The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of Minoan fresco of dance ceremony, Knossos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE FLOORS

Homer apparently knew Cretan dance habits with some accuracy. For example, at the largest Minoan palace, Knossos, archaeologists found a fresco from about 1600 BCE depicting women performing on a special floor with special walkways, for an appreciative audience of both men and women.

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The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of Minoan fresco of dance ceremony, Knossos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE FLOORS

Homer apparently knew Cretan dance habits with some accuracy. For example, at the largest Minoan palace, Knossos, archaeologists found a fresco from about 1600 BCE depicting women performing on a special floor with special walkways, for an appreciative audience of both men and women.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Drawing of Minoan fresco of dance ceremony, Knossos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE FLOORS
Homer apparently knew Cretan dance habits with some accuracy. For example, at the largest Minoan palace, Knossos, archaeologists found a fresco from about 1600 BCE depicting women performing on a special floor with special walkways, for an appreciative audience of both men and women.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Ceremonial court, Minoan palace at Phaistos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE FLOORS

Several palaces, such as Knossos and Phaistós, have actually proved to contain large paved courtyards with just such raised walkways flanked by bleacher-like arrangements of steps for an audience. A century ago, Cretan villagers also held their dances on special floors; but lacking a palace, they used the broad, flat, circular floors laid out for threshing.

e

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Ceremonial court, Minoan palace at Phaistos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE FLOORS

Several palaces, such as Knossos and Phaistós, have actually proved to contain large paved courtyards with just such raised walkways flanked by bleacher-like arrangements of steps for an audience. A century ago, Cretan villagers also held their dances on special floors; but lacking a palace, they used the broad, flat, circular floors laid out for threshing.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Ceremonial court, Minoan palace at Phaistos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE FLOORS
Several palaces, such as Knossos and Phaistós, have actually proved to contain large paved courtyards with just such raised walkways flanked by bleacher-like arrangements of steps for an audience. A century ago, Cretan villagers also held their dances on special floors; but lacking a palace, they used the broad, flat, circular floors laid out for threshing.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of archaic Boeotian doll. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber
1900s Postcard: Cretan women dancing. From the Politismos Collection

DANCE HOLDS

One of the common handholds used in Cretan dancing today is known internationally as a “W-hold,” in reference to the W-shape formed by the arms and hands of neighboring dancers who hold hands high as they link their chain, but drop their elbows in a relaxed manner. The Cretan women in this photo are holding their hands thus, as are the men in the image from a century ago of Cretan men dancing. This W-shape is particularly noticeable between the women and girls dancing around a Greek clay doll (with movable legs!) from Boeotia, ca. 700 BCE.

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The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of archaic Boeotian doll. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber
1900s Postcard: Cretan women dancing. From the Politismos Collection

DANCE HOLDS

One of the common handholds used in Cretan dancing today is known internationally as a “W-hold"...

One of the common handholds used in Cretan dancing today is known internationally as a “W-hold,” in reference to the W-shape formed by the arms and hands of neighboring dancers who hold hands high as they link their chain, but drop their elbows in a relaxed manner. The Cretan women in this photo are holding their hands thus, as are the men in the image from a century ago of Cretan men dancing. This W-shape is particularly noticeable between the women and girls dancing around a Greek clay doll (with movable legs!) from Boeotia, ca. 700 BCE.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Drawing of archaic Boeotian doll. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber
1900s Postcard: Cretan women dancing. From the Politismos Collection

One of the common handholds used in Cretan dancing today is known internationally as a “W-hold,” in reference to the W-shape formed by the arms and hands of neighboring dancers who hold hands high as they link their chain, but drop their elbows in a relaxed manner. The Cretan women in this photo are holding their hands thus, as are the men in the image from a century ago of Cretan men dancing. This W-shape is particularly noticeable between the women and girls dancing around a Greek clay doll (with movable legs!) from Boeotia, ca. 700 BCE.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Minoan figurines of women dancing around lyre player
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE HOLDS

This charming clay group of Minoan women dancing around a woman playing a lyre shows a proudly elegant version of the “W-hold” in which the elbows are not allowed to droop. (Such a hold is still used today, for example, by women in remote parts of Macedonia.) The figurines, dating to about 1650 BCE, were found at Palaíkastro on the east coast of Crete.

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The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Minoan figurines of women dancing around lyre player
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE HOLDS

This charming clay group of Minoan women dancing around a woman playing a lyre shows a proudly elegant version of the “W-hold"...

