The Twelve Days of Mycenaean Christmas, Day 4.

On the fourth day of Mycenaean Christmas, my true love gave to me OLE+WE V 4

ἔλαιϝον ϝεhαλειφές V 4

anointing oil, 4 V-units (6.4 litres)

In reality though, this wasn't given just to one person, but probably to four. The recipient on the tablet is a-ke-ti-ri-ja-i, probably ἀσκετρίαιhι, the dative plural of ἀσκέτρια, a feminine nomen agentis from ἀσκέω that should mean something like 'finishers'.

These are women in the wool industry, also attested at Knossos, Thebes, and Pylos, probably responsible for turning woven wool into garments. Some (?) of the same group are probably recorded receiving wool on MY Oe 119.

Both tablets were found in the House of the Oil Merchant at Mycenae, but some of the names on Fo 101 appear on tablets from neighbouring houses, suggesting mobility and possibly administrative integration. This is doubly interesting as everyone named appears to be a woman.

Four of the first seven names (which appear to form something of a unit), for example, appear on MY V 659, a record of bedding distributions from the West House. From this we learn that ke-ra-so, we receives 1.6l of oil here, has a young child (ki-ra; cf. Homeric νεογιλός).

The women whose names are listed individually all receive OLE+WE V1, or 1.6 litres of oil, except a-ne-a₂, who gets V 3 -- she may have been the supervisor. Since our asketriai get four, the best guess therefore is that there were four women in that role.