A labyrinth is a set of twisty passages, all alike. (Or is that a twisty set of passages all alike?)
According to Pliny there were four famous labyrinths of antiquity: 1. The Egyptian (by Petesuchis which had 3000 apartments - half of which were underground), 2. The Lemnian (similar to the Egyptian in style, but with 150 columns), 3. The Italian (an intricate series of chambers which was the tomb of Lars Porsena, King of Etruria), and 4. The Cretan.
According to the famous Greek soap opera, Minos (son of Zeus and Europa, and king of Crete), commissioned Daedalus (an inventive Athenean who personified the skill of mechanical arts) to build him a labyrinth so complex that no one could escape it. In this constuction Minos confines his step-son, the Minotaur (a monster with the head of a bull and body of a man, who was the son of Minos’ wife Pasiphaë and a white bull that Poseidon sent to Crete - but we won’t go there).
After winning the Athenian games, Androgeus (son of Minos) is murdered in Athens. As punishment Minos imposes an obligation on Athens where every nine years they have to send seven young men and seven young women to Crete to be devoured by the Minotaur. Theseus (Athenian hero) offers himself as one of the youths, determined to kill the Minotaur and put an end to this nefarious tribute. As fortune would have it, when he arrives, Ariadne (daughter of Minos) falls in love with him, and with the help of Daedalus (inventive Athenean), provides him with a sword (for killing the Minotaur) and the end of a very long piece of thread (for finding his way out).
During our honeymoon, a few years back, Cori and I found ourselves in a torrential rain storm wandering around a series of low walls which formed the ruins of Knossos, Minos’s palace in Crete. As we traipsed (battling to keep our shoes from being sucked into the deep, red clay puddles), our guide noted that while some scholars doubted the labyrinth ever existed, others believed that it was actually the palace itself which was the famous maze.
In the end, Theseus (Athenian hero) kills the Minotaur (hideous monster), and thanks Ariadne by marrying her and taking her away from Crete. They only get as far as the island of Naxos before Dionysus (the god of wine) convinces him to abandon her while she sleeps. Upon awakening, Ariadne is quite distraught, and (depending on the version) either hangs herself, marries Dionysus, or becomes spokeswoman for Mazola Corn Oil.
- October 2001
References - None (yet)
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