This charming clay group of Minoan women dancing around a woman playing a lyre shows a proudly elegant version of the “W-hold” in which the elbows are not allowed to droop. (Such a hold is still used today, for example, by women in remote parts of Macedonia.) The figurines, dating to about 1650 BCE, were found at Palaíkastro on the east coast of Crete.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Minoan figurines of women dancing around lyre player
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

This charming clay group of Minoan women dancing around a woman playing a lyre shows a proudly elegant version of the “W-hold” in which the elbows are not allowed to droop. (Such a hold is still used today, for example, by women in remote parts of Macedonia.) The figurines, dating to about 1650 BCE, were found at Palaíkastro on the east coast of Crete.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of Theseus’ friends dancing, as depicted on François Vase
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE HOLDS

Legend says that Theseus, prince of Athens, went to Crete as one of the 7 youths and 7 maidens whom Minos, the Minoan king, demanded as a tribute to be fed to the Minotaur (literally, Bull of Minos, illustrated elsewhere here), a monster living in a maze called the Labyrinth. Helped by Minos’s daughter, Theseus killed the Minotaur and escaped from the Labyrinth with his 13 companions. Safely away from Crete, they celebrated with a chain-dance called the gerános, danced forevermore by the Greeks in their honor (now called the tsakónikos). Depicted on a Greek vase from about 570 BCE, the companions use a “V-hold” (the shape made from shoulder to clasped hands to shoulder)—and they hold by the wrist, just as Homer says.

Archaeological linguists now think that Labyrinth meant something like “House of the Double Axe” (the double axe being a common Minoan religious symbol) and was simply the name of Minos’s palace, which had hundreds of interconnected rooms. Mycenaean palaces at the time, like that in Theseus’s Athens, had only three large central rooms with a small circle of storage and service rooms round about. It is also probable that gerános simply meant “winding dance,” rather than “crane dance” as often claimed. No one has ever figured out what cranes had to do with it, but “winding” (from a root sounding similar to that for the crane) makes perfect sense.

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The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of Theseus’ friends dancing, as depicted on François Vase
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE HOLDS

Legend says that Theseus, prince of Athens, went to Crete as one of the 7 youths and 7 maidens whom Minos, the Minoan king, demanded as a tribute to be fed to the Minotaur...

Legend says that Theseus, prince of Athens, went to Crete as one of the 7 youths and 7 maidens whom Minos, the Minoan king, demanded as a tribute to be fed to the Minotaur (literally, Bull of Minos, illustrated elsewhere here), a monster living in a maze called the Labyrinth. Helped by Minos’s daughter, Theseus killed the Minotaur and escaped from the Labyrinth with his 13 companions. Safely away from Crete, they celebrated with a chain-dance called the gerános, danced forevermore by the Greeks in their honor (now called the tsakónikos). Depicted on a Greek vase from about 570 BCE, the companions use a “V-hold” (the shape made from shoulder to clasped hands to shoulder)—and they hold by the wrist, just as Homer says.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Drawing of Theseus’ friends dancing, as depicted on François Vase
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE HOLDS
Legend says that Theseus, prince of Athens, went to Crete as one of the 7 youths and 7 maidens whom Minos, the Minoan king, demanded as a tribute to be fed to the Minotaur (literally, Bull of Minos, illustrated elsewhere here), a monster living in a maze called the Labyrinth. Helped by Minos’s daughter, Theseus killed the Minotaur and escaped from the Labyrinth with his 13 companions. Safely away from Crete, they celebrated with a chain-dance called the gerános, danced forevermore by the Greeks in their honor (now called the tsakónikos). Depicted on a Greek vase from about 570 BCE, the companions use a “V-hold” (the shape made from shoulder to clasped hands to shoulder)—and they hold by the wrist, just as Homer says.

Archaeological linguists now think that Labyrinth meant something like “House of the Double Axe” (the double axe being a common Minoan religious symbol) and was simply the name of Minos’s palace, which had hundreds of interconnected rooms. Mycenaean palaces at the time, like that in Theseus’s Athens, had only three large central rooms with a small circle of storage and service rooms round about. It is also probable that gerános simply meant “winding dance,” rather than “crane dance” as often claimed. No one has ever figured out what cranes had to do with it, but “winding” (from a root sounding similar to that for the crane) makes perfect sense.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Postcard: mixed line dance. From the Politismos Collection
Drawing of Minoan figurines of men in circle-dance. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE HOLDS

Another way of attaching dancers to each other is the shoulder-hold, internationally famous now from “Zorba’s dance” and the slow hassápiko. It is used in a variety of Cretan dances, especially the more war-like men’s dances—pentozális, maleviziótis or soústa, and siganós—since the men often used the subtle pressures of hand on shoulder to learn to function with each other silently and flawlessly as guerrilla bands. But this form, too, goes back to the Minoans, for we have a clay group from about 1700 BCE, found at Kamilári in the Messará, showing four Minoan men in peaked caps dancing just this way in a circle.

e

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Postcard: mixed line dance. From the Politismos Collection
Drawing of Minoan figurines of men in circle-dance. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

DANCE HOLDS

Legend says that Theseus, prince of Athens, went to Crete as one of the 7 youths and 7 maidens whom Minos, the Minoan king, demanded as a tribute to be fed to the Minotaur...

