Blood on the Horns of Consecration?

It points out the Minoan character of the horns of consecration and the 'Lustral Basin', draws parallels with several Minoan lustral basins and pillar crypt arrangements, and suggests possible comparison with rituals in these rooms. However, the focus of the activities in the Xeste 3 complex is the gathering of the crocus style and the offering of the processed saffron to the goddess, activities for which there is no evidence in Crete. The importance of the crocus, both economic and medicinal, is discussed and related to the ritual. The suggestion is made that the frescoes in the 'Lustral Basin' adyton and the room above both depict rituals connected with the gathering and offering of crocus styles, and that those rituals are connected with female coming of age and marriage. A separate type of ritual in Room 3b is for male coming of age. Finally, a ritual which would begin in Xeste 3 , move into the fields for the gathering of the crocus style, pass into town to decorate horns of consecration with the crocus style, and then return to Xeste 3 for a final offering ceremony is suggested.

The horns of consecration is one of the most important religious symbols in the Minoan Civilization. As a cult maker, it may be the most important of all. It is the only one repeatedly used as architectural decoration. One can see it marking the roofs of buildings and tops of altars as well as serving as a base for columns in various iconographical representations (Evans 1928, 596, fig. 371; Platon 1971, 167; Shaw 1978, 436 fig.9). Independent stone examples, most of which are thought to have fallen from roofs, have also survived (Evans 1928, 159-160, fig. 81; Boyd Hawes 1908, 25, 48, pl. XI.25; Platon 1971, 98; D'Agata 1992, 245-256). Many are contemporary with, or earlier than, the Theran frescoes. In later Minoan periods this symbol is used to mark goddess statues and ritual equipment such as snake tubes, kalathoi and plaques (Gesell 1985, 53; Gesell, Coulson and Day 1991, 161-162, pl. 63e,f; D'Agata 1992, 252-255). The horns of consecration symbol is generally accepted as representing the horns of tha sacrificed bull (Gesell 1985, 3; D'Agata 1992, 247-248), although there is no direct evidence for this.

It is particularly significant that this symbol should occur in frescoes at Akrotiri, for its appearance at Akrotiri indicates a connection with the religious beliefs and rituals of the Minoans on Crete. Although it appears as an architectural decoration in the 'Town' fresco of West House 5 (S. Marinatos1974, 44; N. Marinatos 1984, 42; Morgan 1988, 83; Televantou 1994, 268-271) and in corpore in the area near Delta 2 (S. Marinatos 1974, 34 and pl. 83a; Doumas 1983, 54, 76, 125; Morgan 1988, 83), the horns of consecration dripping with ref material (Fig 1; Televantou 1994, 269, fig. 58c) in the fresco of Room 3a, the 'Lustral Basin' adyton, of Xeste 3 is one of most interest because of its ritual implications 9N. Marinatos 1984, 73-84). I continue to use the term 'lustral basin' as an architectural term because the expression 'lustral basin' calls to mind exactly this type ofroom and the term adyton does not. Adyton is a term for the use of the room, a place of separation or a holy of holies (Marinatos 1993, 203). I consider Room 3b of Xeste 3 an adyton as well as the 'Lustral Basin'  3a (see below).

The building in itself, because of its large size, impressive facades and the ease of its internal circulation, has been identified as a public building (S. Marinatos 1976, 23). This is supported by the ceremonic assemblage which lacks cooking pots and is low in other domestic shapes of potery (Papagiannopoulou 1995, 209-215). The Lustral Basin' and the theme of the frescoes in Room 3 on both the uppoer and lower storeys suggest that religious initiation rituals were performed in the building (Marinatos 1993, 203-211; Doumas 1992, 128).

The arrangement of the rooms in Xeste 3 is particularly significant (Fig. 2; isometric drawings, Palyvou 1990, 52, fig. 6). The entrance from the street leads into a vestibule, Room 5, which benches along the walls. This room connects with the upper floor via the main stair in the building and with Room 4 via a dark corridor. Room 4 is a polythyron opening into Rooms 2, 3 and 7on the ground floor. The multiple doors can be opened or closed as needed. A stair, Room 8, also connects with Room 3. Room 9, connecting to Stair 8 on the west, is the only other frescoed room in the building. The arrangement of rooms on the first floor is the same as that of the ground floor.

