Divinities were represented by idols of various types; the best known of these are the faience snake goddesses, which depict the bare breasted Great Mother Goddess in a long skirt, holding snakes and wearing a headdress with an animal on the top, all of which were sacred symbols.
Places of worship are to be found within the palaces, in villas and houses and at peak sanctuaries, such as those on Iouktas, at Syme and elsewhere, as well as in caves at Arkalochori, on Mount Dikte and on Mount Ida.
The female goddess remained the focal point of religious expression in the Creto-Mycenaean period, often appearing as the Mistress of Wild Beasts between a facing pair of wild animals or griffons. At the same time there is an observable tendency to consecrate new divinities, clearly indicative of Mycenaean influence, as attested in Linear B texts, in which the names of Zeus, Poseidon and others are to be found.
