The Economist runs a little article about Sir Arthur Evans and Knossos:
Evans boldly argued that the Minoans, as he called the early islanders, shunned warfare, conveniently forgetting about the ruined watchtowers and fortification walls he had already identified elsewhere in Crete. In public lectures and a stream of articles after the first world war he presented a vision of a lost island paradise. Disillusioned artists and intellectuals were entranced by the idea of Minoans living close to nature, playfully leaping over bulls and worshipping a benign mother goddess.
Among those who swallowed the Knossos myth were Sigmund Freud, James Joyce and Pablo Picasso, though none of them visited the site.
The occasion is the publication of a new book by Cathy Gere, titled, Knossos and the Prophets of Modernism. It looks very interesting, so I ordered a copy. I'll report back when I've read it!
