The funerary meaning of the octopus in LM IIIC Crete

Decorations with the octopus have a long history in the Minoan repertoire, especially in pottery where it was probably much appreciated precisely for its ability to cover the round surfaces of the vases. The meaning and the use of the octopus pattern seem to change in Crete from LM IIIB onwards, when the association between the octopus motif and the funerary area becomes clearer and progressively more exclusive. It is in the 13th century BC, that larnakes decorated with one or more octopus figures become very common, definitely linking the octopus pattern to burials. In the second half of LM IIIB in particular, a pottery workshop at Chania starts to produce vases with rich and imaginative decoration, of which the small stirrup jars decorated by one or two octopus figures are particularly interesting, seeming to be the favourite shape for this type of decoration. The widespread diffusion in the Aegean of the LM/LH IIIC Octopus stirrup jars and their use in tombs seem to suggest that in the last phases of the Aegean Bronze Age the octopus had a meaning connected with death and afterlife.