of land and sea. The land is rendered by the iconographic convention 'hills at a distance', namely inverted hills in blue. It is further emphasised by running lions.⁽²⁾ Running lions against a background of hills can also be seen on an inlaid dagger from Mycenae (Marinatos and Hirmer 1973, pl. XLIX; Morgan 1988, 44-49; Laffineur 1984). In addition to the lions, however, there are swimming dolphins which indicate the sea. The choice of these animals is no accident, since they are the most powerful creatures of the land and sea respectively. As Morgan pointed out, there is no question but that an ideology of power is at work here.

It should be mentioned that a sealstone, found in Akrotiri, depicts both a dolphin and a griffin (Marinatos 1972, pl. 85; Pini 1975, no. 690). Although the ship has a lion, not a griffin, the two animals are often interchangeable. At any rate, the combination signifies power over land and sea.

       Ship no. 4: nothing preserved

       Ship no. 5: air and high horizon with birds (Fig. 5)

The convention of the inverted landscape is well known in Aegean art. Inverted multi-coloured rocks hanging from above represent the distant horizon intercepted by mountain ranges. This landscape is typical of Crete, and the convention no doubt arose from the experience of the Cretan landscape. In the case of ship 5, the horizon is enhanced by the presence of flying birds. They signify the 'high' horizon as opposed to 'hills at a distance', another type of landscape to be discussed shortly. The formula 'birds plus inverted rocks' was also adopted by Mycenaean artists; we thus have an excellent example from the palace of Pylos (Lang 1969, col. pl. R 9F). It is noteworthy that this ship with the flying birds is the only one with a sail. It is probably a messenger ship, not a carrier. Televantou identifies it as type G, the messenger ship (Televantou 1994, 242; see also Marinatos 1974, 52: "an exceptionally fast boat").

Ship no. 6: interlocked spirals: sky, clouds or merely a decorative frieze? (Doumas 1992, 77, fig. 37)

Of the landscape features so far discussed, the spirals are the most elusive; it might be argued that they are merely decorative. Yet, since all ships are adorned with landscape elements, it is logical to assume that the spirals also fit this category. Moreover, we shall see that spirals also decorate daggers, which means that some emblematic significance was attached to the motif.

The interlocked spirals of ship 6 have the appearance of a frieze. Such friezes with interlocked spirals are common in Aegean art. One of their characteristics is that they are never on the bottom of a wall forming a dado, but are always placed on the upper border.⁽³⁾

At Akrotiri, we have examples from Room B6 and Xeste 3, Room 2 (Doumas 1992, figs. 90, 93-94). Knossos and Zakros also furnish examples (Evans 1921, 371-372 figs. 269-270, 375 fig. 272; 1930, 383-384, fig. 254; Platon 1971, 172-173). Quite important is the fact that spiral decoration is applied to ceilings at Knossos (Evans 1930, 30ff., col. pl. XV). We have an example also from the palace of Amenophis III at Malqata in Egypt (Stevenson Smith 1981, 289, fig. 284). Presumably the convention was borrowed from the Aegean.

It is worth noting that friezes that are placed high on the wall in Aegean art belong there logically. Ivy, for example, is a plant which climbs up and thus belongs to the top. It is thus possible that interlocked spirals in such a frieze context represented something that was thought of as being high. The sky or clouds come to mind. The interlocked spirals of ship 6 might thus be said to represent the sky, but I hesitate to push this too far.⁽⁴⁾

       Ship no. 7: inverted landscape: hilly landscape on the horizon (Doumas 1992, 77, fig. 37)

Hills seen at a distance appear already in the miniatures themselves, especially above the Arrival Town which is generally identified as Akrotiri. They are rendered with undulating contours, their outline laced with blue colour (Doumas 1992, fig. 35, compare with fig. 36). The hill depicted on the ship's hull is rendered in much the same way, except that the undulating surface is solid blue. Similar hills are depicted in connection with the running lions of ship no. 3.

