Page 44 - GREC14N_JTR_05

Unique experience | The Akrotiri frescoes

3.500
YEARS
OF
ART

The Greek

Pompeii
The volcano flames froze in time
Prehistoric Thera. Οι φλόγες του
ηφαιστείου πάγωσαν στο χρόνο
την προϊστορική Θήρα.
by Vassia Antonopoulou

Two boys are boxing and a young
fisherman carries his catch as Minoan
ladies are walking under the starred sky,
women are gathering saffron and a fleet
of ships is entering noisily the port. At
the same time the spring breeze is kissing
the lilies, papyri are whispering secrets to
the water, swallows are flirting and blue
monkeys are hopping lively from branch
to branch. Prehistoric Thera reveals itself
to the future visitors trapped around 1615
BC, in the in-between limbo of the first
warning earthquakes until the volcano
eruption. Among the earliest samples
of decorative art in such a big scale,
the frescoes adorned the walls of many
buildings in the prehistoric Akrotiri, but
their value was not merely aesthetic; they
were also related to the function of the
areas they decorated. Clothes, hair style,
jewels, or the lack of them, the redness
of the skin are statements of gender and
social class, while the depiction of papyri
and monkeys bespeak the relationships
Thera had with Egypt, and naturally with 36°21'06.6"N 25°24'12.3"E
the Minoan Crete, the close bonds among
the great Mediterranean civilizations.
Luckily, the Thereans did not share the

44 GREC14N 2019