Therapy with saffron and the goddess at Thera.
This paper presents a new interpretation of a unique Bronze Age (c. 3000-1100 BCE) Aegean wall painting in the building of Xeste 3 at Akrotiri,Thera. Crocus carturightianus and its active principle, saffron, are the primary subjects at Xeste 3. Several lines of evidence suggest that the meaning of these frescoes concerns saffron and healing: (1) the unusual degree of visual attention given to the crocus, including the variety of methods for display of the stigmas; (2) the painted depiction of the line of saffron production from plucking blooms to the collection of stigmas; and (3) the sheer number (ninety) of medical indications for which saffron has been used from the Bronze Age to the present. The Xeste 3 frescoes appear to portray a divinity of healing associated with her phytotherapy, saffron. Cultural and commercial interconnections between the Therans, the Aegean world, and their neighboring civilizations in the early 2nd millennium BCE indicate a close network of thematic exchange, but there is no evidence that Akrotiri borrowed any of these medicinal (or iconographic) representations. The complex production line, the monumental illustration of a goddess of medicine with her saffron attribute, and this earliest botanically accurate image of an herbal medication are all Theran innovations.
Ferrence
Susan C
SC
Department of Art History, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA. sferrenc@temple.edu
Bendersky
Gordon
G
D001106:Archaeology; D027622:Crocus; D005260:Female; D005831:Genital Diseases, Female / Q000188:drug therapy; D006115:Greece; D049670:History, 17th Century; D049690:History, Ancient; D006801:Humans; D007529:Isoflavones; D008512:Medicine in the Arts; D010151:Paintings; D048789:Phytoestrogens; D008517:Phytotherapy / Q000266:history*; D028321:Plant Preparations / Q000266:history* / Q000627:therapeutic use
D007529:Isoflavones; D048789:Phytoestrogens; D028321:Plant Preparations