Flora Unveiled

152 i Flora Unveiled

or priestesses removed sacred objects from the kistai and revealed them to the initiates. Very
likely the pyxides of the Theban flower processions contained sacred objects, similar to the
kistai of the Eleusinian Mysteries.

Presentation

The fourth stage of the Minoan flower ritual is the presentation or offering of the flowers
to a deity or shrine, which occupies the center of the north wall of the house at Akrotri

(c)

Figure 6.9 Continued

Figure 6.10 Mycenaean flower procession fresco from Thebes dating to around 1400 bce.
From Reusch, H. (1956), Die Zeichnerische Rekonstruktion des Frauenfrieses im Böotischen Theben.
Akademie- Verlag, Berlin.