. Mazes and labyrinths; a general account of their history and developments. that the monster was simply a militaryofficer, whose brutal disposition, in conjunction withhis name, Tauros, may have given rise to the Minotaurmyth. The Cretan poet Epimenides, who lived in the sixthcentury , says that Theseus was aided in his escapefrom the dark Labyrinth by means of the light radiatedby a crown of blazing gems and gold which Bacchusgave to Ariadne. Aristotle, according to Plutarch, stated in a workwhich has not come down to us his belief that theAthenian youths were not put to^death by Minos bu
. Mazes and labyrinths; a general account of their history and developments. that the monster was simply a militaryofficer, whose brutal disposition, in conjunction withhis name, Tauros, may have given rise to the Minotaurmyth. The Cretan poet Epimenides, who lived in the sixthcentury , says that Theseus was aided in his escapefrom the dark Labyrinth by means of the light radiatedby a crown of blazing gems and gold which Bacchusgave to Ariadne. Aristotle, according to Plutarch, stated in a workwhich has not come down to us his belief that theAthenian youths were not put to^death by Minos butwere retained as slaves. Plutarch, moreover, deploresthe abuse which Greek tradition had heaped upon thename of Minos, pointing out that Homer and Hesiodhad referred to him in very honourable terms, and20 that he was reputed to have laid down the principlesof justice. According to the classic faith, he was born of Zeus,the supreme God of the Greeks, and Europa, daughterof man, both marriage and birth taking place in theDictaean Cave, not far from Knossos. He received the. Fig. 6.—Cretan Labyrinth. (Italian Engraving ; School of Finiguerra.) laws, like another Moses, direct from God, and afteradministering them during his life on earth continuedto do so in the underworld after his death. The probability is, as Professor Murray has suggested,that Minos was a general name, like Pharaoh inEgypt, or Caesar in Rome, bestowed upon each ofa number of Cretan kings of a certain type. A markeither of the respect in which the name was held or ofthe colonising power of the monarch or monarchs in 21 question is seen in the application of the name Minoato several towns and villages scattered along the northernshores of the eastern Mediterranean. The name Daedalus has likewise been thought bysome to have been applied indiscriminately to variousartificers and inventors of unusual ingenuity. The prin-cipal feats associated with this name are, in addition tothe planning of the Labyrinth, the c
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectlabyrin, bookyear1922
