“This is early sixth millennium B.C.,” Thalia said. “In their culture, rams and bulls represented men. This statue clearly shows man coming from woman rather than the other way around in the Adam and Eve story.”

Zoe leaned close to the statue to take in the detail.

“Back then they hadn’t made the connection between sex and kids. All they knew is that women and female animals gave birth, created life; only women could create new people. Women’s bodies were in tune with nature, the moon, and showed all the same sorts of mysterious cycles as the world around them.”

“Which, I assume, is why we still have mother earth, mother nature.”

“Absolutely. You can try to cover up the Great Goddess but you can’t get rid of her. Also remember, these cultures were matrilineal—inheritance and the family name passed along the mother’s side of the family, since they had no idea that guys had anything to do with it. Men were still the hunters and protectors by virtue of their strength and size, but women invented agriculture because it gave them a reliable food supply close to home.”

“Which is why she’s holding some sort of grain?” Zoe pointed to the large statue’s hands. “Looks kind of like wheat but I can tell it’s not.”

Thalia bent over and squinted at the image. “It’s a dwarf form of barley, one of the precursors of the modern varieties.” She nodded. “But, yes, you’re right about why she’s holding it. She’s the giver of food as well as the creator of life.”

“So what happened?”

Thalia raised an eyebrow.

“Why’s God a guy now?”

“Part of it is because wine and God are a lot alike and I think all that started when they realized the role that intercourse played in creating children,” Thalia began. “Or maybe that in combination with the beginnings of agriculture.” Beyond the walls of the art studio, they heard a door slam in a distant part of the warehouse. “That’s when they started to realize that they had some control over their bodies and their food supply and that it wasn’t purely divine sleight of hand.”

“Knowledge,” Zoe said. “Eating the forbidden fruit?”

“You could say that. Until this point, these small pockets of culture lived pretty much in tune with nature, taking what it provided and making no attempt to control its course or their own lives. When men realized that they were a key ingredient, they lost some of their awe. About this time—” She beckoned with her finger and walked to an adjoining table, where the goddess figures had grown slimmer. “See this?”

Zoe looked at a cast copper figurine with lapis lazuli eyes and some sort of amber stone set in the torso in a geometric pattern. A smaller, unmistakably male figure stood next to the goddess.

“Okay, this is about four thousand years B.C.,” Thalia said. “The male figure is a sort of prince consort. The Great Goddess is still supreme, but the culture has evolved to consider that God includes both male and female portions. I don’t interpret this as polytheism. I think it represents the male and female rather than two separate deities.”