Red Minoan Men and White Minoan Women

The clues in the colors of the art from ancient Crete

This is one of a long-term series of posts about Ariadne’s Tribe-style inclusive Minoan spirituality. Some of these posts, including this one, are revised and updated versions of older articles that I previously posted on the Minoan Path blog at the Witches & Pagans website. All my new Minoan Path blog posts can be found here.

---

Have you ever wondered what on Earth possessed the Minoans to paint women as white (not Caucasian-toned, but literal white, the color of a sheet of paper, whiter than a corpse) and men as dark brick red? After all, DNA evidence shows that, like their ancestors in Neolithic Anatolia, the Minoans had skin in various shades of brown. So why the red-and-white color convention in the art, like the Bull Leaper fresco above?

If you’re familiar with the art of other ancient Mediterranean cultures, you may have noticed that the Greeks, Etruscans, and even the Romans (on occasion) also had a red-and-white color convention for depicting men and women. The Egyptians had a similar, related convention, depicting women as pale yellow and men as reddish-brown.

The explanation that archaeologists have long given for this dichotomy is that women had lighter skin because they spent all day indoors, while men worked outdoors in the fields. Right, because staying indoors turns you white as a sheet and working outside turns your skin burgundy. <insert eyeroll here> This explanation ignores the ample evidence in ancient art from all around the Mediterranean that shows women performing activities outdoors and men having indoor jobs like weaving.

It also ignores the substantial Mediterranean folkloric tradition regarding the colors of red and white, a tradition that’s still visible today.

Dance ethnology isn't a field most people are familiar with. It’s the study of traditional dances in their indigenous context, including how they fit into folklore and oral tradition. Many traditional dances have been passed down for generations or even centuries with little change, and even the ones that have changed can still offer clues to the folklore and mythology of earlier times.

In Ariadne’s Tribe, we’re lucky to have a dance ethnologist on our Board of Directors. Arlechina Verdigris has generously shared her knowledge and research with us to help us understand many aspects of ancient Minoan culture and religion.

It turns out, folk dance does an amazing job of preserving symbolism for generations, centuries, ages. There's a lot of pressure to keep it the same, to avoid change. Dance ethnology traces a number of traditions and symbol sets back through classical times, all the way into the Bronze Age (and occasionally back into the Neolithic!).

One bit of symbolism that's preserved in Mediterranean folk dance is the color pairing of red and white. Even today, you’ll find red-and-white in all kinds of folk traditions around the eastern Mediterranean.

This color pairing is associated with a pair of folkloric figures who, a long time ago, were identified as deities: more specifically, a goddess and her divine son. The goddess is the Grain Mother, the provider of food from the beginning of agriculture onward. Her color is white, the color of the grain and the flour we make from it. In the Minoan pantheon, the Grain Mother is the goddess Rhea, who happens also to be the Earth Mother, the Earth from which the grain grows.

Her son is known as the Red Champion in Mediterranean folkloric dances. In Ariadne’s Tribe, we know him as the god Korydallos. The color red comes from the clay, the body of the Earth Mother from whom he is born (alongside the grain). The "red" in his name is the color of red ochre and of copper, the sacred substances of the Mountain Mother, or as you might know her, Mother Earth.

I should note here that this discussion has focused on a male/female gender binary that’s very visible in Minoan art. But that’s not all there is to Minoan gender representation. There is evidence of nonbinary and ambiguous gender in the art and in folk traditions that have survived to the present day. But I wanted to focus just on the red-and-white color convention in this post because so many people notice it and wonder what it means. I’ll explore some of the other gender representations another time.

So now we know why the Minoans painted women white and men red. It's an artistic convention that points to the Grain Mother and her son the Red Champion. It reminds us of their constant presence in our lives. But more than that, it reminds us that each and every one of us is a reflection of the divine on Earth. That's a good thing to remember when we're deciding how to treat each other, don't you think?

---

My Substack is free, but I appreciate your support for my work by liking, commenting, and sharing these posts and by purchasing my creations. You can find my books here and my art here and here. I do apologize, but due to unpleasant activity from trolls, I’ve had to limit comments to subscribers only. I hope you understand.

About Laura Perry

I'm the founder and Temple Mom of Ariadne's Tribe, a worldwide inclusive Minoan spiritual tradition. I'm also an author, artist, and creator who works magic with words, paint, ink, music, textiles, and herbs. My spiritual practice includes spirit work and herbalism through the lens of lifelong animism. I write Pagan / polytheist / magical non-fiction and fiction across several different subjects and genres. My Minoan entry in the Moon Books Pantheons series is now available for pre-order and will be released on 26 August 2025. While that process percolates along, I’m working on an illustrated book of modern Minoan myths, which will be released Summer Solstice 2025. I’m also an avid herb and vegetable gardener and living history demonstrator.