The Bents’ first significant field of studies was the Aegean, beginning with a ‘tourist’ visit in early 1883, taking in such sites as Delphi and Mycenae. This trip inspired a decade-long passion for these celebrity explorers (with a tour more or less every year), generating Bent’s classic guide to the Cyclades (perhaps he is partly to blame for the islands’ current over-tourism in the summer months today), and a substantial corpus of popular and more ‘academic’ articles (historical, ‘archaeological’ and ‘ethnographic’ in content). Along the way they acquired artefacts, ancient and modern, that they would seek to sell or retain for their private London collection. The British Museum, for example, has a large collection of their material.
Bent’s writings on Greece (today’s boundaries) by year of publication:
1883
- ‘A Panhellenic Festival of To-day’. Macmillan’s Magazine, Vol. 48 (May/Oct), 474-80 [Tinos in the Cyclades].
- ‘A Visit to Samos’. The Academy, Issue 579 (Jun), 408.
- ‘Some Games Played by Modern Greeks’. [Samos] Athenæum, Issue 2931 (Dec), 866. [Reprinted in The Folk-Lore Journal, Vol. 2 (Feb), 57-63].
- ‘Two Turkish Islands To-day’. [Samos & Chios] Macmillan’s Magazine, Vol. 48 (May/Oct), 299-309. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 158 (1883), 682ff].
1884
- ‘Easter Week in Amorgos’. Macmillan’s Magazine, Vol. 50 (May/Oct), 194-201. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 162 (1884), 402ff]
- ‘In a Greek Family of To-day’. [Chios] Macmillan’s Magazine, Vol. 50 (May/Oct), 116-24. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 162 (1884), 110ff]
- ‘In Greek Waters’. [Antiparos] The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 257 (Sep), 251-60.
- ‘Prehistoric Graves at Antiparos’. Athenæum, Issue 2949 (May), 569-71.
- ‘Researches among the Cyclades’. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 5, 42-59. [With J.G. Garson]
- Arthur Evans’ own copy of ‘Researches among the Cyclades’. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 5, 42-59. [With J.G. Garson], bequested to the Ashmolean, Oxford, 1941.
- ‘The Capital of the Cyclades’. [Syros] Macmillan’s Magazine, Vol. 50 (May/Oct), 426-35.
1885
- ‘A Romance of a Greek Statue’. [Sikinos] The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 258 (Feb), 172-84.
- ‘Estraidiots’. [medieval Greeks in Europe] The Antiquary 11 (Feb), 44-7.
- ‘My Strange Mother-in-Law’. [Andros] Longman’s Magazine, Vol. 7 (38) (Dec), 211-24. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 168 (1886), 363ff]
- ‘Notes from the Greek Islands – Surviving Customs’. [Samos, Lesbos] Athenæum, Issue 2986 (Jan), 87-9.
- ‘Old Mythology in New Apparel’. Macmillan’s Magazine, Vol. 51 (Nov 1884/Apr 1885), 366-71. [Various islands, mainly the Cyclades].
- ‘On the Gold and Silver Mines of Siphnos’. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 6, 195-8.
- ‘Rhodian Society’. Macmillan’s Magazine, Vol. 52 (May/Oct), 297-303.
- ‘Rock-Cut Tombs of Carpathos’. Athenæum, Issue 3002 (May), 606.
- ‘The Carpathiote Dialect’. Athenæum, Issue 3011 (Jul), 48. [Karpathos].
- ‘The Islands of Telos and Karpathos’. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. VI, 233-42.
- ‘Idyls of Karpathos’. The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. CCLX (Jan -Jun), 185-190.
- “The Cyclades; Or, Life Among the Insular Greeks”. London, Longmans, Green, and Co.
- ‘Notes on Prehistoric Remains in Antiparos’. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. XIV (2) (Nov), 134-41.
1886
- ‘A Christening in Karpathos’. Macmillan’s Magazine, Vol. 54 (May/Oct), 199-205. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 170 (1886), 437ff]
- ‘An Archæological Visit to Samos’. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 7 (1886), 143-53. [With Percy Gardner]
- ‘Christmas in Chios’. Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 54 (7), 596-607.
- ‘Greek Peasant Life’. [Dodecanese] The Fortnightly Review, Vol. 40 (Aug), 214-24. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 170 (1886), 630ff]
- ‘Insular Greek Customs’. [Cyclades & Dodecanese] The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 15 (1886), 391-403. [With an Appendix by ‘Mrs. Bent’].
