Marinatos (archaeology and classics, College Year, Athens) provides a comprehensive, well-documented, and carefully illustrated theory of religion during the Bronze Age in Crete. She shows that the Minoan religion is similar to Egyptian and Near Eastern religions in its concentration on death and rebirth, divine sacred marriage, and nature imagery emphasizing cyclical renewal but maintains its distinctiveness in social and ritual organization. She views religious change in combination with historical and social change, beginning her analysis before the advent of the palaces--which she regards as temples--and concluding in the postpalatial period. Essential for academic libraries; highly recommended for museum and public libraries.