Ariadne's Tribe: Minoan Spirituality for the Modern World

Walk the sacred labyrinth with Ariadne, the Minotaur, the Great Mothers, Dionysus, and the rest of the Minoan family of deities. Ariadne's Tribe is an independent spiritual tradition that brings the deities of the ancient Minoans alive in the modern world. We're a revivalist tradition, not a reconstructionist one. We rely heavily on shared gnosis and the practical realities of Paganism in the modern world. Ariadne's thread reaches across the millennia to connect us with the divine. Will you follow where it leads?

Find out all about Ariadne's Tribe at ariadnestribe.com. We're an inclusive, welcoming tradition, open to all who share our love for the Minoan deities and respect for our fellow human beings.

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Royal Purple: Minoan Sacred Wealth

The deep purple dye commonly known as Phoenician purple got its start centuries before the Phoenicians, with the Minoans and their expansive trading network. The dye, created from the excretions of several different species of sea snails, was one of the most expensive in the ancient world. And it's one of the ways the Minoans became so wealthy.

The Minoans were producing the murex dye on the island of Chrysi off the coast of Crete as early as 1600 BCE. That's the earliest confirmed date, anyway. It's likely there were other dyeworks around Crete that haven't been discovered yet, and some of them will probably date to earlier, given how extensive and developed the Chrysi dyeworks were.

Depending on how it's processed, murex dye produces a range of colors from blood red to deep purple to gentle lavender and even light blue. The Minoans used the dye on fabric that they exported - mostly wool, since the Egyptians had already cornered the market on linen. But they used the murex dye for more than just fabric.

The image at the top of this post is a painting of a saffron crocus plant in bloom, part of a fresco from Akrotiri, a Minoan city on the island of Santorini (ancient Thera). Interestingly, the flower appears to have been painted with murex dye. It was originally a deep lavender, like the living crocus flowers, but has faded to a pale pink that's practically invisible from a distance. This is because, unlike the inorganic pigments the Minoans used for most of their frescoes (red and yellow ochre, for instance, or Egyptian blue), the murex dye is organic and deteriorates over time in the plaster base of the fresco.

Murex dye is remarkably colorfast on fabric - part of its appeal in the ancient world, where other natural dyes tended to fade quickly on exposure to sunlight. It's possible that the murex dye was processed differently for use in frescoes than for dyeing fabric. If that's the case, that might have had an impact on how easily it fades.

Why would the Minoans want to use dye from a sea snail to paint a flower? Because both were sacred to the ancient Mediterranean Sun goddess; in Ariadne's Tribe we call her Therasia. And not coincidentally, both the murex dye and the saffron from the crocuses were wildly expensive. Saffron is still one of the costliest herbs around. Both murex dye and saffron threads are the deep blood red that is practically Therasia's calling card; in addition, saffron turns a sunny yellow when mixed with liquids.

Several frescoes from Akrotiri included murex dye along with the usual inorganic pigments Minoan artists used. This one, from Xeste 3, depicts the Sun goddess accompanied by her griffin, receiving an offering of saffron from a monkey while a girl pours more saffron into a basket. The wallpaper-like background of saffron crocus plants was the way Minoan artists showed perspective - a field of saffron crocuses behind the main figures. The crocus flowers are so faded, they're almost invisible. But when this fresco was new, they would have been a beautiful, vibrant lavender.

Minoan Goddess and Griffin Fresco from Akrotiri
Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

The lavender color is a little more visible in this fresco below, from the upper floor of the same building as the Goddess and Griffin fresco:

Akrotiri fresco rosettes with 3D border
Image Public Domain via Wikipedia Commons

Here, the lavender of the central rosettes contrasts nicely with the Egyptian blue pigment of the surrounding rosettes. Between the murex dye and the Egyptian blue, this fresco is quite a display of wealth in a sacred context (the building was used for ritual, not as a private home).

The Saffron Gatherers fresco, also from Xeste 3 in Akrotiri, has another field-of-crocuses background surrounding two lovely young ladies who are picking saffron. Here again, the flowers have faded substantially over the millennia since this piece was painted:

Saffron Gatherers fresco from Akrotiri
Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Finally, we have the Adorants fresco from Xeste 3, with three girls and young women in an outdoor setting:

Adorants fresco from Akrotiri
Image Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Here, the murex dye was used to paint saffron crocus flowers on the sheer blue blouse worn by the figure on the far left. Once again, they have faded until they're nearly invisible, leaving the deep red saffron threads (the stigmas and styles of the flowers) floating on the fabric, sort of "disembodied" with their flowers all but gone. There are also a few saffron crocus plants on the rocks in the center of the fresco, their flowers also faded to a pale reflection of their former glory.

We don't know for certain the meaning of these frescoes, though their content and context suggests that the building was used, among other things, for coming-of-age rites for young people, both girls and boys. It's likely that the images in these frescoes are scenes from mythology, tales and legends long since lost but that the young people of Akrotiri would have been intimately familiar with.

At the center of all of them was Therasia, celebrated by offerings of saffron and by the presence of her sacred murex dye in the paintings that told the stories of the goddess and her people.

May we remember her, and honor her, and call her name.

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Laura Perry is a priestess and creator who works magic with words, paint, ink, music, textiles, and herbs. She's the founder and Temple Mom of Ariadne's Tribe, an inclusive Minoan spiritual tradition. When she's not busy drawing and writing, you can find her in the garden or giving living history demonstrations at local historic sites.

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