Kenneth Lapatin's Mysteries of the Snake Goddess: Art, Desire, and the Forging of History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002; $24) looks at the forging of Minoan "snake goddess" figures, prompted by Arthur Evans' discoveries at Knossos. Beyond the forgery question (see January/February 2001), Lapatin considers the goddess as "a canvas on which archaeologists and curators, looters and smugglers, dealers and forgers, art patrons and museum-goers, feminists and spiritualists, have painted their preconceptions, desires, and preoccupations for an idealized past." [More Greece and Rome books...] |