Another way of attaching dancers to each other is the shoulder-hold, internationally famous now from “Zorba’s dance” and the slow hassápiko. It is used in a variety of Cretan dances, especially the more war-like men’s dances—pentozális, maleviziótis or soústa, and siganós—since the men often used the subtle pressures of hand on shoulder to learn to function with each other silently and flawlessly as guerrilla bands. But this form, too, goes back to the Minoans, for we have a clay group from about 1700 BCE, found at Kamilári in the Messará, showing four Minoan men in peaked caps dancing just this way in a circle.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Postcard: mixed line dance. From the Politismos Collection
Drawing of Minoan figurines of men in circle-dance. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Another way of attaching dancers to each other is the shoulder-hold, internationally famous now from “Zorba’s dance” and the slow hassápiko. It is used in a variety of Cretan dances, especially the more war-like men’s dances—pentozális, maleviziótis or soústa, and siganós—since the men often used the subtle pressures of hand on shoulder to learn to function with each other silently and flawlessly as guerrilla bands. But this form, too, goes back to the Minoans, for we have a clay group from about 1700 BCE, found at Kamilári in the Messará, showing four Minoan men in peaked caps dancing just this way in a circle.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing: Fresco of Classical Greek women dancing, from Ruvo. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber
Postcard: Cretan dancers in basket-hold. From the Politismos Collection

DANCE HOLDS

Another dance formation with a deep history is that of crossing arms to hold hands with the person beyond one’s neighbor—called a basket-hold. This unusual hold is attested already on a mural in a Greek tomb at Ruvo, Italy from the 4th century BCE. Note that women form basket-holds with each other but not with men—that would be too intimate. The men might make their own basket-hold line, but the sexes would be joined traditionally by the last man and first woman holding fingertips, or preferably, opposite corners of a scarf.

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The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing: Fresco of Classical Greek women dancing, from Ruvo. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber
Postcard: Cretan dancers in basket-hold. From the Politismos Collection

DANCE HOLDS

Another dance formation with a deep history is that of crossing arms to hold hands with the person beyond one’s neighbor—called a basket-hold...

Another dance formation with a deep history is that of crossing arms to hold hands with the person beyond one’s neighbor—called a basket-hold. This unusual hold is attested already on a mural in a Greek tomb at Ruvo, Italy from the 4th century BCE. Note that women form basket-holds with each other but not with men—that would be too intimate. The men might make their own basket-hold line, but the sexes would be joined traditionally by the last man and first woman holding fingertips, or preferably, opposite corners of a scarf.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Drawing: Fresco of Classical Greek women dancing, from Ruvo. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber
Postcard: Cretan dancers in basket-hold. From the Politismos Collection

Another dance formation with a deep history is that of crossing arms to hold hands with the person beyond one’s neighbor—called a basket-hold. This unusual hold is attested already on a mural in a Greek tomb at Ruvo, Italy from the 4th century BCE. Note that women form basket-holds with each other but not with men—that would be too intimate. The men might make their own basket-hold line, but the sexes would be joined traditionally by the last man and first woman holding fingertips, or preferably, opposite corners of a scarf.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of acrobats shown on Minoan seals
Drawing of Minoan fresco of girl whirling, from Knossos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

ACROBATICS

Homer describes Cretan dance as including tumblers whirling amidst the dancers. We have found on Crete several depictions of Minoan acrobats and tumblers from as early as 1700 BCE (on a seal, and on a sword hilt), as well as a charming fresco of a girl whirling so fast that her hair flies out in all directions (from Knossos, ca. 1600 BCE).

e

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of acrobats shown on Minoan seals
Drawing of Minoan fresco of girl whirling, from Knossos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

ACROBATICS

Homer describes Cretan dance as including tumblers whirling amidst the dancers..

Homer describes Cretan dance as including tumblers whirling amidst the dancers. We have found on Crete several depictions of Minoan acrobats and tumblers from as early as 1700 BCE (on a seal, and on a sword hilt), as well as a charming fresco of a girl whirling so fast that her hair flies out in all directions (from Knossos, ca. 1600 BCE).

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Drawing of acrobats shown on Minoan seals
Drawing of Minoan fresco of girl whirling, from Knossos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

ACROBATICS
Homer describes Cretan dance as including tumblers whirling amidst the dancers. We have found on Crete several depictions of Minoan acrobats and tumblers from as early as 1700 BCE (on a seal, and on a sword hilt), as well as a charming fresco of a girl whirling so fast that her hair flies out in all directions (from Knossos, ca. 1600 BCE).