The ritual from the initiation must have proceeded in this way. The initiates gathered in Room 5, then proceeded one by one via the corridor into Room 4 where they would be arranged for the initiation. Room 3 would have remained closed off, but the other doors of Room 4 could have been opened to extend the available space to include Room 2 and 7, if needed, or on the other hand, if the ritual demanded darkness to begin, this could have been managed by keeping the doors closed to Room 2. In this case the doors to Room 2 would be opened when it was appropriate in the ritual. N. Marinatos (1993, 203-211) and C.G. Doumas (1987, 157) have suggested controlled low light in the polythyron for a mystical atmosphere.
Both have suggested rituals slightly different from that suggested here (Marinatos 1984, 73-84; Doumas 1987, 151-160). At the appropriate time the doors to Room 3 would be opened and the initiates would enter. Room 3 is divided into three sections by separate pier-and-door partitions - the paved vestibule, the 'Lustral Basin' 3a, and the west section 3b. At this point there are two major possibilities for the arrangement of the ritual. In the first case, as the initiates came into Room 3, they would have seen the doors on the north side open, revealing the 'Lustral Basin', while the doors on the west side would have remained closed (Fig. 3). The initiates would descend into the 'Lustral Basin' singly, perform the first part of the ritual privately and return, pass down the corridor to Stair 8 and go upstairs to wait for the final part of the ritual when all would gather in Room 3 on the first floor. The whole group might take part in this together and then descend or process down the stairs of Room 5 and exit the building. In the second case, the doors on the north side would remain closed, shutting off the 'Lustral Basin', while the doors on the west side would be open (Fig. 4). The initiates would enter Room 3b where the ritual would take place. This group would not go upstairs but rather back out through Rooms 4 and 5. Room 9 might have been used by the officials for both rituals as a dressing room.

Why should there be two separate arrangements for initiation? It is highly likely that the initiation rites were segregated by sex as Nanno Marinatos (1987b, 23-34) has suggested. The frescoes in Room 3a on both the ground and first floors depict only female figures, while those in Room 3b depict only males. The pier-and-door partitions are arranged so that neither group would see the ritual pictures of the other. The rituals themselves could have taken place on separate days or at separate times on the same day, as the doors of the pier-and-door partitions could be rearranged easily to close off the initiation area of the opposite sex. The need for a place to descend into for the female rites suggests that the ritual included a need for individual privacy (possibly nudity was involved) with the need for group presence. Complete male nudity in a group, as seen in the frescoes of Room 3b, appears to have been accepted in the culture, but complete female nudity in a group, which is not pictured in the frescoes, may well not have been accepted.

Although it has recently been suggested that Stair 8 was a service stair, implying that it was not used in the ritual initiation (Doumas 1992, 127; pace Marinatos 1984, 73), circulation patterns in ritual complexes making use of closely connected, private stairs exist elsewhere. Several such ritual complexes can be seen at Knossos. One of these, the Throne Room, involves a lustral basin; the rest of the examples are pillar crypt-upper column room complexes.  In the case of the lustral basin in the Throne Room there is a private stair leading from the anteroom to the first floor (Evans 1935, 902, fig. 877). Three of the pillar crypts, those in the Little Palace, Royal Villa and South House, have private stairs in the back of the crypt; the stairs of the fourth in the Temple Tomb lead from the inner hall in front of the pillar crypt to the upper floor. All the pillar crypt complexes allow for the same type of circulation pattern. The Room of the Two Pillars in the basement of the Little Palace is entered by a stair from the ground floor (Evans 1928, 516, figs. 317, 318). After the first ritual one would exit by the back stair to the upper column room for the second ritual and then exit the complex directly. The crypt in the Royal Villa is on the ground floor so it would be entered directly (Evans 1928, 397-398, figs. 227, 228). After the first ritual one would proceed up the stairs to the column room and the second ritual, then cross the building and descend by the main stair. The circulation pattern is the same for the South House complex (Evans 1928, 375-377, figs. 208, 210). The complex in the Temple Tomb is in the basement, so one would proceed down the entry stair to the paved court through the inner hall to the pillar crypt where the first ritual would take place, then up the private stairs to the column room where the second ritual would take place and then out of the building directly. The circulation pattern in the Throne Room is less certain. Evans's restoration of the Piano Nobile does not allow for a door between the areas above the Throne Room and the monumental stair south of the Throne Room. However this area is conjectural and such a door may have existed. Certainly the circulation pattern in the pillar crypt-upper column complexes is reasonable (Gesell 1985, 26-29) and fits a double ritual with the first part consisting of a private, personal and perhaps secret ritual as well as a second more open ritual, perhaps in a group. Thus the connection of Room 3 on the ground floor with Room 3 on the first floor of Xeste 3 by a private stair is a reasonable possibility, and must be considered if one is to connect the fresco on the ground floor with that on the first floor.

