Cook, Arthur B.: Zeus: a study in ancient religion (Band 2,1): Zeus god of the dark sky (thunder and lightning): Text and notes (Cambridge, 1925)

600 The double axe and the Labyrinth

(6) The double axe and the Labyrinth.

M. Mayer1 was the first to suggest that the word Labyrinthos,
the ' Labyrinth,' should be brought into the same connexion and so
taken to denote ' the place of the Double Axe.' A few years later a
similar view was expressed independently by P. Kretschmer2. And
this opinion, despite certain doubts and difficulties3, has won its way
to almost universal acceptance4. I share in the general conviction,
and am here concerned merely to emphasise two aspects of the
central fact.

One is this. The Cretan Labyrinthos is the equivalent of the
Carian Labrdynda, Ldbranda both in point of its main formative
element {labrys) and in point of its suffix {nth = nd)6. If, therefore,
we were right in thinking that Ldbranda was called 'the place of
the Double Axe' because repeatedly struck by lightning6, we must
give a like explanation of Labyrinthos. The place where the light-
ning fell in the form of the sky-god's axe would be deemed specially
sacred to the sky-god. And mimetic dances in his honour provide
the requisite transition from Labyrinthos, 'the place of the Double
Axe,' to the classical Labyrinth, a dancing-ground made by Daidalos

1 M. Mayer in the Jahrb. d. kais. detitsch. arch. Inst. 1892 vii. 191 (Xafivpivdos is for
*\a^pvvdios, a possible adjectival form of \d(3pvs).

2 P. Kretschmer Einleitung in die Geschichte der Griechischen Sprache Gottingen 1896
p. 404 (Aa(3vpiv8os is a Cretan corruption of the Carian Aafipavvdos or its alternative form
Aafipavvvdos).

3 See the objections summarised by Gruppe Myth. Lit. 1908 p. 266. E.g. G. de
Sanctis in the Rivista di filologia 1902 xxx. 100 f. observes that the double axe is repre-
sented in other structures (Phaistos) of the Cretan civilisation beside the palace at Knossos ;
why then should this alone have been termed 'the House of the Double Axe'? And
W. H. D. Rouse in the Jonrn. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 274 notes ' the metathesis of v which
is unexampled.' E. Assmann too in Philologus 1908 lxvii. 190 f. complains of 'Der Ein-
schub, die Epenthese eines v zwischen j3 unci p.' (But have we not an analogous case in
laburmim ? The ancients may have fancied a resemblance to the Xdfipvs in its flowers.
Cp. (3e\eKvs supra p. 588 n. o.)

4 It has commended itself not only to archaeologists such as Sir A. J. Evans in the
Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 109, H. R. Hall The Oldest Civilization of Greece London

1901 p. 294 n. 1, id. The Ancient History of the Near East London 1913 p. 53 n. 6, id.
ALgean Archaology London 1915 p. 152, R. Dussaud Les civilisations prihelUniques dans
le bassin de la mer Ege'e Paris 1910 p. 209, etc., but also to professed philologists such as
Prellwitz Etyiti. Worterb. d. Gr. Spr.'2 p. 256 and Boisacq Diet, etyni. de la Langue Gr.
p. 548.

R. M. Burrows The Discovei'ies in Crete London 1907 p. 117 ff. (with Appendix B by
R. S. Conway) prefers to connect Aaj3upivdos, Aaj3pdvv5a, etc. with Xavpa, a 'passage,'
Aaupeiov, a 'Passage place.' On this showing Aafiupivdos, Aaj3pdvvda would signify
properly a ' place of Passages.' Phonetically this appears to be possible. But ?

s P. Kretschmer op. cit. p. 293 ff., R. S. Conway in the Ann. Brit. Sch. Ath. 1901—

1902 viii. 154 ff., A. Fick Vorgriechische Ortsnamen Gottingen 1905. p. 28 (citing Steph.
Byz. livpLvdos' iroXts KprjTTjs but HbpivSos1 rrdXis Ka/Di'as).

6 Supra p. 586.