. Mazes and labyrinths; a general account of their history and developments. ngKnossos which the natives state to be the entrance toextensive catacombs, but that it is choked up by the fall-ing in of its sides. He reproduces a sketch by Sieber of the GortynaCavern (Fig. 7); this, he says, took the artist threedays to make. Capt. Spratt, by the way, points out thatthe meander pattern, which is so common a feature ofGreek ornament, and is associated by some writers withthe origin of the labyrinth idea, may very well have beenderived from the square-spiral trenches which are com-monly constructed
. Mazes and labyrinths; a general account of their history and developments. ngKnossos which the natives state to be the entrance toextensive catacombs, but that it is choked up by the fall-ing in of its sides. He reproduces a sketch by Sieber of the GortynaCavern (Fig. 7); this, he says, took the artist threedays to make. Capt. Spratt, by the way, points out thatthe meander pattern, which is so common a feature ofGreek ornament, and is associated by some writers withthe origin of the labyrinth idea, may very well have beenderived from the square-spiral trenches which are com-monly constructed by Eastern gardeners for irrigationalpurposes. (See also Chapter VIII.) Whatever the original purpose and function of theGortyna Cavern may have been, it was certainly a laby-rinth in the extended sense, and no doubt the classicwriters themselves would have had no hesitation in ad-mitting the use of that word to describe it, but, as weshall see, discoveries of recent years have considerablydiminished its claim to be considered as the originalLabyrinth of the Minotaur. 28. Fig. 7. Cavern of Gortyna. {Sieber) CHAPTER VI THE CRETAN LABYRINTH (continued) (iii) Knossos A few miles to the north-east of Gortyna, and not farsouth of the north coast town of Candia, lay, at the baseof the hill of Kephala, a few ruined walls indicating thesite of the ancient city of Knossos. These walls consistedof large blocks of gypsum and bore curious engravedmarks. For many years Dr. A. J. Evans (now Sir ArthurEvans) had been convinced that excavation of this sitewould probably bring to light evidence of a system ofwriting which might be of interest in connection withthe origin of the Greek system, but it was not until theyear 1900 that he finally obtained a concession enablinghim to explore the spot. The resulting discoveries wereof such an astonishing nature, and of such absorbinginterest, that one is greatly tempted to digress and tomention them in some detail. However, they have beensummarised an
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