It is important to consider the wall paintings to understand the ritual purpose of these rooms and their connection. The ground floor will be discussed first. Although there were wall paintings in Rooms 5, 2 and 4, they have not been sufficiently studied and restored to interpret them, However the paintings from Room 3 have been sufficiently restored to give us some clues. Each of the three areas of Room 3 must be considered separately to discover its function. There has been no mention of frescoes in the main section of Room 3, but 3a and 3b both have informative frescoes.

Room 3a is entered by 5 steps descending into the 'Lustral Basin'. On the north wall above the basin are three female figures facing the east wall (Doumas 1992, figs. 100-108) on which is depicted a wall with a door above which a horns of consecration stands (Fig. 5). On each side of the door is a row of red lilies. On the horns is depicted red material dripping down the face of the door. This has been interpreted as blood (N. Marinatos 1984, 74; Doumas 1992, 129), though i will suggest another possibility later. The relationship of the three women is not immediately obvious. They will be discussed from left to right. The first is walking towards the east carrying a necklace; she is not on the same ground line as the other two. The second one is sitting, apparently holding her head with one hand and reaching down towards her foot, which may be bleeding, with the other; the third is walking away from the east wall but still looking back at the shrine topped with the horns of consecration. She is wrapping herself in a cloak decorated with red polka-dots or perhaps unwrapping the cloak. The cloak covers the left side of her body and arm, but only the forearm on the right, leaving the upper arm and shoulder uncovered.  The second woman is certainly in a rocky landscape with scattered clumps of crocuses. It is unclear whether the other two figures are in the same landscape.

In the room above, Room 3 of the first floor, the fresco on the east wall depicts two female figures picking crocuses, which they will place in baskets (Pl. 8; Doumas 1992, figs. 116-121). The action takes place in a similar rocky landscape. On the right hand of the north wall is another female figure which appears to belong to this scene (Fig. 6). She has lifted her filled basket and is proceeding left to the main scene with the goddess. These two scenes are divided by a window. All of the action of the main scene takes place either on the tripartite shine or on the platforms supported by the incurved altars leading up to it. Although the rocky landscape is not visible, there are still scattered crocus plants in the background. The goddess, attended by a griffin, sits on what looks like a series of pillows. The fourth crocus picker is emptying her basket into a container in front of the goddess. In between these two figures is a monkey mounting on the shrine and offering the goddess what appears to be a handful of crocus styles from the container.

At this point it is necessary to consider the crocus. After warning that almost every crocus species is variable, some exceedingly so, Mathew (1982) undertakes to describe the variations and illustrate one of each. His species 29, Crocus Cartwrightianus, appears to be the closest to those in the frescoes  (Mathew 1982, 55-57, pl. 29). To be sure, it has three styles and those in Room 3 have two, but three is the least number of styles that crocus species now have. Perhaps this is one of the variations that have occurred. Amigues (1988, 228-232) discusses this and other problems with the depictions of the crocuses. Today the C. cartwrightianus exists wild in Attica, west Cretein the Chania area, and the Cyclades. It favours open rocky hillsides on schist, shale, granite or limestone formations, from sea level to 1000 meters. The flowers are pale to deep lilac-purple, white or white stained with lilac. They have three long, bright red styles which Mathew says are gathered in some places and used as a wild source of saffron. The white or albino flower is common in this species and is most striking with its bright red styles. The styles, sometime described as blood red, is the part of the female reproductive organ through which pollen passes to the ovary. The flowers of C. cartwrightianus, once they have opened, do not close up in dull weather or at night until they whither and die. The C. Cartwrightianus blooms between October and December. Mathew believes that the Crocus sativus (Mathew 1982, 56-57, pl. 29a) is a selection from the C. cartwrightianus. C. sativus is the commercial crocus, a sterile, cultivated plant, which is propagated by vegetative means only. Mathew notes that in the part it was used as a perfume, dye and medicinal herb for many diseases, perhaps with good reason for saffron is not known to be a very rich source of Vitamin B₂. Amigues (1988, 236) lists sources for the medicinal use of saffron, pointing out that many are for gynaecological problems. Saffron is expensive today because it consists of only the styles which must be hand picked and dried. It takes a million of flowers to produce 10 kilograms of saffron.

