Yoga postures have been recognized on statues that have been dug out in the region of Ierapetra and other places ofCreteand they are dated between 4000 – 3000 b.c. 

Certainly, these archeological findings alone wouldn’t be enough evidence to confirm such a relationship, if there wasn’t another very serious indication

and that is the word yoga itself. This confirms the claim of yoga’s connection with the Aegean sea and Crete. Yoga in sanskrit means: union through yoking.

The word yoga itself derives from the ancient Sanskrit word jugam which literally means ox yoking and we are surprised by the double sound and conceptual equivalence, with the greek word “zygos” . Actually yoga is connected with the idea of yoke to symbolize a complete system of psychosomatic equilibrium.

In Crete the bull is connected with the sky and the sun, on the other hand the feminine element, the divine cow, is connected with the moon. So the marriage of the bull and the cow, is the marriage of the sun and the moon, exactly like in Hatha yoga, where the sun (Ha) and the moon (Tha) connect together (yoga).

Later the persons of the divine union will be King Minos (sun) and the Queen of Knossos Palace Pasiphae, which means full of light, shows exactly the relation between the queen –goddess and the moon. The sun salutation of yoga in many civilizations played an important role to fulfill this union/yoking.

All of them had a common goal, the channeling of human’s positive energy and his surrender to the supreme universal principal.