The vivid crimson stigmas, are collected and dried for use mainly as a seasoning and colouring agent in food. The reason the spice is so expensive is that huge number of flowers are needed to produce a small quantity of spice... And they have to be picked and processed by hand...
This is what the crocus plants look when found in nature.
And this is what crocuses look when like when depicted on Minoan frescoes. This scene called "The Saffron Harvesters", was found in the Minoan settlement on island of Santorini to the north of Crete. You can clearly see the bunches of crocus flowers growing out of rocky ground...
And this is what crocuses look when like when depicted on Minoan frescoes. This scene called "The Saffron Harvesters", was found in the Minoan settlement on island of Santorini to the north of Crete. You can clearly see the bunches of crocus flowers growing out of rocky ground...
As I said in my post about Minoan goat mythology, Cretan crocus, the ancestor of all the saffron crocuses, starts flowering in October-November and flowers throughout winter.
At the beginning of rain season, when Ibex goats mate and olives are ripe for picking...Which is all depicted on this Minoan fresco...
So the saffron picking scenes depicted on Minoan frescoes all take place during the winter starting in October-November. During the season dominated by The Goddess...Why do we only see women picking crocus flowers? Maybe this was one of those sacred, female only jobs, protected by taboos...
Well stigmas are female sexual organs of the crocus flower. No wonder picking saffron was female only activity. I would bet that both crocus and saffron were seen as holy and were dedicated to The Goddess...
Well stigmas are female sexual organs of the crocus flower. No wonder picking saffron was female only activity. I would bet that both crocus and saffron were seen as holy and were dedicated to The Goddess...
This is a reconstruction drawing of a room in the complex of Akrotiri. This figure is interpreted as The Goddess overseeing the harvesting of the Saffron.
I would like to show you this detail in which you can see how she holds the saffron. She picks crimson crocus stigmas, and arranges them in in a bunch...
I would like to show you this detail in which you can see how she holds the saffron. She picks crimson crocus stigmas, and arranges them in in a bunch...
Now here is something interesting. Wall painting from the Cult Center at Mycenae...What is this woman (I think she is The Goddess) holding in her hands? What are these crimson bunches?
Well I would suggest they are saffron bunches. Bunches of female reproductive organs...Like this one:
Well I would suggest they are saffron bunches. Bunches of female reproductive organs...Like this one:
Here is why I waisted your time talking about saffron...This is "Lid of a pyxis originally containing face powder. Made in Ugarit, Syria, under Mycenaean influence, end of 2nd millennium BC". Apparently depicting "Mistress of the animals feeding goats"...
"Mistress of the animals feeding goats"??? Or The Goddess, holding bunches of saffron, in October-November, when crocus blooms, saffron is collected, when dancing Ibex Goats announce the arrival of rains, the arrival of the Dark, Wet, Yin, Goddess half of the year...
I think that "Mistress of the animals" is a figment of the imagination of the archaeologists who didn't know what to make of all these images of a woman standing between animals...
But now that we know that goats, rams, lions, bulls, birds are all symbols marking a particular moment on the solar circle, I would propose that these images of women standing between animals depict The Goddess, Mother Earth, at particular moment in in the solar year...
Like this depiction of the "Female Divinity between Lions" on Amygdaloid Gem, Mycenae.
This is one of endless depictions of The Goddess depicting her either between the lions, standing on a lion or being driven in a chariot pulled by lions... Basically Mother Earth (but also Sirius!) during the time when Eurasian lions start mating which is Jul/Aug or in Zodiac, Leo... I talked about this in my post "Assumption of Mary". The above gem actually shows a male and female lion, just in case there is any doubt what the image represents...🙂
So which animals do we find in the "Mistress of the animals" depictions? I know of Lions, Deer, Goat, Bird, Snake...Any other ones that you know of?
"Mistress of the animals feeding goats"??? Or The Goddess, holding bunches of saffron, in October-November, when crocus blooms, saffron is collected, when dancing Ibex Goats announce the arrival of rains, the arrival of the Dark, Wet, Yin, Goddess half of the year...
I think that "Mistress of the animals" is a figment of the imagination of the archaeologists who didn't know what to make of all these images of a woman standing between animals...
But now that we know that goats, rams, lions, bulls, birds are all symbols marking a particular moment on the solar circle, I would propose that these images of women standing between animals depict The Goddess, Mother Earth, at particular moment in in the solar year...
Like this depiction of the "Female Divinity between Lions" on Amygdaloid Gem, Mycenae.
This is one of endless depictions of The Goddess depicting her either between the lions, standing on a lion or being driven in a chariot pulled by lions... Basically Mother Earth (but also Sirius!) during the time when Eurasian lions start mating which is Jul/Aug or in Zodiac, Leo... I talked about this in my post "Assumption of Mary". The above gem actually shows a male and female lion, just in case there is any doubt what the image represents...🙂
So which animals do we find in the "Mistress of the animals" depictions? I know of Lions, Deer, Goat, Bird, Snake...Any other ones that you know of?
To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...
