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Cook, Arthur B.
Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 1): Zeus god of the bright sky — Cambridge, 1914

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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14695#0562

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The Labyrinth at Knossos 483

sented as a maze1 and Virgil expressly compares with the Cretan
Labyrinth2, was said to have been first introduced into Latium by
Ascanius and his Trojans3. This tradition, if sound, points to the
former existence of a labyrinthine dance in Asia Minor. It may,
therefore, be worth while to suggest that the Labyrinth-pattern,
which occurs on coins of Priene4, Magnesia on the Maiandros5,
Tripolis6, and Apameia7, was not originally a graphic
sign for the ' meandering' river, but an ancient re-
ligious symbol akin to, if not identical with, that
which represented the Labyrinth at Knossos. Thus

the humped bull within the Labyrinth on coins of the „.

^1S* 347-

Cretan colony8 Magnesia, c. 350—190 B.C. (fig. 347)9,
would be comparable with the Minotaur10, while the swastika be-
neath the feet of Apollon on the later tetradrachms (fig. 348)11
suggests a solar interpretation. If we were better acquainted with
the history of 'Minoan' migrations, it might be possible to trace
the route by which the Labyrinth-dance and the Labyrinth-pattern
passed from east to west12.

Miss Harrison in a letter to me dated June 14, 1912 makes the interesting suggestion
that the TpwiKov irr)8r]p,a of Neoptolemos at Delphoi (Eur. Andr. 1139) may stand in some
relation to the game of ' Troy.' This strikes me as not impossible, since we have already
found Neoptolemos grasping the solar wheel in the same sanctuary {supra p. 261). Yet
I should hardly agree with Miss Harrison that 'the usual aetiology is sheer nonsense' :
cp. schol. Eur. Andr. 1139 to Tpwwbv ir-qdrjixa- birolov ev rrj Tpoia eirf)drj<rev 6 AxtAAetfy.
ot yap crvvTeTax&Tes ra Tpwt/ca (paaiv cos tottos earlv iv Tpoia KaXovp-evos 'AxtXAews
7T7jd7]/xa, oirep dvo rrjs veus iirrjdrjaev. ovtojs 5e 0ao"t j3ia rjXaro cbs /cat vdwp dvadodrjvai.
Here at least is a bona fide piece of folk-lore.

I Supra p. 476 fig. 332. 2 Verg. Aen. 5. 588 ff. 3 Id. ib. 5. 596 ff.

4 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Ionia p. 229 ff. pi. 24, 3—6, 9, Hunter Cat. Coins ii. 358,
Head Hist, num? p. 590 f.

5 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Ionia p. 158 ff. pi. 18, 1—11, 19, 2, Hunter Cat. Coins ii.
346 f. pi. 51, 3 f., Head Hist, num.? p. 582 fig. 296.

6 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Lydia p. 364 pi. 38, 6, Head Hist, num? p. 661.

7 Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Phrygia pp. 74 f., 85, 92 f. pi. 10, 2—5, 8—10, Hunter Cat.
Coins ii. 478 f. pi. 56, 13, Head Hist, num? p. 666.

8 Schol. Ap. Rhod. 1. 584: see Roscher Lex Myth. ii. 1997 f.

9 I figure a copper in my collection.

10 The Cretan bull, ab initio a fertilising agent, would readily become a bovine river-
god, his swastika being re-interpreted as the sinuous line of the river.

II Brit. Mus. Cat. Coins Ionia p. 162 pi. 18, 9 ( = my fig. 348), 10, 11.

Prof. R. C Bosanquet draws my attention to the fact that in the temple of Apollon
at Didyma the marble roof of a stair-case known as the Aa(3vpiv6os (B. Haussoullier in
the Rev. Philol. N. S. 1905 xxix. 264 ff.) had a carved and painted szuastika-psittern
(T. Wiegand 'Sechster vorlaufiger Bericht iiber Ausgrabungen in Milet und Didyma' in
the Abh. d. berl. Akad. igo8 Phil.-hist. Classe p. 35, 'Siebenter...Bericht' ib. ign p. 49 f.
fig. 16).

12 The Labyrinths of the Kyklopes in the caves near Nauplia (Strab. 369 i(pe^i}s 5£
rrj ~NavTr\ia ra <nrr)\cua /cat ot ev avrois olKo5ofj,r]Tol \afitipi.vdoL, KwcAc67reta 5' 6vop.a$ov<nv),
the Labyrinth in Samos made by Theodoros (Plin. nat. hist. 34. 83), the Labyrinth in

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