The Crocuses of Santorini

With the reassembly of the pieces in one section of the wall-painting a scene of women gathering crocuses has taken shape: young girls collect the crocus stigmas and put them in baskets: when the baskets are full the girls empty them into a larger structure. In the wall-painting it is not exactly clear what this is: according to the interpretation of the scene it could be a vessel in which the girls collect the flowers or an altar on which they lay them. According to S. Marinatos the scene depicts a festive ritual (Marinatos 1975, 32). According to Chr. Doumas it shows a productive process: the gathering of crocus for the colouring essence contained in its stigmas (Doumas, forthcoming).

THE CROCUS IN CLASSICAL ANTIQUITY

The flowers depicted in the wall-painting are Crocus sativus (Kavvadhias 1956, 2148), a variety of crocus which is used in pharmaceutical purposes, for perfume and chiefly as a colouring agent. It grows in the islands of the Aegean and on the Greek mainland. From the testimonies of the ancient authors it seems that in antiquity the collection of crocuses took place in Cilicia on Mount Korykos (to the name of which the name of the plant might be etymologically related), in Lycia, Lydia, Crete, the Aegean islands, Sicily and Cyrene (Hehn 1911, RE IA, 1727).

It flowers for a few days at the end of the summer, wild or cultivated. In Classical Greece cloth dyed yellowish-red with crocus was a symbol of wealth and power (Forbes 1954, 121).

Frequently in lyric and epic poetry as well as in the tragedies, gods, heroes and kings (Darius, Jason) are presented clad in crocus-coloured chitons. Tragic heroines such as Antigone, Athena, Andromeda and Medeia wear peploi and himatia dyed with crocus. In the epics the epithets (adjectives) with the prefic Kroko (e.g. Krokopeplos) signify the yellow colour. Homer only presents Eos as "krokopeplos" (yellow-veiled) (Iliad IX and XII) and this is considered to be a reference to the yellowish-red colours of the dawn which are exactly the same colour as the crocus dye. Even in recent times the adjective "krokisios" in mainland Greece meant yellow (Chatzimichalis 1937, 53).

THE CROCUSES IN SANTORINI

In Antiquity the crocus was gathered in Thera and indeed it seems that its crocuses were famous. Two testimonies, one direct and the other indirect, support this opinion. Pliny mentions that the crocuses of Thera were of exceptional quality, second only to those which grew on Mount Korykos. "Prima nobilitas et ibi in Coryco monte dein Lycio e monte Olympo mox Centuripino Siciliae. Aliqui Theraeo secundum locum dedere" (Pliny Nat. Hist. XX, 1, 31). Therefore, there was not only gathering of crocuses in Thera, but its repute had spread beyond the borders of Greece. The second testimony, or rather indication, which reinforces the preceding one, comes from Cyrene, one of the most important regions in the Mediterranean for the cultivation and processing of the crocus. It was a colony of Thera (Pliny Nat. Hist. XXI, 17; Dioskourides 1, 26). It is not therefore, improbable that the technique of preparing the yellow dye was brought (presupposing that the natural conditions were suitable) from the metropolis to the colony. Crocuses embellished the altar of Apollo Karneios (Chirassi 1968, 125) in Cyrene. When the well-known ritual conservatism of religion is taken into consideration, the appearance of the crocus in a cult custom reinforces the view that probably the Theran colonists brought the processing of the crocus with them rather than found it in their new patria practiced by its native inhabitants.

The cultivation of the crocus has not vanished from the Cycladic islands with the passing of the centuries; on Anaphe, the nearest island to Thera, crocus growing constitutes a significant part of its productive activity. A form of gathering moreover still exists on Santorini today, perhaps directly continuing the ancient tradition reported by Pliny.

THE YELLOW DYE IN CRETE AND MYCENAE

In Crete and Mycenae yellow dye existed: the evidence is plentiful, if mainly indirect. In the wall-paintings of Mycenae, Crete and Thera yellow garments are frequent, something which presupposed the existence of yellow dye: such are the so-called Priestess from the West House of Thera (Marinatos 1974, pl. 5), the Dancing Girl from the Queen's apartments at Knossos and the White Mycenaen lady which was discovered in 1970 by G. Mylonas at Mycenae.

Direct and conclusive evidence of the existence of yellow dye should be derived from the Linear B tablets, the only written evidence of the period. On the tablets which include lists of clothing other features are noted, often their colour (Ventris & Chadwick 1973, 217). And though red, white, grey, and black are read with certainty, there is obscurity concerning yellow (Petrusevskij 1957, 680; Gallavotti 1957, 16). Attempts have been made to render a meaning related to the colour yellow in the ko-ro-ta₂, neuter plural on tablets KN 587.2, 598.2, 599b, which is perhaps the same word ko-ro-to on the tablets MY, Oe 106.1, KN Od 485, Od 486, Od 487.

The context in which these terms occur point to a meaning related to colour, and because the colour yellow is missing, the scholars have tried to interpret the word in such a way that it means that colour. Chadwick refers with many reservations to the word "chroston" (dyed) (Ventris & Chadwick 1973, G398). According to Palmer (Palmer 1969, 288) "The most frequent ancient dye not yet encountered in these texts is 'saffron'; κρόκια would provide the palatalized final syllable which ta₂ demands, but one would expect a spelling ko-ro-ja. Non liquet!".

M. Lejeune (Lejeune 1958, 270) proposes the word ko-ro-ta₂ to be read as "cholotos" "mais avec le sens de teint en jaune cf 'cholovaphes'". Despite all the attempts, a certain word for yellow has not been read yet. The direct evidence of yellow dyed garments, which would constitute a strong argument for the productive side of the gathering of crocus, does not exist, at least for the moment. Nevertheless, since most scholars converge in their interpretation of the word ko-ro-ta₂, which is connected in one way or another with the colour yellow, this interpretation has passed into several books, mainly archaeological, without being doubted (Warren 1972, 263; Vermeule 1964, 318).

