Ancient civilizations-2

The Cyclades

On the island of Cythera (Kíthira), between western Crete and the southern tip of the Peloponnese, a colony of Cretans appears to have replaced a settlement of people from the mainland toward the end of the 3rd millennium. In the 17th or 16th century, Cretan colonies were established at Triánda in Rhodes and at Miletus on the western coast of Anatolia. Later Greek legends seem to refer to colonies from Crete, if not from Knossos, in some of the Aegean islands. Much Cretan pottery found its way to the Cyclades and was also imitated there; but, although the Cycladic people adapted some fashions and ideas from Crete, they retained their own distinctive traditions. Cycladic vases are decorated with flowers, especially lilies and saffron crocus, with swallows, wild goats, and dolphins, and with warriors and strange griffins, in a lively, splashy, and colourful style. Frescoes at Ayía Iríni (Aghia Eirene) on Ceos (Kéa) show blue birds, a town, hunting, a girl picking flowers, myrtle branches, and a copper ingot, and those at Phylakopi on Melos depict women in clothes embroidered with birds, fine textiles, flying fish, and lily blossoms. At Akrotíri on Thera, a town buried under a volcanic eruption about 1500 bc, there are in almost every house fairly well-preserved frescoes displaying wonderful, flat, brightly coloured scenes of boxers, fishermen, antelopes, birds, and blue monkeys. The two most dramatic ones are the “naval” or “miniature” frescoes from the West House, showing themes of war and peace in a seaside-and-country setting with whole towns watching elaborate ships, and the elegantly drawn set in Xeste 3, of girls and women picking saffron crocus, wearing their finest gold and rock crystal jewelry and elegant costumes; they are accompanied by blue monkeys. The Theran paintings are the best surviving Aegean documents for clothing, architecture, ships, armament, and daily life.