Philosophy
Philosophy
The Mission encourages the people of Crete to take up again the thread of this ancient, divine art, as an element that reconciles and connects people with themselves, with nature, and with others, not only in Crete but throughout the world.
For this reason, the philosophy of the Penelope Gandhi Mission is not limited to reviving an art that has been abandoned and is in danger of being forgotten. It seeks to revalue the sacred art of weaving, to highlight it in all dimensions of human existence, and to restore it as a contemporary creative and productive practice, while the old masters, who know its finest secrets, are still alive.
The Name Penelope Gandhi
Penelope is the quintessential weaver of antiquity, who spent her entire life (at least in the Homeric account) in a weaving workshop.
Through it, she expressed her faith, love, and resourceful, multifaceted thoughts. There she unfolded her actions and emotions, patiently awaiting Odysseus.
Mahatma Gandhi, as his love for and personal engagement with weaving indicate, embodies a social stance against uniformity and alienation from fabric, the first good that wraps around ourselves.
Gandhi brings us from Penelope to the modern era and the victorious resistance to violence. By insisting on making his own clothes, he turned thread-making and his own “spinning” into a symbol of Indian resistance to British rule, which, through industrialization and the seizure of cotton, degraded, conquered, and humiliated India.
University of the Mountains
The Penelope Gandhi Mission is one of the initiatives of the University of the Mountains, which is an official member of the United Nations – Mountain Partnership, FAO.
It is a way of life that, as a social expression and daily practice, upholds ancient relationships between nature and humans, revives economic resources, prevents village abandonment, protects natural wealth and life in waters, forests, animals, and birds, and develops a small-scale, high-value economy.
It is a voluntary, non-profit organization, founded in 2007 in Crete by Ophthalmology Professor Mr. Ioannis Pallikaris, professors from the University of Crete, international universities, intellectuals, and artisans, aiming to study and preserve the life of mountain communities.
Heraklion Archaeological Museum
"The Thread of Ariadne and the Loom of Penelope"
The Heraklion Archaeological Museum, the largest museum of Minoan civilization in Greece and the world, besides showcasing the diverse aspects of Minoan life and art, also holds a prominent place in the global history of weaving. Minoan textiles are remarkable for the complexity of their designs, with geometric shapes and patterns mainly inspired by the natural world.
At the Heraklion Archaeological Museum, remnants of two important functions are preserved: spinning, using a spindle, and weaving.
Στο Αρχαιολογικό μουσείο Ηρακλείου σώζονται κατάλοιπα δύο σημαντικών λειτουργιών: της νηματουργίας, που γίνεται με τη βοήθεια αδραχτιού και της ύφανσης
With the scientific support of the museum’s exceptional archaeologists, a replica of an ancient loom was constructed, displayed at the museum, where Cretan master weavers once again weave, after 5,000 years, ancient textiles using the same technique, with natural fibers and plant dyes.
They reconstruct and recreate the ancient weaving art depicted on Minoan vases.
Using Linear B sources and ancient texts, we attempted to name the parts of the ancient loom and understand both its operation and its technical choices.