DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9804#0136
no THE LABYRINTH AND THE MINOTAUR
his idea of a Labyrinth there was certainly a mysterious,
and probably an actually underground element. Wan-
dering in the darkness, and going up many steps, and
through many doors, formed part of his conception. On
the other hand the three Labyrinths he describes—for
of that of Knossos he has nothing to tell 1—are all con-
ceived, not as caves or catacombs, but as elaborate and
magnificent buildings, that are mainly, if not entirely,
above-ground. In the only case where we can at all test
him, in regard to the Temple of Hawara, there is no doubt
that he was in fact correct.2
While, however, we must decline to follow Dr. Rouse
in his prejudice in favour of catacombs, we must admit
that he did good service when he ran atilt against the
double axe. In the excitement of first discovery, with the
idea fresh in his mind that Labrys, the Carian word for
" axe," was the key to the derivation of the Labyrinth,
Mr. Evans was perhaps inclined, in Dr. Rouse's words, " to
see everything double axes." He assumed too readily that
the sign of the double axe, as cut upon many of the stones
of the Palace walls, especially on two square detached
pillars in the so-called Pillar Rooms,' and in a hall which
he christened by their name on the south-east,4 formed
important corroborative proofs that here was the true
" House of the Labrys."
In point of fact, the significance of these signs is not
certain. Many other signs besides the double axe are
found on the walls of Knossos,1 and the double axe itself
1 Philostratus (A p. iv. 34) seems to be the only writer who
conceives that the Ktiossian Labryinth was pointed out to visitors
as still existing. Apollonius of Tyana priggishly refused to
go to see it, because he would not make himself a spectator
of Minos's wrong-doing ! He went to Gortyna instead, because
he wanted to sec Ida. Philostratus clearly would have had
nothing to do with Dr. Rouse's friend Claudian.
2 See also Strabo, 8x1.
3 B.S.A. vi. fig. 6, p. 33 = J.U.S. xxi. fig. 5, p. no.
* B.S.A. vii. p. 112. s B.S.A. vii. p. 22, n. 1 ; Rouse, op. ext.
his idea of a Labyrinth there was certainly a mysterious,
and probably an actually underground element. Wan-
dering in the darkness, and going up many steps, and
through many doors, formed part of his conception. On
the other hand the three Labyrinths he describes—for
of that of Knossos he has nothing to tell 1—are all con-
ceived, not as caves or catacombs, but as elaborate and
magnificent buildings, that are mainly, if not entirely,
above-ground. In the only case where we can at all test
him, in regard to the Temple of Hawara, there is no doubt
that he was in fact correct.2
While, however, we must decline to follow Dr. Rouse
in his prejudice in favour of catacombs, we must admit
that he did good service when he ran atilt against the
double axe. In the excitement of first discovery, with the
idea fresh in his mind that Labrys, the Carian word for
" axe," was the key to the derivation of the Labyrinth,
Mr. Evans was perhaps inclined, in Dr. Rouse's words, " to
see everything double axes." He assumed too readily that
the sign of the double axe, as cut upon many of the stones
of the Palace walls, especially on two square detached
pillars in the so-called Pillar Rooms,' and in a hall which
he christened by their name on the south-east,4 formed
important corroborative proofs that here was the true
" House of the Labrys."
In point of fact, the significance of these signs is not
certain. Many other signs besides the double axe are
found on the walls of Knossos,1 and the double axe itself
1 Philostratus (A p. iv. 34) seems to be the only writer who
conceives that the Ktiossian Labryinth was pointed out to visitors
as still existing. Apollonius of Tyana priggishly refused to
go to see it, because he would not make himself a spectator
of Minos's wrong-doing ! He went to Gortyna instead, because
he wanted to sec Ida. Philostratus clearly would have had
nothing to do with Dr. Rouse's friend Claudian.
2 See also Strabo, 8x1.
3 B.S.A. vi. fig. 6, p. 33 = J.U.S. xxi. fig. 5, p. no.
* B.S.A. vii. p. 112. s B.S.A. vii. p. 22, n. 1 ; Rouse, op. ext.