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Crete quarry could be original site of ancient Greek Labyrinth
Telegraph ^ | 16 Oct 2009 | Telegraph

Posted on 10/16/2009 6:34:03 PM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: crete; godsgravesglyphs; gortyn; greek; knossos; labyrinth; maze; minoan; minoans; minos; minotaur; mythology

An 1821 illustration of the Labyrinth at Gortyn


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

1 posted on 10/16/2009 6:34:05 PM PDT by BGHater
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To: SunkenCiv

Myth ping.


2 posted on 10/16/2009 6:34:28 PM PDT by BGHater ("real price of every thing ... is the toil and trouble of acquiring it")
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To: BGHater

“Don’t tase me Theseus!”


3 posted on 10/16/2009 7:32:27 PM PDT by Tainan (Cogito, ergo conservatus)
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To: BGHater; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; 2ndDivisionVet; ...

· join list or digest · view topics · view or post blog · bookmark · post a topic · subscribe ·

 
Gods
Graves
Glyphs
Thanks BGHater.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
 

·Dogpile · Archaeologica · ArchaeoBlog · Archaeology · Biblical Archaeology Society ·
· Discover · Nat Geographic · Texas AM Anthro News · Yahoo Anthro & Archaeo · Google ·
· The Archaeology Channel · Excerpt, or Link only? · cgk's list of ping lists ·


4 posted on 10/16/2009 7:38:02 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/__Since Jan 3, 2004__Profile updated Monday, January 12, 2009)
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To: BGHater

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


5 posted on 10/16/2009 8:05:48 PM PDT by dorothy (“Wisdom cries out loud in the streets, she raises her voice in the squares…" Proverbs 1:20)
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To: SunkenCiv; BGHater

LABYRINTHOS LINK-text-images

6 posted on 10/16/2009 8:13:58 PM PDT by Fred Nerks (fair dinkum)
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To: BGHater; 668 - Neighbor of the Beast

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


7 posted on 10/17/2009 3:23:58 AM PDT by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast ( If you have kids, you have no right of privacy that the govt can't flick off your shoulder.)
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 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
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.


8 posted on 05/27/2013 12:02:58 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: gleeaikin
Speaking of bulls -- Note: this topic is from 10/16/2009. Thanks BGHater.

9 posted on 08/31/2015 2:34:48 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (What do we want? REGIME CHANGE! When do we want it? NOW)
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Note: this topic is from 10/16/2009. Thanks BGHater.
The rest of the Crete keyword (minus the modern/terrorism/political topics):

10 posted on 06/09/2019 7:24:50 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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