III. THE MOTIFS ON DAGGERS

It was R. Laffineur who first recognised that many of the motifs on the hulls of the ships have striking comparanda on daggers found in the mainland. Dolphins, birds, seascapes, interlocked spirals, running lions, all have good parallels on what he considered to be Mycenaean daggers (Laffineur 1984). The theory of the Mycenaean identity of the ships was challenged by W-D. Niemeier (1990), who showed correctly, in my view, that the motifs per se are all Minoan in origin. It has to be further stated that some scholars, among them myself, believe that the inlaid daggers were originally Minoan products. Thanks to Laffineur, however, attention has been drawn to the emblematic nature of the motifs. I would like to stress in this context that what the daggers and the ships have in common is the fact that they are instruments of aggression. It is thus important to pinpoint the nature of an ideology which connects nature with the mentality of aggressor or conqueror. On a sword from Knossos both the hilt and the shaft are decorated with emblems reminiscent of the Theran ships (Fig. 6) (Hood 1978, 185, fig. 183). It is important that this sword originates in Crete and not the mainland. Its hilt shows aggression, the pursuit of the prey by the lion-predator. The shaft is decorated with spirals, whatever their meaning may be in this context.

IV. THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE SHIPS

The ships are arranged in significant pairs: sea and coast (1 and 2); sky/clouds and horizon (5 and 6); land (7). As for the admiral's ship (3), it combines all of the above.

The idea that the totality of nature can be fragmented into individual units and reassembled in a group suggests that collaboration among the ships is the ideal situation. What is suggested here is the idea of a confederacy bound together by common ideals but dominated by a single leader, the one of ship no. 3, who combines sea and land.

V. EMBLEMS OF EGYPTIAN SHIPS

We turn to Egypt for parallel ideas. Indeed, Egyptian ships do occasionally bear emblems on their hulls, and the latter, if not purely decorative, suggest dominance and power, often in a cosmic setting.

For example, a ship from the tomb of Huy (Davies and Gardiner 1926, pl. 3) (Fig. 7) shows a sphinx and two deities(?), including a Falcon god, spearing down enemies. The ship of Rekhmire is decorated with Horus birds with crowns, sitting on a shrine or tomb (Davies 1943, pl. 69). Turning to pharaonic ships, the model boat of Amenophis II has sphinx-sculptures at the bow and stern cabins, and additional figures of sphinxes as well as Moth at the stern hull trampling over enemies (Landström 1970, 104-109). In short, power is shown by deities, sphinxes or religious emblems. The power of the upper classes is justified in a cosmic setting.

VI. THE EMBLEMATISATION OF THE LANDSCAPE ON MINOAN SHIPS

The emblematisation of landscape has to be sought in the character of Minoan civilisatiori which, like the Egyptian one, dealt with aggression and martial exploits in a cosmic context. The peculiarity of the Minoan code lies in the nature of its symbolism: dominance is expressed within the framework of nature. Aggression is present in symbolic form within the friezes with predatory felines and a griffin chasing animals. Predators are present both in the east and south friezes (Pl. 2; Marinatos 1984, 44; Morgan 1988, 146-250; Doumas 1992, figs. 31-34). Yet the landscapes of the ships are more subtle images than the obviously aggressive predators. They represent the realms of nature which are won over and conquered by the Minoans. In this way, the Minoan confederate fleet is a representative of the deities who rule nature. Rather than showing deities or royal emblems trampling over enemies, as is the case in some Egyptian ships, the Minoans show mastery in a more subtle form. Each ship seems important but subordinate, to an overall idea. This idea - dominance of land and sea - is represented only on the leader's ship which is ostensibly larger. As mentioned above, the navy of the south and north friezes of the West House represents a confederation under Minoan leadership.

If the south frieze represents a festival, what the latter purports to celebrate is dominance over land and sea. This is the ideology of the Minoan thalassocracy. And why not? At a much later date Thucydides verbalises the same ideals in a fictitious speech, the funeral oration of Pericles:

"We have forced every sea and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us." (Thucydides ii 41; transl. R. Crawley).

(1).      S. Marinatos (1974, 46, 48) also speaks of warships.

(2).      For the concept of the composite landscape see Marinatos 1993, 193-194, 234.

(3).      Note, however, that spirals do form dados below the main scene in glyptic art. This may be a misunderstanding of the convention. See Sakellariou 1964, no. 305; Evans 1921, 694, figs. 515-516; Hood 1978, fig. 12D.

(4).      For a discussion of interlocked spirals in pottery and other arts see Niemeier 1985, 98-106 with n.578.

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