ABSTRACT
For over a thousand years there lived on the island of Crete a civilization who revered the breast. The Minoans, highly developed by 2800 B.C., thrived until around 1450 B.C. Homer called Crete "a rich and lovely land, washed by waves on every side/And boasting ninety cities."1 The Minoans left no decipherable written history, but based on the joyful frescoes, sophisticated pottery, metalcraft and architecture that remain, scholars have pieced together a picture of prelapsarian splendor.2 While other Bronze Age peoples carved images of angry warrior gods severing heads and trampling their enemies, the Minoans painted frescos of flying fish, springing deer, and women dancing with dark hair swirling about their shoulders. Evidently they possessed sophisticated technology but had little interest in war. Apparently they worshipped the elemental forces and lived a life of gaiety and innocent sensual pleasure.
