Three Minoan flowers

In this paper, Marcia Nugent talks about "3 flowers as 3 Minoan calendar markers for 3 seasons":

1. Madonna lily = Spring

2. Sea daffodil = Summer

3. Saffron crocus = Autumn

She is right about the flowers, but wrong about the seasons...Here's why:

Madonna lily starts blooming on Crete in Apr/May. This is the beginning of summer (summer solstice is "mid summer")...So Madonna lily is the flower calendar marker for summer, not spring...

I talked about it in my post "Minoan spring fresco", in which I explained why this Minoan fresco from the Akrotiri Site at Thera (Santorini), dated to 1550 – 1500 BC, should be called "Beginning of summer" fresco and not "Spring Fresco" 🙂...  

Sea daffodil start blooming on Crete in Jul/Aug. This is the beginning of autumn (autumn equinox marks the middle of autumn)...So Sea daffodil is the flower calendar marker for autumn, not summer...

I talked about it in my post "Minoan griffin fresco", about this detail of the griffin fresco (reproduction) from the throne room, palace of Knossos, Crete, dated to 1700-1450 BC, in which I explained why I think that the flowers depicted around the lying griffin are sea daffodils...

Saffron crocus starts blooming on Crete in Oct/Nov. This is the beginning of winter (winter solstice is "mid winter")....So Saffron crocus is the flower calendar marker for winter, not autumn...

I talked about saffron in several of my posts, "Saffron", "Origin of saffron", "Pan goat of rain", "Crocus fairy", in which I also talk about the famous Minoan "Saffron gatherers" fresco. In them I also talk about the origin of saffron crocus...And why saffron crocus was the sacred plant on Minoan Crete...And why it was linked with Ibex goats...And mother goddess...

Knowing this, here is the fixed flower-season diagram

That's it. To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...