Minoan Thera Wallpainting Exhibition: Adult Male, 17th C. BCE

"Xeste 3,
 
Room 3b, ground floor, west wall
H: 1.93 / W: 1.82 m

Room 3b, Ground floor, Middle corridor, H. 1.92 / W. 1.93 m.
Room 3b, Ground floor, West wall, H. 1.93 / W. 1.82 m.
Room 3b, Ground floor, North corridor, H. 1.75 / W. 1.24 m.

Four male figures are depicted in this series of wall-paintings, which once adorned a relatively large room. Three of them are naked youths with shaven heads (blue). One boy, in the northern corridor, holds a bowl (or fire box) in both hands. In the middle corridor, another figure holds a colourful striped cloth; in the same frame, the third and smallest boy, rendered in yellow ochre, poses with his arms outstretched. The fourth figure, an adult male, clothed in a Minoan loincloth, holds a large vessel, tipping it as if to pour out some liquid. The adult’s scale and age make him the focus of this wall-painting series; indeed, the young boys are turned as if directed towards him.

Two interpretations of this scene have been suggested:

Firstly, that the artist is describing an initiation ritual possibly including the shaving of heads. With this interpretation we assume that the jug the adult male is holding would have been used for washing the head, and that the bowl/fire box the boy on the right is holding was used to receive the shaved hair. This ritual may then have ended with the newly initiated boy being dressed in the fine fabric held by the other youth.

A second explanation is derived from the subject of the wall-painting of the ‘Saffron-gatherers’ in the neighbouring room. In this room, women are shown gathering saffron in what seems to be an ornate ritual. According to this interpretation, the men may have been helping in the same ritual."

-taken from therafoundation link below

Minoan Thera Wallpainting Exhibition: Adult Male, 17th C. BCE.

Source:

https://web.archive.org/web/20120308165656/http://www.therafoundation.org/wallpaintingexhibition/adult-male/wallpainting