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawings of Modern Cretan men jumping during a dance
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

ACROBATICS

Even today, the men of Crete are known for the great leaps and jumps performed by the leaders of the dance-lines—supported always by the second dancer in the line. These leaps are common in such dances as the pentozális, soústa, and syrtós khaniótikos.

e

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawings of Modern Cretan men jumping during a dance
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

ACROBATICS

Even today, the men of Crete are known for the great leaps and jumps performed by the leaders of the dance-lines—supported always by the second dancer in the line. These leaps are common in such dances as the pentozális, soústa, and syrtós khaniótikos.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Drawings of Modern Cretan men jumping during a dance
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

ACROBATICS
Even today, the men of Crete are known for the great leaps and jumps performed by the leaders of the dance-lines—supported always by the second dancer in the line. These leaps are common in such dances as the pentozális, soústa, and syrtós khaniótikos.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of a relief sculpture of Kouretes dancing around the infant Zeus
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Rural farmers throughout the Balkans and East Europe believed, even quite recently, that the higher one leapt during agricultural rituals, the higher the crops would grow. A similar belief is implied by the antique hymn.

WAR DANCES

Men’s warlike leaping dances were recorded in Crete in Classical times, too, especially in the Hymn of the Koúrētes:

Leap for full jars,
And leap for fleecy flocks,
And leap for fields of fruit,
And for hives to increase!

The Koúrētes were bands of young men who served the Cretan version of Zeus, an agricultural deity inherited from Bronze Age times. Legend had it that when Zeus’s mother Rhea was trying to preserve her babe from her cannibalistic husband Ouranos, she gave the infant Zeus to the Koúrētes, who hid him in a cave on Mt. Dikte and clashed their weapons in a dance every time the baby cried, so his father wouldn’t find him. In addition to the hymn, the text of which seems to date back to at least 700 BCE, we have a Roman terracotta relief depicting three such youths clashing shields and swords energetically above the baby, whose favorite toy, a winged thunderbolt, also lies between their feet.

e

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of a relief sculpture of Kouretes dancing around the infant Zeus
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Rural farmers throughout the Balkans and East Europe believed, even quite recently, that the higher one leapt during agricultural rituals, the higher the crops would grow. A similar belief is implied by the antique hymn.

WAR DANCES

Men’s warlike leaping dances were recorded in Crete in Classical times, too, especially in the Hymn of the Koúrētes:

Men’s warlike leaping dances were recorded in Crete in Classical times, too, especially in the Hymn of the Koúrētes:

Leap for full jars,
And leap for fleecy flocks,
And leap for fields of fruit,
And for hives to increase!

The Koúrētes were bands of young men who served the Cretan version of Zeus, an agricultural deity inherited from Bronze Age times. Legend had it that when Zeus’s mother Rhea was trying to preserve her babe from her cannibalistic husband Ouranos, she gave the infant Zeus to the Koúrētes, who hid him in a cave on Mt. Dikte and clashed their weapons in a dance every time the baby cried, so his father wouldn’t find him. In addition to the hymn, the text of which seems to date back to at least 700 BCE, we have a Roman terracotta relief depicting three such youths clashing shields and swords energetically above the baby, whose favorite toy, a winged thunderbolt, also lies between their feet.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Drawing of a relief sculpture of Kouretes dancing around the infant Zeus
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

WAR DANCES
Men’s warlike leaping dances were recorded in Crete in Classical times, too, especially in the Hymn of the Koúrētes:

Leap for full jars,
And leap for fleecy flocks,
And leap for fields of fruit,
And for hives to increase!

The Koúrētes were bands of young men who served the Cretan version of Zeus, an agricultural deity inherited from Bronze Age times. Legend had it that when Zeus’s mother Rhea was trying to preserve her babe from her cannibalistic husband Ouranos, she gave the infant Zeus to the Koúrētes, who hid him in a cave on Mt. Dikte and clashed their weapons in a dance every time the baby cried, so his father wouldn’t find him. In addition to the hymn, the text of which seems to date back to at least 700 BCE, we have a Roman terracotta relief depicting three such youths clashing shields and swords energetically above the baby, whose favorite toy, a winged thunderbolt, also lies between their feet.

Rural farmers throughout the Balkans and East Europe believed, even quite recently, that the higher one leapt during agricultural rituals, the higher the crops would grow. A similar belief is implied by the antique hymn.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Attic Black-Figure Amphora with the Minotaur, attributed to Lydos (565-535 BC).
Courtesy of J. Paul Getty Museum

MASKED DANCERS

We recounted elsewhere the legend of Theseus killing the Minotaur, a monster whom the Greeks always described as a man with a bull’s head and depicted here on a Greek vase of about 550 BCE. We also discussed what archaeologists now think the Labyrinth, home of the Minotaur, actually was. So if the Labyrinth was real, what was the Minotaur? Certainly the Minoans were obsessed with bulls: we have many Minoan frescoes and statuettes of lithe acrobats “bull-jumping,” a highly dangerous sport, whatever the details (the paintings sometimes ring a bit false as to how charging bulls actually behave). Now, a creature half bull, half man, is biologically impossible. But a man wearing a bull mask is not impossible.

e

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Attic Black-Figure Amphora with the Minotaur, attributed to Lydos (565-535 BC).
Courtesy of J. Paul Getty Museum

MASKED DANCERS

We recounted elsewhere the legend of Theseus killing the Minotaur...