Returning to the frescoes (Doumas 1992, Figs. 100-108, 116-130), I would suggest that the crocus styles are the most important part of the flower and that they, and not the whole flower, are the desired object in this harvest. This is supported by the dress of two of the female figures, the first female on the ground floor and the goddess on the upper floor. Both wear dresses with tops of transparent light blue material decorated with crocuses (Televantou 1982, 116-117), but it is the bright red styles which stand out. Likewise, the red styles stand out from the clumps of crocuses in the rocky landscape. In the frescoes of both floors one can easily see where the pickers have yet to work. On the first floor, the casual way in which the pickers are handling the crocuses, picking from the top without attention to the stem, placing on top of one other in baskets, and throwing them into the container in front of the goddess, indicate that they are not gathering crocuses to use as decorative flowers but to obtain the styles. In fact they may be picking only the styles. The red handful that the monkey is handing to the goddess looks like a bunch of styles, not crocus flowers (Marinatos 1987a, 124).

In the fresco of the ground floor, the woman sitting on the rocky landscape has evidently dropped the two styles that she has picked. She looks dishevelled, as though she has been through an ordeal. The straps of her skirt are falling in various directions; her hairpin has come out with the reuslt that her hair and the cloth binding it have fallen; she has a branch in the hear, either from falling from the bushers or perhaps because she has dislodged a brand placed in her hair deliberately. She may have some blood on her foot, perhaps scraped by a stone or pricked by a thorn, but with her right hand she appears to be reaching for the crocus styles which have fallen. With her left hand she may be holding her head or reaching up to adjust the brand or have it out of her hair. If she has been through an ordeal, the undone skirt may indicate previous nudity. The first woman may have been merely returning a necklace which the second woman lost in her fall, or, if the second woman has been through an initiation ordeal, the first woman may be presenting her with a gift in honour of the initiation. The actions of the third figure is easy to interpret. She may have preformed some ritual before the altars and be covering herself up again. What that ritual might be is suggested by the importance of the crocus styles.

The upstairs ceremony is based on the crocus styles. It includes the gathering, transporting, and offering of the crocus styles to the goddess through the intermediary of the monkey. N. Marinatos (1987a, 124) suggests that the monkey has taken the freshly picked offering and magically turned it into the processed saffron. This offering ceremony suggests to me a possibility for the interpretation of the fresco in the lower room. The first though in looking at the shrine topped with the horns of consecration is that it is dripping of blood. But if so, why is the blood not dripping continuously all the way down the facade of the shrine? If the material is liquid, would not the line be continuous? And if it had clotted, why would it start again lower? And if the red material is not blood or another liquid what is it? Could it be the stands of styles hung on the shrine? They would not all need to had from the top. They could be attached at any convenient level. The third girl could have just finished decorating the horns with an offering of styles, Perhaps she carried the styles in her cloak and, now that is is empty is putting it on. Or the ritual could have been more complicated and involve undressing and dressing again.

It is interesting in connection with the styles that Morgan (1988, pl.121) has already pointed out that there are red blobs on the tops of the horns of consecration in the Arrival Town, or Town V, which she suggest might represent some form of vegetation, and that Televantou (1994, 268-271, col. pl. 68) has identified the construction they decorate as an altar.

