Above is a short clip from YouTube with Bettany Hughes looking at some of the Akrotiri wall paintings and frescoes and their depiction of women. The frescoe shown in close up is the Mistress Of Animals And Saffron Gatherer. Below are further details on the frescoe from the excellent Thera Foundation site which has done so much for the study of the Thera eruption.
Xeste 3, Room 3a, first floor, North Wall
H: 2.30 / W: 3.22 m
The northern wall depicts a crocus-filled landscape. Here, a third female figure empties crocus stamens from her basket into a larger holding vessel. We can assume that she is a third saffron-gatherer. To the right, seated upon a stepped pedestal, is a fourth female figure. Positioned well above the other three females, this woman is richly dressed, adorned with an assortment of jewelry.
Animal themes and motifs decorate this central figure; she wears two necklaces, one with duck beads and the other with a dragonfly motif and on her head, a snake-like band. In front of her is a blue monkey climbing up the pedestal, holding outstretched a posy of crocuses. At her side sits a Griffin. The Griffin, half-lion half-eagle, is a mythical creature long associated with majesty and power.
Placed on this ‘podium’ in the midst of real and mythical animals, academics have interpreted the woman as a divinity and thus named her the ‘Mistress of Animals’. It is possible that this wall-painting depicts a religious celebration, the offering of the crocus harvest to the Nature Goddess.
While this wall-painting seems to depict elements of the divine, the act of saffron gathering is firmly rooted in reality and represents ancient traditions of dyeing, of fine perfume and pharmacology.
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