We recounted elsewhere the legend of Theseus killing the Minotaur, a monster whom the Greeks always described as a man with a bull’s head and depicted here on a Greek vase of about 550 BCE. We also discussed what archaeologists now think the Labyrinth, home of the Minotaur, actually was. So if the Labyrinth was real, what was the Minotaur? Certainly the Minoans were obsessed with bulls: we have many Minoan frescoes and statuettes of lithe acrobats “bull-jumping,” a highly dangerous sport, whatever the details (the paintings sometimes ring a bit false as to how charging bulls actually behave). Now, a creature half bull, half man, is biologically impossible. But a man wearing a bull mask is not impossible.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Attic Black-Figure Amphora with the Minotaur, attributed to Lydos (565-535 BC).
Courtesy of J. Paul Getty Museum

MASKED DANCERS
Men’s warlike leaping dances were recorded in Crete in Classical times, too, especially in the Hymn of the Koúrētes:

Leap for full jars,
And leap for fleecy flocks,
And leap for fields of fruit,
And for hives to increase!

The Koúrētes were bands of young men who served the Cretan version of Zeus, an agricultural deity inherited from Bronze Age times. Legend had it that when Zeus’s mother Rhea was trying to preserve her babe from her cannibalistic husband Ouranos, she gave the infant Zeus to the Koúrētes, who hid him in a cave on Mt. Dikte and clashed their weapons in a dance every time the baby cried, so his father wouldn’t find him. In addition to the hymn, the text of which seems to date back to at least 700 BCE, we have a Roman terracotta relief depicting three such youths clashing shields and swords energetically above the baby, whose favorite toy, a winged thunderbolt, also lies between their feet.

Rural farmers throughout the Balkans and East Europe believed, even quite recently, that the higher one leapt during agricultural rituals, the higher the crops would grow. A similar belief is implied by the antique hymn.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawings of Minoan seals:
Man dancing with ram mask and wings, and women partly dressed as birds
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

The Minotaur is invariably shown in ancient times as having a bull’s head but human from the shoulders down, never the other way around. Other early representations of “hybrid” creatures also appear to be humans playing dress-up; and in Classical times we have clear representations of animal-masked dancers. These monsters, whether dancing or spooking people, persist to this day in many parts of rural Europe, coming out especially at midwinter during the Twelve Days of Christmas—in Greece as the kallikántzaroi.

MASKED DANCERS

We have numerous Minoan representations of maskers especially on Cretan seals, many datable to about 1625 BCE. One, for example, shows a man wearing a ram’s-head mask and wings. Others depict women with typical Minoan flounced skirts and bare bosoms (see images of Minoan costume elsewhere), yet with the head, beak, and wings of a bird. But note that the long wings angle out not like a bird’s but like human arms sleeved to look like wings. So these must be ritual animal-costumes. (Compare the ultra-long wing-sleeves to those worn into recent times by girls impersonating in dance the maiden rain-spirits, who sometimes appeared to mortals in the form of large white birds. See elsewhere in this exhibit.) Hence the man-killing “Minotaur” was probably a conflation, born of terror, combining bull-masked performers and the lethal Minoan sport of bull-jumping.

e

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawings of Minoan seals:
Man dancing with ram mask and wings, and women partly dressed as birds
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

The Minotaur is invariably shown in ancient times as having a bull’s head but human from the shoulders down, never the other way around. Other early representations of “hybrid” creatures also appear to be humans playing dress-up; and in Classical times we have clear representations of animal-masked dancers. These monsters, whether dancing or spooking people, persist to this day in many parts of rural Europe, coming out especially at midwinter during the Twelve Days of Christmas—in Greece as the kallikántzaroi.

MASKED DANCERS

We have numerous Minoan representations of maskers especially on Cretan seals, many datable to about 1625 BCE...

We have numerous Minoan representations of maskers especially on Cretan seals, many datable to about 1625 BCE. One, for example, shows a man wearing a ram’s-head mask and wings. Others depict women with typical Minoan flounced skirts and bare bosoms (see images of Minoan costume elsewhere), yet with the head, beak, and wings of a bird. But note that the long wings angle out not like a bird’s but like human arms sleeved to look like wings. So these must be ritual animal-costumes. (Compare the ultra-long wing-sleeves to those worn into recent times by girls impersonating in dance the maiden rain-spirits, who sometimes appeared to mortals in the form of large white birds. See elsewhere in this exhibit.) Hence the man-killing “Minotaur” was probably a conflation, born of terror, combining bull-masked performers and the lethal Minoan sport of bull-jumping.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Drawings of Minoan seals:
Man dancing with ram mask and wings, and women partly dressed as birds
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