DYEING WITH CROCUS IN PREHISTORIC THERA

In the wall-painting of Thera there are two indications which reinforce the view that it is concerned with a productive task: the girls do not collect the whole flower but only its stigmas for these contain the colouring matter. Nowadays in the region of Kozane, where the crocus is cultivated on a large scale, the cultivators collect the whole flower. The stigmas are removed later, the same day however.

The second indication of the productive side of the work of the crocus gatherers of Thera is that the area in which the crocuses are growing does not look like a garden as in other wall-paintings with crocuses, e.g. the crocus-gathering monkey (Platon 1947, 505) or the girl picking flowers in the wall-painting from Aghia Triadha (Halbherr 1903, 57). In the landscape of the Thera wall-painting only crocuses are growing from the soil as if destined for collection. Only the crocuses in the wall-painting from the House of the Frescoes at Knossos grow from the earth in the same way as those of Thera (Cameron 1968, 25; 1976, 8). Perhaps the plants in the wall-painting of Thera belong to a related species of Crocus sativus, Crocus cartwrightianus which is habitually found in the Cycladic islands and Crete (Möbius 1933, 9).

Therefore, according to the indications and testimonies from the Classical area, the crocus was much esteemed in Santorini, either as Crocus sativus, in which case it would have been cultivated, or as Crocus cartwrightianus, which is wild, and women gathered it, processed it and concocted the dye. The procedure and technique of dyeing clothes was well-known in the region of Eastern Mediterranean several centuries before; this is also apparent from the finds at Myrtos in Crete (Warren 1972, 263).

Where was this dye used? To be consumed on the island there must have been cloth manufacture. This again presupposes the existence of raw materials: wool or flax. For the possibility of wool production there is some evidence at Akrotiri: the abundance of bones of sheep and goats and the pastoral scene in the wall-painting from the West House (Marinatos 1974, pl. 7). Furthermore, the copious loom-weights which have been found in all the houses indicate, without doubt, that spinning and weaving were among the most important female occupations. The broken murex shells found on the floors of the houses prove that they were used for their red dye. There were, therefore, possibilities for using the dye on Thera. In spite of this, one should not dismiss the possibility that a significant quantity of dye would be exported to regions with a developed palatial economy. For the Pylos tablets and those of Knossos have revealed a whole industry dependent on the palace which manufactured many types of dyed garments (Chadwick 1976, 150; Killen 1964, 1).

Ileana Chirassi, in her book (Chirassi 1968, 5) on the presence of certain plants which were cultivated before cereals in the myths and cults of Ancient Greece, investigates amongst other plants the traces of crocus in mythology and cult practices, and elevates its cultivation, as well as that of other plants which she studied, to a period prior to the propagation of cereals, when agriculture was in its rudimentary stages, and, according to many researchers, was in the hands of the women (Thomson 1954, 160; Willets 1962, 56; Lekatsas 1970, 42, 52). This is perhaps why it is not a coincidence that only women are engaged in the gathering of crocuses in the wall-painting. At Akrotiri, of course, we cannot speak of primitive agriculture.

It is however, possible that certain crops, of secondary importance and peripheral, or simple gathering of flowers and herbs, remained traditionally women's work, as happened in Classic Greece. One of these tasks would have been the gathering of the crocus; this, perhaps, explains why only women are shown in the wall-painting. It seems that women prepared the dye, and dyed the cloth or yarn. In C. Murray and P. Warren's study "Po-ni-ki-jo among the Dye-Plants of Minoan Crete", it is mentioned that the dye-stuff po-ni-ki-jo was given (Murray & Warren 1976, 40), according to tablet Ga 834, to one or several women with the aim of using it in an unknown industrial process, most probably dyeing. Women dyed the yarns in Greece until very recently, before industrialization. In Thrace, Macedonia and in the islands, women knew how to dye yarn, using various substances, mainly from plants. The procedure of dyeing was the natural complement of the cycle of tasks for the production of clothes, which was always a female occupation. So it would be in antiquity (Kyriakidou-Nestoros 1965, 67).

Let us return to the wall-painting. The girls, nubile and sensitive with their careful movements and luxurious clothes, their jewlery, elaborate coiffures, and their grace, ease and youthfulness, do not look as if they are working at all. They seem more as if they are enjoying themselves (at least in our eyes, three thousand years later). S. Marinatos spoke of a nymph and her entourage or a queen and her courtiers.

However I do not think we need to choose whether the scene depicts a group of girls who are celebrating or a group of girls who are working. The crocus gatherers may be participating in a religious festivity, or they may not; in both cases the scene is related to reality. For even the religious ritual, both as an idea and as a depiction, must be rooted in an actual event, and what else could this be than a simple everyday occupation of the women of Akrotiri. Of course, things are not so simple: neither religious rituals nor artistic portrayals render reality intact and truthfully. Different factors and tenets transmute, deviate and reverse the meanings and the depictions. Nevertheless, the above thoughts were initiated by the belief that some kind of reality must be at the bottom of the religious concerns and painted representations, however difficult this is to distinguish.

Addendum:

Leaves of Pistacia cf. lentiscus are also known from the Lower Pliocene from Rumania, described by Givulescu (1962), and according to him they also occur in Hungary in beds of Sarmatian age.

Leaves with cuticles of Chamaerops humilis L. fossils from the Lower Seam of the Niederlausitz (GDR) (Miocene?) were published in 1966 by Litke.

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