Dictionary of Greek and Roman antiquities. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

664 LABYRINTHUS. LABYRINTHUS.
twenty-second year of his age. These games were agree with what we know from the Jest ancient
not celebrated in the circus, but in a private authorities respecting its architecture and its site.
theatre erected in a pleasure-ground (nenuts), and (British Mus. E]l/yptian Antiq. vol. i. p. 54, and
consisted of every kind of theatrical performance, more especially Bunsen, Aegyptens Stelle in des
Greek and Roman plays, mimetic pieces, and the Weltlesc/h. vol. ii. p. 324, &c.) The purpose which
like. The most distinguished persons in the state, this labyrinth was intended to serve, can only be
old and young, male and female, were expected to matter of conjecture. It has been supposed by
take part in them. The emperor set the example some writers that the whole arrangement of the
by appearing in person on the stage; and Dion edifice was a symbolical representation of the
Cassius mentions a distinguished Rosman matron, zodiac and the solar system. Herodotus, who saw
upwards of eighty years of age, who danced in the the upper part of this labyrinth, and went through
games. It was one of the offences given by Paetus it, was not permitted by the keepers to enter the
Thrasea that he had not acquitted himself with subterraneous part, and he was told by them that
credit at this festival. (Dion Cass. lxi, 19; Tac. here were buried the kings by whom the labyrinth
Angn. xiv. 15, xv. 33, xvi. 21.) Suetonius (ANer. had been built, and the sacred crocodiles.
12) confounds this festival with the Quinquennalia, The second labyrinth mentioned by the ancients
which was instituted in the following year, A. nD. was that of Crete, in the neighbourhood of Cnos60. [QUINQUENNALIA.] The Juvenalia con- suse: Dlaedalus was said to ]lave built it after the
tinued to be celebrated by subsequent emperors, model of the Egyptian, and at the command of
but not on the same occasion. The name was king Minos. (Plin. Died. I. cc.) This labyrinth
given to those games which were exhibited by the is -said to have been only one hundredth part the
emperors on the Ist of January in each year. size of the Egyptian, and to have been the habitThey no longer consisted of -scenic representations, ation of the monster Minotaurus. Although the
but of chariot races and combats of wild beasts. Cretan labyrinth is very frequently mentioned by
(Dion Cass. lxvii. 14; Sidon. Apoll. Car2m. xxiii. ancient authors, yet none of them speaks of it as
307, 428; Capitol. Gord. 44 comp. Lipsius, ad (an eyewitness; and Diodorus and Pliny expressly
Tac, Ann. xiv, 15.) state that not a trace of it was to be seen in their
days. These circumstances, together with the
impossibility of accounting for the objects which a
K. SEE C. Cretan king could have had in view in raising such
a building, have induced almost all modern writers
to deny altogether the existence of the Cretan
L. labyrinth. This opinion is not only supported by
some testimonies of the ancients themselves, but
LA'BARUM. [SIGNA MIILITARIA.] by the peculiar nature of some parts of the island
LABRUM. [BALNEAE, p. 191.] of Crete. The author of the Etymologicum Magn.
LABYRINTHUS (xagvplvOoS). Tliis word calls the Cretan labyrinth " a mountain with a caappears to be of Greek origin, -and not of Egyptian vern," and Eustathius (ad Odyss. xi. p. 1688)
as has generally been supposed; it is probably a calls it "a subterraneous cavern;" and similar
derivative form of XdGtpos, and etymologically statements are made by several other writers
connected with Aaupaw. Accordingly, the proper quoted by Meursius (Creta, pp. 67 and 69). Such
definition of labyrinth is a large and complicated large caverns actually exist in some parts of Crete,
subterraneous cavern with numerous and intricate especially in the neighbourhood of the ancient
passages, similar to those of a mine. (Welcker, town of Gortys; and it was probably some such
Aeschyl. Trilog. p. 21-2, &c.) Hence the caverns cavern in the neighbourlood of Cnossus that gave
near Nauplia in Argolis were called labyrinths. rise to the story of a labyrinth built in the reign
(Strabo, viii. 6. p. 36.9.) And this is indeed the of Minos. (See Walpole's Travels, p. 402, &c.;
characteristic feature of all the structures to which IHiickh, rieta, i. p. 56, &c., and p. 447, &c.)
the ancients apply the name labyrinth, for they are A third labyrinth, the construction of which
always described as either entirely or partially belongs to a more historical age, was that in the
under ground. island of Lemnos. It was commenced by Smilis,
The earliest and most renowned labyrinth was an Aeginetan architect, and completed by Rhoecus
that of Egypt, which lay beyond lake Moeris, at a and Diodorus of Samnos, about the time of the first
short distance from the eity of Crocodiles (ArsinoP), Oympiad. (Plin. 1. c.) It was in its construction
in the province now called Faiorun. Herodotus similar to the Egyptian, and was only distinguish(ii. 148) ascribes its colistruction to the dodecarchs ed from it by a greater number of columns. Re(about 650. c.), and Mela (i. 9) to PsammetichsL" mains of it were still extant in the time of Pliny.
alone. But other and more probable accounts refer It is uncertain whlether this labyrinth was inits construction to a much earlier age. (Plin. II. N. tended as a temple of the Cabeiri, or whether it had
xxxvi. 13; Diod. Sic. i. 61, 89; Strabo, xvii. any collnectionl with the art of mining. (Welcker,
p. 811.) This edifice, which in grandeur even ex- Aesecyl. Tril.. c.)
celled the pyramids, is described by Herodotus and Samos had likewise a labyrinth, which was built
Pliny (11. cc.) It had 3000 apartments, 1500 by Theodorus, the stme who assisted in building
under ground, and the same number above it, and that of Lemnos; but no particulars are known.
the whole was surrounded by a wall. It was di- (Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 8.)
vided into courts, each of which was surrounded Lastly, we have to mention a fabulous edifice in
by colonnades of white marble. At the time of Etruria, to which Pliny applies the name of labyDiodorus and of Pliny the Egyptian labyrinth was rinth. It is described as being in the neighbourstill extant. But the ruins which modern travel- hood of Clusium, and as the tomb of Lar Porsena.
lers describe as relics of the ancient labyrinth, as But no writer says that he ever saw it, or remains
b'Vell as the place where they saw them, do not of it; and Pliny. who thought the description which