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

4.88 The Labyrinth at Knossos

Roman lineage of these turf-mazes; for in England they are
commonly called ' Troy-town' and in Wales Caerdroia, ' Troy-
walls1.' Another name for them is ' Julian's Bowers,' or in northern
dialect ' JullinboresV Stukeley3 even proposed to connect this
name with that of lulus4!

Similar mazes are reported from various parts of northern
Europe. In Norway and Sweden they are constructed- of stones
and known as Trojin, Trojeborg, Trojenborg, Troborg5. A maze
some 18 metres wide at Wisby on the island of Gothland (fig. 352)6
is, as Dr E. Krause points out, curiously like the circular Labyrinth

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Fig- 353-

on a coin of Knossos (supra .p. 477 fig. 343)7. In Finland and
Lapland the same custom obtains, though here the name most in

1 E. Trollope loc. cit. p. 222 ff. Welsh shepherds, in commemoration of their Trojan
descent (!), used often to cut a labyrinthine figure called the Caerdroia on the turf, as the
herdsmen upon the grassy plains of Burgh and Rockliff Marshes near the Solway Sands
in Cumberland still cut a labyrinthine figure termed the 'Walls of Troy' (W. H. M. in
Notes and Queries Second Series v. 211 ff.). In Scotland too the 'Walls of Troy' are
popular with children, who trace them on the sea-sand or scribble them on their slates
(E. Trollope loc. cit. p. 233).

2 A. H. Allcroft Earthwork of England London 1908 p. 602 n. 2. On the variants
' Gelyan-bower,' ' Gillimber,' ' Jilling-bo'or,' 'Jul-Laber' see J- Wright The English
Dialect Dictionary London 1902 iii. 389.

8 W. Stukeley loc. cit. 4 Snpra p. 483.

5 On Hallands Vadero, an island in the Kattegat, a maze of stones is called
Tielleborg (i.e. Trolleborg, the 'Giants' Castle').

6 E. Krause Die Trojaburgen Nordeuropas Glogau 1893 p. 4 fig. 1, p. 184 fig. 23. ,

7 It is, I suppose, possible that a Cnossian tetradrachm might find its way northwards
along a trade-route (cp. the map in R. Forrer Keltische Numismatik der Rhein- mid
Dmtaulande Strassburg 1908 pi. 1} and so furnish the prototype of this design.