- ‘The Aqueduct of Samos’. Athenæum, Issue 3059 (Jun), 786-87.
- ‘The Greek Islanders’. [Cyclades & Dodecanese] The Quarterly Review, Vol. 163 (Jul), 204-31. [A synthesis by an anonymous author].
- ‘The Survival of Mythology in the Greek Islands’. Archaeological Journal, 43:1, 124-136. [Various islands, mainly Cyclades & Dodecanese].
- ‘On a far-off island’. [Karpathos] Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine (Vol. 139, Feb 1886), 233-244).
1887
- ‘A Peculiar People’. Longman’s Magazine, Vol. 11 (61) (Nov), 24-36. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 175 (1887), 682ff] [Thessaloniki].
- ‘Astypalæa’. The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 262 (Mar), 253-65.
- ‘Why Old Basil became a monk. By J. Theodore Bent, with Three Illustrations’. The Hour Glass (March) [not seen].
- ‘Discoveries in Thasos’. Athenæum, Issue 3113 (Jun), 839.
- ‘Thasiote Tombs’. Classical Review, Vol. 1(7), 210-211.
- ‘Greater Greece and its Education’. The Fortnightly Review, Vol. 48 (42) (Aug), 267-82. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 174 (1887) 811ff]
- ‘A Thasian Decree’. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol, 8, 401-8. [With E.L. Hicks]
- ‘Inscriptions from Thasos’. The Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. 8, 409-38. [With E.L. Hicks]
- ‘Personification of the Mysterious Amongst the Modern Greeks’. National Review, Vol. 9 (Apr), 224-33. [Various locations].
- ‘Revelations from Patmos’. Blackwood’s Magazine, Vol. 141 (Mar), 368-79. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 173 (1887), 243ff]
- ‘The Oven Islands’. Longman’s Magazine, Vol. 9 (53) (Mar), 512-23. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 173 (1887), 181ff] [Fourni, Dodecanese].
- ‘The Three Evils of Destiny’. Scottish Review, Vol. 10 (20) (Oct), 369-87. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 176 (1888), 410ff] [Various Greek islands, mainly Cyclades & Dodecanese].
1888
- ‘A Piratical F.S.A.’. [the Turkish coast] Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 58 (11), 620-35. [includes some regional Greek locations].
- ‘A Protracted Wedding’. [Tilos] The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 265 (Oct), 331-41.
- ‘Parallels to Homeric Life Existing in Greece To-day’. The National Review, Vol. 11 (Aug), 825-36. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 178 (1888), 557ff] [Various Greek islands, including Samos and Karpathos].
- ‘The Home of Turkish Tobacco’. Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 58 (11), 190-9. [Kavalla region and Thrace].
- ‘The Monasteries in the Air’. The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 264 (May), 475-87. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 177 (1888), 550ff] [Meteora, Thessaly].
- ‘Samothrace’. The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 264 (Jan), 86-98.
- ‘Sirina’. The Classical Review, Vol. II (10), 329. [Syrna/Sirna/Agios Ioannis, small island south-east of Astypalaia, Dodecanese].
- ‘What St. John Saw on Patmos’. The Nineteenth Century, Vol. 24 (142) (Dec), 813-21.
- ‘The Ancient Marble Commerce of Thasos’, Report of the 57th Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 201-206. London, John Murray.
1889
- ‘A Russian Monastery’. [Now the Monastery of the Holy Transfiguration, Dasochori, northern Greece] The Gentleman’s Magazine, Vol. 267, (Sep), 239-47. [Reprinted in Littell’s Living Age, Vol. 183 (1889), 208ff].
- ‘The Lords of Chios’. The English Historical Review, Vol. 4 (15) (Jul), 467-80.
- ‘The Sun Myths of Modern Hellas’. The Antiquary 19 (Jan), 7-11. [Various islands, including Cyclades & Dodecanese].
1891
- ‘A Protracted Wedding’. English Illustrated Magazine, Vol. 93 (Jun), 672-7. [Tilos, Dodecanese].
- ‘Modern Life and Thought amongst the Greeks’, published in National Life and Thought of the Various Nations Throughout the World: A Series of Addresses (London 1891, pp. 287-302). [Various locations, including the Cyclades & Dodecanese].
- “Lindos: The Living City of Homer – I”. Black & White, 28 February, pp. 109-10. [Rhodes, Dodecanese]
- “Lindos: The Living City of Homer – II”. Black & White, 14 March, pp. 173-4. [Rhodes, Dodecanese].
For Bent’s overall bibliography click here.