MASKED DANCERS
We have numerous Minoan representations of maskers especially on Cretan seals, many datable to about 1625 BCE. One, for example, shows a man wearing a ram’s-head mask and wings. Others depict women with typical Minoan flounced skirts and bare bosoms (see images of Minoan costume elsewhere), yet with the head, beak, and wings of a bird. But note that the long wings angle out not like a bird’s but like human arms sleeved to look like wings. So these must be ritual animal-costumes. (Compare the ultra-long wing-sleeves to those worn into recent times by girls impersonating in dance the maiden rain-spirits, who sometimes appeared to mortals in the form of large white birds. See elsewhere in this exhibit.) Hence the man-killing “Minotaur” was probably a conflation, born of terror, combining bull-masked performers and the lethal Minoan sport of bull-jumping.

The Minotaur is invariably shown in ancient times as having a bull’s head but human from the shoulders down, never the other way around. Other early representations of “hybrid” creatures also appear to be humans playing dress-up; and in Classical times we have clear representations of animal-masked dancers. These monsters, whether dancing or spooking people, persist to this day in many parts of rural Europe, coming out especially at midwinter during the Twelve Days of Christmas—in Greece as the kallikántzaroi.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Minoan fresco of woman dancing in garden, Aghia Triadha
After F. Halbherr, 1903

MINOAN WOMEN'S DRESS

Minoan women who had reached puberty seem typically to have worn large flounced skirts, made from ornate woolen fabric that they wove themselves. One of the most gorgeous of these fabrics is seen here on a woman dancing in a garden (from a villa at Aghia Triadha, near Phaistos, ca. 1650 BCE). Other examples of these tiered or flounced skirts can be seen on the famous Minoan “Snake Ladies” from Knossos, as well as on the seals showing women impersonating birds.

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The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Minoan fresco of woman dancing in garden, Aghia Triadha
After F. Halbherr, 1903

MINOAN WOMEN'S DRESS

Minoan women who had reached puberty seem typically to have worn large flounced skirts, made from ornate woolen fabric that they wove themselves...

Minoan women who had reached puberty seem typically to have worn large flounced skirts, made from ornate woolen fabric that they wove themselves. One of the most gorgeous of these fabrics is seen here on a woman dancing in a garden (from a villa at Aghia Triadha, near Phaistos, ca. 1650 BCE). Other examples of these tiered or flounced skirts can be seen on the famous Minoan “Snake Ladies” from Knossos, as well as on the seals showing women impersonating birds.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Minoan fresco of woman dancing in garden, Aghia Triadha
After F. Halbherr, 1903

MINOAN WOMEN'S DRESS
Minoan women who had reached puberty seem typically to have worn large flounced skirts, made from ornate woolen fabric that they wove themselves. One of the most gorgeous of these fabrics is seen here on a woman dancing in a garden (from a villa at Aghia Triadha, near Phaistos, ca. 1650 BCE). Other examples of these tiered or flounced skirts can be seen on the famous Minoan “Snake Ladies” from Knossos, as well as on the seals showing women impersonating birds.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing on early Boeotian vase
Drawing of old Russian embroidery
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

BIRD MAIDENS

From ancient times to modern, the rain-maidens or fertility-maidens—thought to be spirits of childless girls, now in charge of life-giving water—were closely associated with the great water-birds of passage (wild geese, swans, etc.). To invoke their aid, human girls danced wearing long white sleeves and other paraphernalia to imitate these birds (compare the Minoan seals shown elsewhere). In traditional art they often appear as girls holding birds on their hands. For example, on a Boeotian vase of about 700 BCE, one appears with ultra-long sleeves, a bird on each hand, a fish swimming up her watery apron, and wild beasts drinking her waters from either side. Very similar images occur on rural women’s traditional embroideries and weaving-designs from Greece all the way to Northern Russia (as in the example shown).

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The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing on early Boeotian vase
Drawing of old Russian embroidery
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

BIRD MAIDENS

From ancient times to modern, the rain-maidens or fertility-maidens—thought to be spirits of childless girls, now in charge of life-giving water—were closely associated with the great water-birds ...

From ancient times to modern, the rain-maidens or fertility-maidens—thought to be spirits of childless girls, now in charge of life-giving water—were closely associated with the great water-birds of passage (wild geese, swans, etc.). To invoke their aid, human girls danced wearing long white sleeves and other paraphernalia to imitate these birds (compare the Minoan seals shown elsewhere). In traditional art they often appear as girls holding birds on their hands. For example, on a Boeotian vase of about 700 BCE, one appears with ultra-long sleeves, a bird on each hand, a fish swimming up her watery apron, and wild beasts drinking her waters from either side. Very similar images occur on rural women’s traditional embroideries and weaving-designs from Greece all the way to Northern Russia (as in the example shown).

