It is important for the history of Greek cult to consider the question when the object first became iconic, or when the process of art had advanced so far as to make idolatry possible. The wooden ∈ἰκών is at least as early as Homer's period; and while a certain artistic record begins from the latter half of the seventh century, the works of Daedalus belong to the prehistoric age, and may roughly be assigned to the ninth century. But according to tradition, the wooden idols attributed to Daedalus were not the most primitive in form. We may go then still further back for the beginnings of iconism in Greek worship.

The uncouth human-shaped idols found on the ruins of Troy and Mycenae give us no clue for the present question, since we do not know their date even approximately, and we do not know whether in the remotest degree they were Greek in origin; the most developed is almost certainly Babylonian. The iconic impulse probably came from the East, for from the tenth century onwards the fame of the carved idols of Egypt and Assyria must have been spreading through the Greek world; the impulse may have come thence, but not the prevalent form, as I have elsewhere tried to show, though certain special types can be traced to an Oriental model.