Crete quarry could be original site of ancient Greek Labyrinth

Telegraph ^ | 16 Oct 2009 | Telegraph

[BGHater]

An old stone quarry on the Greek island of Crete which has a network of underground tunnels could be the original site of the ancient Labyrinth, the maze that housed the Minotaur of Greek legend, scholars believe.

An Anglo-Greek team believes that the site, near the town of Gortyn, has just as much claim to be the place of the Labyrinth as the Minoan palace at Knossos 20 miles away, which has been synonymous with the Minotaur myth since its excavation a century ago.

The 600,000 people a year who visit the ruins at Knossos are told the site was almost certainly the home of the legendary King Minos, who was supposed to have constructed the Labyrinth to house the Minotaur, a fearsome creature born out of a union between the king's wife and a bull, the Independent reports.

Nicholas Howarth, an Oxford University geographer who led the expedition to the site, said there was a danger of Gortyn being lost from the story of the Labyrinth because of the overpowering position that Knossos had taken in the legend "People come not just to see the controversial ruins excavated and reconstructed by Evans, but also to seek a connection to the mythical past of the Age of Heroes. It is a shame that almost all visitors to Knossos have never heard of these other possible 'sites' for the mythical Labyrinth," Mr Howarth said.

The cave complex at Gortyn had been visited recently by archaeological thieves who were preparing to dynamite one of the inner chambers in the hope of discovering a hidden treasure room.

[BGHater]

An 1821 illustration of the Labyrinth at Gortyn

An engraving of Theseus, who slayed the Minotaur then escaped from the Labyrinth

[BGHater]

Myth ping.

[Tainan]

“Don’t tase me Theseus!”

[SunkenCiv]

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[dorothy]

Two-and-a-half miles? Must have been some piece of string Ariadne carried!

[Fred Nerks]

LABYRINTHOS LINK-text-images

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

Ooh! Gortyn ping!
(Thanks for posting this, BGH!)

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[SunkenCiv]

Speaking of bulls -- Note: this topic is from 10/16/2009. Thanks BGHater.

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 10/16/2009. Thanks BGHater.

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