“It is my twofold aim to explore, first, how Cretan myth was used
during the early decades of the twentieth century as a mirror for
modern history, society, and the psyche; and, second, how this new
perception of myth permeated all the arts simultaneously, including literature, painting, sculpture, prints, opera, ballet, and the
theater, as well as popular culture.

My undertaking is based on the
underlying conviction that the transfiguration of classical myth
in general constitutes one of the principal characteristics of classical modernism, without a grasp of which that period of twentieth-century culture cannot be fully appreciated. Among these
transfigured myths, none are more conspicuous than the matters
of Minos.”