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Drawing on early Boeotian vase
Drawing of old Russian embroidery
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

BIRD MAIDENS
From ancient times to modern, the rain-maidens or fertility-maidens—thought to be spirits of childless girls, now in charge of life-giving water—were closely associated with the great water-birds of passage (wild geese, swans, etc.). To invoke their aid, human girls danced wearing long white sleeves and other paraphernalia to imitate these birds (compare the Minoan seals shown elsewhere). In traditional art they often appear as girls holding birds on their hands. For example, on a Boeotian vase of about 700 BCE, one appears with ultra-long sleeves, a bird on each hand, a fish swimming up her watery apron, and wild beasts drinking her waters from either side. Very similar images occur on rural women’s traditional embroideries and weaving-designs from Greece all the way to Northern Russia (as in the example shown).

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of old Russian embroidery
Minoan woman holding snakes, from Knossos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

BIRD MAIDENS

The maiden’s stance is very ancient, and she may be holding up birds or flowers or sheaves of wheat (as at ancient Mycenae) or—yes—even snakes, as in the famous Minoan “Snake Ladies.” All of these are symbols of life and rebirth. Judeo-Christian tradition has given snakes a bad rap, but to everyone else, the fact that a snake sheds its skin and appears to become young again makes the snake a prime symbol of resurgent life. (The embroidery pattern is from mid-19th–century Russia.)

e

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Drawing of old Russian embroidery
Minoan woman holding snakes, from Knossos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

BIRD MAIDENS

The maiden’s stance is very ancient, and she may be holding up birds or flowers or sheaves of wheat...

The maiden’s stance is very ancient, and she may be holding up birds or flowers or sheaves of wheat (as at ancient Mycenae) or—yes—even snakes, as in the famous Minoan “Snake Ladies.” All of these are symbols of life and rebirth. Judeo-Christian tradition has given snakes a bad rap, but to everyone else, the fact that a snake sheds its skin and appears to become young again makes the snake a prime symbol of resurgent life. (The embroidery pattern is from mid-19th–century Russia.)

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Drawing of old Russian embroidery
Minoan woman holding snakes, from Knossos
Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

BIRD MAIDENS
The maiden’s stance is very ancient, and she may be holding up birds or flowers or sheaves of wheat (as at ancient Mycenae) or—yes—even snakes, as in the famous Minoan “Snake Ladies.” All of these are symbols of life and rebirth. Judeo-Christian tradition has given snakes a bad rap, but to everyone else, the fact that a snake sheds its skin and appears to become young again makes the snake a prime symbol of resurgent life. (The embroidery pattern is from mid-19th–century Russia.)

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Cretan Apron
Cretan Bed Sham
Photographs courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

BIRD MAIDENS

In recent times, in part because of the strength of the Christian tradition and in part because of the loss of rural tradition, the original meaning has been getting lost and so the bird-maiden motif has tended to degenerate. But on an East Cretan bed-sham (photographed 25 years ago, when it was already old), you can still see the birds sitting atop two stem-and-flower arms and “hands,” with a flower for a head and an abbreviated body still flanked by two small quadrupeds. And on the apron of this typical Cretan woman’s costume, on its upper frieze, you can see clearly the head and upraised arms of the rain-maiden, still holding birds, and alternating with what may be her torso and skirt.

e

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Cretan Apron
Cretan Bed Sham
Photographs courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

BIRD MAIDENS

In recent times, in part because of the strength of the Christian tradition and in part because of the loss of rural tradition, the original meaning has been getting lost and so the bird-maiden motif has tended to degenerate...

In recent times, in part because of the strength of the Christian tradition and in part because of the loss of rural tradition, the original meaning has been getting lost and so the bird-maiden motif has tended to degenerate. But on an East Cretan bed-sham (photographed 25 years ago, when it was already old), you can still see the birds sitting atop two stem-and-flower arms and “hands,” with a flower for a head and an abbreviated body still flanked by two small quadrupeds. And on the apron of this typical Cretan woman’s costume, on its upper frieze, you can see clearly the head and upraised arms of the rain-maiden, still holding birds, and alternating with what may be her torso and skirt.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Cretan Apron
Cretan Bed Sham
Photographs courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

BIRD MAIDENS
In recent times, in part because of the strength of the Christian tradition and in part because of the loss of rural tradition, the original meaning has been getting lost and so the bird-maiden motif has tended to degenerate. But on an East Cretan bed-sham (photographed 25 years ago, when it was already old), you can still see the birds sitting atop two stem-and-flower arms and “hands,” with a flower for a head and an abbreviated body still flanked by two small quadrupeds. And on the apron of this typical Cretan woman’s costume, on its upper frieze, you can see clearly the head and upraised arms of the rain-maiden, still holding birds, and alternating with what may be her torso and skirt.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Postcard: procession of Cretan women at wedding. From the Politismos Collection
Drawing of Minoan figurine from Petsofá. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

