Patron of the Michael Ventris Award of the Institute of Classical Studies of the University of London. [...] In considering the present need to "find a common European identity in the mosaic of different points of view", the example of Crete, as the most southeastern part of the continent which is our subject, may provide, in the third and second millennia the core of the problem in its simplest form. [...] The unique metamorphosis of Zeus into a bull, the animal which has played the leading role in all the great myths of Crete (that of Minos, his wife Pasiphae, and his daughter Ariadne, as well as the myth of Daedalus, the Minotaur and the Labyrinth) is a mythical expression of the great cult of the bull-god in Crete. [...] In spite of the great extent of the palaces, the layout of the apartments around the courtyard and the many interior light-wells reveal harmony with the environment. [...] The cultural minoanization of the Cyclades is a typical example of their expansion, but their relationship with the Mycenaean Greeks of the mainland is much more noteworthy and of greater immediate interest because the Greeks later became the decisive factor in the genesis of European civilization.
- Pages
- 411
- Published in
- Italy
