Woman factor in minoan society of the bronze age (based on anthropomorphic plastic arts)
The Minoan cultural and aesthetic traditions were formed mainly as early as in the early 3d century B.C. on the basis of relative chronology of the starting and the closing stages of Crete’s palace complexes (Crete’s palace is the administrative and the cultural center), as far back as in the early 20th century scientists determined 2 periods of the Minoan culture characterized by unprecedented blossom, such as: the epoch of Old Palaces (2000 - 1700 B.C.) and the epoch of New Palaces (1700 - 1450 B.C.). It is the epoch of New Palaces that is the most important to us. It was that epoch that revealed the pictures of St. Virgo. The erotic essence of the woman’s body was conveyed brighter than that of the man’s. Women’s breasts were exposed. The breasts were high-tight and fleshy, the waists were slim, the figures were light and slender, the hairs were black and curly. The quantity of women’s images exceeds the quantity of men’s images. Having analyzed the Minoan anthropomorphic plastic art, we can speak about a shift in the emphasis as per the woman’s status. Over all the periods, she had always performed the function of creative or fruitful beginning (so important for crop farming and cattle farming) as well as the function of preserving the sound genome. The epoch of New Palaces put the sexual image into the foreground. This is evidenced by exaggerated, sometimes even outrageous, feminization. That was the woman a man could nothing but just dream about: she was playful, well-built, smooth and smothering. That was why she was deified and her image was mystified, thus becoming personification of the Great Goddess on the Earth. Crete’s women enjoyed just the formal power. But they enjoyed the society’s respect for their natural ability to make the life better.