LABYRINTH. The name of several cele brated buildings of antiquity, consisting of many chambers or passages difficult to pass through without a guide, hence the name is applied to a complicated mass of constructions. In anti quity. the Egyptian. Cretan. and Samian laby rinths were famous. The name might be sup posed to have an Egyptian etymology. as stated by Diodorus (1. 61-97) : hut at present Greek scholars prefer to derive it from Greek Laura, 'lane' (i.e. a construction with many lanes). The Egyptian labyrinth was situated close to Lake Voris. near the city Croeodilopolis, called in Ptolemaic times Arsini:C not far from the modern Medinet-el-Fayum. It seems to have been the largest temple of ancient Egypt. The descrip tions of the classical writers are very contra dictory and give no clear idea of the con stru•tion; they agree, however, in describing the main building as a series of chambers (about twenty). each roofed with a single stone slab of immense size. In front of the chambers were covered passages, with large monolithic columns, and adjoining them large courts tilled with other buildings. The fondness of the Egyptians for using immense stones is said to have been spe cially manifest in this temple. According to a rude sketch in a hieroglyphic papyrus of Roman times, it was dedicated to Souchos Sobk) , the god of Crocodilopolis, though all the principal gods of the other Egyptian names were also worshiped in it. It is not improbable that Herodotus was right in saying that sacred croco diles and some favored men were buried in the crypts of the temple; but this was not the principal purpose of the temple. A large ceme tery of crocodiles existed northwest of the struc ture. and the founder had his tomb in a brick pyramid at the north side of the building. The name of this builder is variously given by clas sical writers: the best tradition being that of Manetho, that the fourth (better the sixth) King of the Twelfth Dynasty. Amenemi•s. or Amenem
hat Ill.. built the labyrinth as a tomb for him self. His name is given in :Manetho as Lamart.s (i.e. hieroglyphic Ye-mo ill -re, the official name of the King). which to the ear of the Greeks sounded like labyrinth, and which was cor rupted by later writers to Alenes. :Mendes. Is mandes. etc. The 1\heris of Herodotus is the same King. The temple, however, was not his burial-place. although it probably served for the cult of the founder, who must have been associat ed with the gods worshiped there. (See AliEttrs.) Later. the Queen Selik-nefru (Skoniophri:) seems to have built on the temple. This immense build ing. still standing in the first century A.n.. has disappeared so completely that Petrie could find little more than traces of the founda tions. Lepsius erroneously considered as rem nants of it a few miserable ruins of brick houses erected there in late Roman times. The lime stones of the temple must have been used as building material for the numerous cities and villages of the Faymn. or else burned to lime.
The Cretan labyrinth, famous in Greek mythol ogy as the abode of the :Minotaur whom Theseus slew, was reputed to have been built by It is probable. however, that no such structure ever existed, and that the myth referred to the natural fissures in the rocks near Cnossus, unless indeed. it refers to the royal palace recently ex cavated in this locality. The Lemnian labyrinth was an ancient structure in the Isle of Samos, partly due to nature. Pliny used the term Ital ian Labyrinth to designate the gigantic tomb of Porsemm near Clusinni. The classical quotations in regard to the Egyptian labyrinth have been collected in Wiedemann. Lirrodots curite.s Midi (Leipzig, Is19)1; for the ruins. consult Petrie, lirtuvra. B;ahniu find Arsiuoi' (London. lq49).