There may have been a time when there were no gods, either male or female; however, the earliest artifacts found to date show a female as god. Pragmatically this was based on observations that the female was the source of life, the origin of existence. Her rhythmns were in tune with the universe;she bled from her vagina 13 times a year when the moon was full. She not only gave life, she sustained that life with her breasts. She was the earth, khthon in greek; hence her religion was chthonic. The Minoan civilization was the last stronghold of this Mother Earth Goddess. Because religion reflects its society(or visa versa)assume both were matriarchal meaning it was the mother who determined the lineage rather than the father. The line passed from mother to daughter and, if there was a baby boy, he might have the good luck to be the prince who fertilized the goddess but he was replaced or killed in favor of a younger, stronger sperm donor every 7 or 9 years.. Still, it was a great honor and evidence of a good strong erection could only help in the choosing..

Symbols in prehistoric art were all about religion. Remember there was no writing so imagery was read like literature. When a penis was shown that was a male who fertilized Mother Earth with his fluid. The snake was a symbol of that liquid; any baton represented the penis: the witches' wand(magic) and the king's scepter(power). The female vulva was a slit in an inverted triangle or square and was venerated as a religious symbol long before the Minoans. The uniquely Minoan symbol for God was the double axe, the labrys. A monk accompanying Nikos Kazantzakis stopped in front of a double axe sign incised on a column at Knossos, "joined his hands together, bent his knee for a moment, and moved his lips as though in prayer...are you praying?...Of course I am praying...we have the cross as our sacred sign; your most ancient ancestors had the double-edged axe...every race and every age gives God its own mask...behind all the masks...is always the same ...God." The bull was the animal symbol of strong virility. Once abstracted its horns became a religious symbol with many layers of meaning as with the bird. Birds were symbols for the female except for the long necked ones; they became phallic symbols. Apparently the Myceneans(mainland Greeks)regarded the unique tapered Minoan column as a symbol of something worth guarding with lions on their heraldic Lion Gate.

The rites of Minoan religion are shown in a few frescoes and clay miniatures. They involved bringing offerings, dancing, playing music, pouring libations before statues or human stand-ins for god. Bulls and goats were the primary sacrifice; however, in 1981 a site was found on Crete that showed a man tied up on a table in one room and his blood being brought to an ajoining room where a life-sized wooden idol stood on clay feet. The building collapsed in the middle of this ritual and dates it to the great earthquake that destroyed the Early Palace of Knossos. Although not routinely done, human sacrifice apparently has always been thought necessary when we are threatened with disaster. Although Jesus said eat bread and drink wine in remembrance of me(rather than literally eat raw meat and drink blood of sacrificial victims), he was still tortured to death in the name of religious belief.