Greek translation of The Villa Ariadne by Dilys Powell
We are delighted to announce the publication of the Greek translation of THE VILLA ARIADNE [Η ΒΙΛΑ ΑΡΙΑΔΝΗ] by Dilys Powell, a well-known book to the British archaeologists and more, that carries a special connection with Knossos, the BSA, and the Cretans of the area. The book was first published in London in 1973 and now, translated into Greek by Artemis Klitsi, has just been published by the Vikelaia Municipal Library of Herakleion, Crete. Prof. John Bennet, as Director of the BSA (2022), kindly offered to write the foreword of the book and Dr Kostis Christakis of course , as well as Amalia Kakisis and her invaluable archive, played their special role in it.
It’s an impressive fact that this diachronic book is so relevant today, with Powell’s references to the then ‘new’ stratigraphical museum (where she quotes, among other things, Joan Evans’ letter with the vivid description of the 1966 inauguration) and its current transformation into a new, modern museum through the Knossos 2025 Project.
The translation succeeds in capturing the nuances of the author’s style, her sensitivity, and her perceptiveness, qualities transmitted to the reader through her account of an era of heroic protagonists and events. As wife of the then Director of the BSA, the famous Humfry Payne, Dilys Powell first encountered the legendary villa-headquarters of Sir Arthur Evans in 1931. Under the roof of the Villa, she gathers the stories of the excavations of Knossos, of the persons who envisioned, worked hard and created the Myth that captivates us to this day, with predominant characters those of Evans and John Pendlebury, followed by Duncan Mackenzie, Piet de Jong, Richard Hutchison, Tom Dunbabin and their Cretan assistants, many of whom in the difficult days of the War put the spade down and took up the rifle and the wireless. She talks of the Battle of Crete and the evacuation of the Allied troops from Sfakia, the relentless mountain crossings by the British fighters and the hideouts in sunless caves, the German surrender signed at the dining room of the Villa, about life after the War. The events unfold in her narrative, starting from the Villa Ariadne or ending there, and are intertwined in an archaeological-historical Chronicle that incorporates in a unique way the Cretan history of the era, the history of the British School at Athens, but also the people – British and Cretans – who were connected to the place, giving us a view of the life on the island from the beginning of the 20th century until the early 1970s.
Η ΒΙΛΑ ΑΡΙΑΔΝΗ can be found in Athens at the BSA Library, as well as at the MIET bookstore, Amerikis 13 and Politeia, Asklipiou 1-3.