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LABYRINTH OF EGYPT AND OF CRETE. 
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Labyrinth of Egypt. 
According to Pliny, this was the oldest of all the known labyrinths, 
and was subsisting in his time, after having stood three thousand six 
hundred years. He says it was built by king Petemsus, or Tithoes, but 
Herodotus makes it the work of several kings. It stood on the banks 
of the lake Moeris, and consisted of twelve large contiguous palaces; 
containing three thousand chambers, one thousand five hundred of 
which were under ground. Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, Pliny, and 
Mela, speak of this monument with the same admiration as Herodo- 
tus ; but not one of them savs it was constructed to bewilder those 
who , went into it, though it is manifest that, without a guide, they 
would be in danger of losing their w ay. It was this danger, no doubt, 
that introduced a new term into the Greek language. 
Labyrinth of Crete. 
This is the most famed labyrinth in history or fabig ; haying been 
rendered particularly remarkable by the story of the monster Minotaur, 
^nd of Theseus, who foiuid his way through all its windings by Aiiad- 
ne's clew. Diodorus Siculus relates as a conjecture, and Pliny as a 
certain fact, that Deedalus ccnstructed this labyrinth on a model of 
that of Egypt, though on a smaller scale. They add, that it was 
formed by the command of Minos, w ho kept the Minotaur shut up in 
it; but that in their time it no longer existed. Diodorus and Pliny, 
therefore, considered this labyrinth as a large edifice, while other 
W'riters represent it simply as a cavern hollow'ed in the rock, and full 
of w'inding passages. But if this labyrinth had been constructed 
by Daedalus under Minos, it is surprising that we find no mention of 
it either in Horner, wlio more than once speaks of Minos and Crete, 
or in Herodotus, who describes that of Egypt, (after having said that 
the monuments of the Egyptians are much superior to those of the 
Greeks,) or in the more ancient geographers, or in any of the writers of 
the ages when Greece flourished. 
Diodorus and Pliny suppose, that in their time no trace of the 
labyrinth existed in Crete, and that even the date of its destruction 
had been forgotten. Yet it is said to have been visited by the disci- 
ples of Apollonius of Tyana, who w as contemporary w ith these tw'o 
authors. The Cretans therefore believed that they possessed the laby- 
rinth. “I would . request the reader,” says Abb6 Barthelemi, “to 
attend to the following passage in Strabo : At Napulia, near the 
ancient Argos, says that judicious writer, are still to be seen vast 
caverns, in which are constructed labyrinths, that Ure believed to be 
the work of the Cyclops. The meaning of which is, that the labours 
of men had opened in the rock passages that crossed and returned 
upon themselves, as is done in quarries. Such is the idea we form 
of the labyrinth of Crete. Were there several labyrinths in that island ? 
Ancient authors speak only of one, w hich the greater part place at 
Cnossus, and some at Gortyna. Belon and Tournefort have given us 
the description of a cavern at the foot of mount of Ida, on the south 
side of the mountain, at a small distance from Gortyna. This was 