What is the symbolism of the styles? Perhaps the crocus style transformed into saffron was the major crop for trade on Thera, and its importance for the economy of the island was very great (N. Marinatos 19872, 130-131; Amigues 1988, 240-242). This might lead to its consideration as the most precious offering for the goddess, given with the hope that she will return favourable conditions for the fertility of the crocus plant. Even more important os the fact that the style itself is a part of the female organ of the plant leading into the ovary. It is just a step from this to realise the appropriateness of the style as an offering in a female puberty or a marriage ritual. Surely the crocus style is as appropriate an offering as blood. However, the female figures picking and offering the crocus style appear to represent all ages, from childhood to nubility (Davis 1986, 399-404), making it difficult to choose between puberty and marriage rites. Lending support to the theory of puberty rites in this complex are the frescoes from Room 3b, which depict three nude boys of different ages and a clothed adult male participating in a ritual in which the oldest boy will don a loincloth symbolising his achieving manhood (Doumas 1987, 151-160; 1992, 130 figs 109-115; pace N. Marinatos (1993, 209-211) who suggest that the males are participating in the female rites. If the female figures are participating in a puberty rite, the older girls would be helping the younger ones obtain the necessary number of styles and the third girl in the ground floor fresco would be the initiate. I a pre-marriage ritual is depicted, the reverse would be true, and the second young woman in the ground floor fresco would be the initiate. It is even possible that the fresco pictures two separate rites, one at puberty and another before marriage. The room would have been suitable for both.

At this point it might be illuminating to look at the lustral basin in Crete where this type of room originated. The lustral basin appears in its canonical form at various sites in central and eastern Crete and its various types of buildings 9Gesell 1985, 22-26). Three of the Cretan lustral basins have a special feature in common with the Thera example.

First is the Throne Room in the palace at Knossos. Here the throne with antithetical griffin frescoes is in the same room as the lustral basin 9Evans 1935, 902-942, frontispiece pl. XXXIII). If the ritual was similar here, a priestess sitting on the throne might have impersonated the goddess attended by griffins. Unfortunately, no more of the fresco survives to inform us.

Second is Room LVIII in the palace at Zakro, which has a fresco depicting horns of consecration (Platonos 1990, 145-147, pl. 27). This lustral basin has a parapet forming a niche in its north wall. In the center of the parapet is a column, which divides the frescoed walls behind in two. On each side of the column on the frescoed walls is a pair or horns of consecration above an altar. In the center of the horns is a shaft of a double axe. The horns are white and the background is red. Offerings could easily have been left on the parapet in front of the horns. Unfortunately none were found or depicted.

The third example is Room 63d at Phaistos. Although there are no fresco remains in this lustral basin, the artefactual finds are significant. These include two miniature pairs of horns of consecration (Pernier and Banti 1951, 171-179, fig. 109), along with a red jug, a bull's head rhyton, and two Marine style rhyta. The horns of consecration were painted red, and red pigment was found in the room (Gesell 1985, 23, 128-129). D'Agata (1992, 250) suggests that this pair sat on the parapet of the stairs in the same way that the painted horns of lustral basin LVIII appeared to rest on the parapet of this room. The bull's head rhyton, which may be connected with bull sacrifice, the red horns of consecration, and the remained of the ritual equipment suggest a ritual use for the room, although it is likely to have been a different ritual drom that in the 'Lustral Basin' in Xeste 3.

In summary the horns of consecration symbol appears into 2 Cretan lustral basins, and that sacred marking should mean that these rooms were scared adyta like the Thera example. In addition, the fresco with the griffin in the Throne Room recalls the fresco on the wall of the upstairs Room 3. However, there is no hint of the crocus ceremony in any of these rooms. The crocus offering might have been a ceremony limited to Thera.

Last, the following question arises. Were the rites illustrated in the 'Lustral Basin' and the room above performed there, even though they are pictures in the landscape? Was there some sort of disrobing ceremony or ordeal in the 'Lustal Basin', as two of the figures suggest, while styles were left in front of or on the horns of consecration? Was there another offering of styles made in front of a goddess stand-in in the room above? Was there a real monkey or a person in a monkey costume? In answer to this problem, R. Hagg (1985, 214) and N. Marinatos (1985, 229; 1993, 211) have suggested that these and similar frescoes represent perpetual cult scenes, guiding images and scenes which must have taken place out of doors, symbolically transferred indoors - maybe even begun indoors, continuing outdoors, and then at the end returned indoors. Following this pattern the ritual might have proceeded in this way. The initiates would observe the pictures as they passed through the ritual in the 'Lustral Basin' and the upstairs rooms, then process down the staircase and outside, pick the styles, decorate the horns of consecration around the town, and bring an offering of styles to the goddess in Xeste 3, ending the ritual. Let us hope that the frescoes in the unexcavated buildings at Akrotiri will provide some new clues.

----------------------------------------------------------