COSTUME SHAPE

It is noticeable too, that the very form of the typical Cretan woman’s costume recalls the general form of Minoan women’s dress, with its tight, low-cut bodice emphasizing the breasts, and long skirts. Even our very earliest representations of Minoan women’s dress have these features, as in the figurine from Petsofá, in East Crete, dating to about 1900 BCE. (This is a very different style of dress from that used by ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians at that time.) Christians, however, as everywhere, have added a garment to hide the breasts, since chastity rather than agrarian fertility was a prime issue with the Church.

e

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Postcard: procession of Cretan women at wedding. From the Politismos Collection
Drawing of Minoan figurine from Petsofá. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

COSTUME SHAPE

It is noticeable too, that the very form of the typical Cretan woman’s costume recalls the general form of Minoan women’s dress...

It is noticeable too, that the very form of the typical Cretan woman’s costume recalls the general form of Minoan women’s dress, with its tight, low-cut bodice emphasizing the breasts, and long skirts. Even our very earliest representations of Minoan women’s dress have these features, as in the figurine from Petsofá, in East Crete, dating to about 1900 BCE. (This is a very different style of dress from that used by ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians at that time.) Christians, however, as everywhere, have added a garment to hide the breasts, since chastity rather than agrarian fertility was a prime issue with the Church.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Postcard: procession of Cretan women at wedding. From the Politismos Collection
Drawing of Minoan figurine from Petsofá. Courtesy of Elizabeth Wayland Barber

COSTUME SHAPE
It is noticeable too, that the very form of the typical Cretan woman’s costume recalls the general form of Minoan women’s dress, with its tight, low-cut bodice emphasizing the breasts, and long skirts. Even our very earliest representations of Minoan women’s dress have these features, as in the figurine from Petsofá, in East Crete, dating to about 1900 BCE. (This is a very different style of dress from that used by ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians at that time.) Christians, however, as everywhere, have added a garment to hide the breasts, since chastity rather than agrarian fertility was a prime issue with the Church.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Statuette of Lyre Player with Companion (690-670 BC, Crete). Courtesy of J. Paul Getty Museum
Modern Day Lyra Players. Courtesy of Dimitris Verekis, Lyra and Giorgos Xylouris (Psaragiorgis), Laouto

MUSIC

Just as the costumes and imagery have evolved, so have the music and dances. When the traditional musicians at a festivity get tired and take a break, the youngsters start blaring the current European and American “rock” favorites—and fit the traditional syrtós to it, dancing round and round the village square! The Cretan musicians, for their part, are busy as ever, absorbing what they like from international music and combining it felicitously with their heritage to produce an ever-evolving local music, some of it in turn becoming internationally famous. Homer, too, combined the old and the new to make everlasting works. One wonders, in fact, if the little Archaic-period bronze lyre-player, found in Crete, was being attended by a boy because he was blind, as Homer was said to be.

e

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

JUNE 2016 - NOVEMBER 2016

Statuette of Lyre Player with Companion (690-670 BC, Crete). Courtesy of J. Paul Getty Museum
Modern Day Lyra Players. Courtesy of Dimitris Verekis, Lyra and Giorgos Xylouris (Psaragiorgis), Laouto

MUSIC

Just as the costumes and imagery have evolved, so have the music and dances...

Just as the costumes and imagery have evolved, so have the music and dances. When the traditional musicians at a festivity get tired and take a break, the youngsters start blaring the current European and American “rock” favorites—and fit the traditional syrtós to it, dancing round and round the village square! The Cretan musicians, for their part, are busy as ever, absorbing what they like from international music and combining it felicitously with their heritage to produce an ever-evolving local music, some of it in turn becoming internationally famous. Homer, too, combined the old and the new to make everlasting works. One wonders, in fact, if the little Archaic-period bronze lyre-player, found in Crete, was being attended by a boy because he was blind, as Homer was said to be.

The Dancers of Crete
Curated by Elizabeth Wayland Barber

Statuette of Lyre Player with Companion (690-670 BC, Crete). Courtesy of J. Paul Getty Museum
Modern Day Lyra Players. Courtesy of Dimitris Verekis, Lyra and Giorgos Xylouris (Psaragiorgis), Laouto

MUSIC
Just as the costumes and imagery have evolved, so have the music and dances. When the traditional musicians at a festivity get tired and take a break, the youngsters start blaring the current European and American “rock” favorites—and fit the traditional syrtós to it, dancing round and round the village square! The Cretan musicians, for their part, are busy as ever, absorbing what they like from international music and combining it felicitously with their heritage to produce an ever-evolving local music, some of it in turn becoming internationally famous. Homer, too, combined the old and the new to make everlasting works. One wonders, in fact, if the little Archaic-period bronze lyre-player, found in Crete, was being attended by a boy because he was blind, as Homer was said to be.