The palace of Knossos represents the full spectrum of Minoan civilisation’s fresco styles. Its frescos depict religious festivals and rituals, Minoan sports and decorative patterns and motifs. 

The frescos of Knossos also give us an insight into Minoan fashions and what the Minoan people looked like. They have also helped archaeologists recreate parts of the palace by preserving details of Knossos’s architecture.

Frescos of Minoan Religion and Rituals

Minoan palaces were ritual centres as well as royal residences. The west wing of Knossos was dedicated to public receptions and Minoan religious ceremonies and has many frescos that preserve details of the sort of events that would have occurred in the palace’s courtyards, corridors and rooms.

Notable frescos can be found in:

• The Corridor of the Procession. The whole corridor is covered with a colourful fresco that gives it its name, depicting near life-sized figures bearing gifts to a female who is either a goddess or a queen.
• The Propylaeum. The porch or gatehouse that was the entrance to the palace’s sacred enclosure is covered with a similar scene to the Corridor of the Procession. A crowd of young men and women are depicted in a procession, culminating in a sacrifice to the deity. The best-preserved figure is that of the cupbearer, a youth bearing a conical rhyton or libation vase.
• The Throne Room. Here, frescos depict Minoan festival celebrations in the palace. One scene shows women dancing in the sacred grove presumed to have been part of the palace complex whilst male spectators applaud them.

Minoan Nature Frescos

The Minoans closely associated nature with the divine. Many of the frescos of Knossos feature the plants and animals associated with Crete and the gods: 

• The House of the Frescos. Situated near the throne room in the ceremonial west wing, the House of the Frescos preserves several beautiful frescos celebrating the nature of Crete. Notable is a scene of exotic gardens full of flowers and plants. The scene also features a bluebird and two tame blue monkeys with ribbons tied about their necks, gathering papyrus reeds.
•  The Throne Room contains scenes celebrating some of the Minoan’s sacred animals. The north and west walls of the room are decorated with gryphons amongst the reeds. To the Minoans’ the gryphon combined the attributes of heaven, earth and the underworld in its composition of eagle’s head, lion’s body and snake’s tail.
• The Queen’s Megaron: The Queen’s private reception room in the palace’s east wing, the east wall preserves the dolphin fresco. Combining dolphins, fish and sea urchins, this is one of Knossos’s most representative frescos.

Minoan Sports and Contests

The west wing also preserves details of Minoan sporting events. Their situation in the ceremonial wing of the palace indicates that such activities were religious as well as recreational. The remains of a large fresco in the propylaeum is believed to have depicted a bullfight, although only the bull’s foot remains.

The Toreador Fresco found in the residential wing of the palace shows a contest between a young man and woman and a bull. The scene vividly depicts the Minoan sport of bull leaping, with the participants grasping the animal’s horns as they leap over it.

Minoan Fresco Patterns

Walls, ceilings and borders in the palace were often filled with repetitive patterns of common Minoan motifs. Good examples can be found in the palace’s residential quarters, with landings near the royal quarters covered in spiral friezes. Many of these friezes are reproductions; the originals on show in Heraklion Museum. One exception is the ceiling of the Queen’s bathroom, where the poorly preserved remains of monochrome frescos and decorative friezes are still in place.

Frescos of Minoan People

Many of the frescos in the palace give a clear idea of the appearance of the Minoans — albeit idealised — as well as their styles of dress and jewellery:

• The Ladies in Blue. Found in the west wing, this fresco gives a clear portrayal of the Minoan female ideal as well as court fashions. The white-skinned ladies of the palace have elaborate coiled hairstyles. They wear delicate necklaces and bracelets. Even the details of their garments are clearly shown, down to the blue-trimmed bodices.
• Fresco of Priest-King or Prince with Lilies. Found south of the central ceremonial courtyard, this fresco depicts a young man in a crown of lilies and peacock feathers. His skin is a reddish-brown, and his upper body is bare except for a gold necklace of lilies around his neck. He wears a kilt and leads a gryphon or sphinx on a lead. Not much more remains of the scene, but it shows the Minoan male ideal as having broad shoulders and a narrow waist.
• The Queen’s Megaron. More details of female fashion are preserved in a fresco of a dancing girl. The short-sleeved bolero top the girl wears is colourfully embroidered. The scene itself skilfully depicts movement in how the girl’s hair whirls about her as she moves.
• Propylaeum Fresco. Again depicting the Minoan physical ideal, men’s bodies are shown as red-brown while women are white. Both sexes have long hair and wear similar clothes and jewellery. Bracelets and anklets are worn and some figures have seal stones on their wrists.

Architectural Frescos

All about the palace are frescos showing rooms and activities about Knossos, in areas such as the central ceremonial court and the palaces shrines. These scenes have helped make sense of Knossos’s remains.

Resources

Logiadou-Platonos, Sosso,  Knossos: The Palace of Minos. A Survey of the Minoan Civilisation. Athens.

Vasilakis, Andonis, (1999) Minoan Crete: From Myth to History (1999) Adam Editions: Athens.