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According to ancient legends, thousands of years ago, there was a hopeless maze from endless corridors and alleys, created by an architect Daedalus, where a terrible creature with the body of a man and the head of a bull, called the Minotaur, lurked. It was a product of evil, sent down to people as the fruit of an unnatural love between the wife of King Minos - Pasiphae and the bull sent by Poseidon to the ruler of the island. According to one version, this labyrinth was located in the dungeons of the Palace of Knossos and was conceived by Daedalus at the behest of the king, in order to confuse the exits from it as much as possible, so as to exclude the return of a person who got there, given into the clutches of a bloodthirsty beast.
Having defeated the Athenians in a bloody war, Minos ordered them to pay a terrible tribute. Every 9 years, they had to send 7 young men and 7 young girls to Crete as victims for the Minotaur, placed in the labyrinth. However, according to the prophecy, after the payment of the third tribute, a hero was destined to appear in Athens, able to defeat the monster and rid the city of terrible pay. Soon, the mountain appeared, and his name was Theseus. By virtue of his position, he was supposed to become the Athenian ruler, but after learning about what he must do, the young man decided not to clothe himself with power until he rid the city of the insatiable Minotaur.
Having voluntarily enrolled in the ranks of the next victims, Theseus went to Crete, among other young people doomed to death. Once on the island, he charmed the beautiful Ariadne, daughter of Minos, and encouraged her to give her lover a ball of thread with which he could get out of the maze without any extra effort. As a result, going to the very center of the puzzle entangled by Daedalus, thanks to courage, dexterity and strength, he defeated the Minotaur and following the thread of Aridna left the lair of the beast, freeing subsequent generations from him.
Today, the Daedalus labyrinth can be seen only on ancient Cretan coins and various souvenirs as symbols, but its meaning can be found in the reflection of everyday life, which for each person also has its own form in the form of adversity and hardship, patience and choosing the right path. These concepts underlie the myth itself, given that Theseus achieved his goal, also in many ways overcoming himself, overcoming fear and doubt, and leaving the labyrinth, he completed his destiny. Of course, unlike the hero ancient greek legends, not every person initially knows about the purpose of his stay in this world, but after all, it is precisely in the search for the right path and the right answer that the meaning of any labyrinth lies.
Character greek mythology... Famous inventor, engineer and artist. Built the Knossos labyrinth in Crete for the king. The king settled there, the bull-headed offspring of his own wife Pasiphae, who got together with a white bull. Before that, Daedalus had constructed a wooden "cow" for Pasiphae, inside which the queen climbed to seduce the bull. Daedalus is also credited with inventing various instruments.
Origin story
Daedalus is referred to as a deity in Mycenaean texts. As a character, he appears in a satire drama and mentions Daedalus in the Iliad. The hero also appears in Greek comedies, for example, in Aristophanes.
In ancient times, Daedalus was attributed to various structures, inventions and designs, in addition to the famous labyrinth in Crete. This is a statue of a goddess on the island of Delos, a statue at Knossos, a wooden image in a Theban temple and other statues that the Greek playwright wrote about as if they created a visual illusion of movement. Daedalus created several images of Hercules. One of them, according to legend, Hercules broke himself, outraged by the excessive similarity.
Myths and legends
Daedalus's biography begins in Athens. Daedalus comes from an old Athenian family. According to mythology, the goddess Athena herself taught the hero the skill. However, the inventor was expelled from the city for his murder.
Daedalus had a talented nephew Talos, whom the hero took as an apprentice. However, Talos was so good as an inventor that Daedalus sensed in him a potential rival. The proud Daedalus decided to get rid of Talos so that the young man would not take away from him the title of the best among engineers over time.
The hero lured the young man to a mountain steep and pushed him down from there. However, the goddess Athena did not allow the young man to die and helped Talos, albeit in a somewhat peculiar way - she turned him into a partridge. Daedalus himself, as a criminal, was forced to flee the city.
The inventor went to Crete, where the services of Daedalus, in exchange for the provided shelter and protection, were used by King Minos for a long time. The master left beautiful works of art and engineering in Crete, for example, statues of King Minos and the royal daughters. But he also brought trouble.
King Minos had to sacrifice a white bull to the gods. This beast came out of the sea at the behest of Poseidon specifically so that Minos would slay him as a victim. However, the king, fascinated by the beauty of the bull, took pity on the beast and left it in his own herd, and sacrificed to the gods another, ordinary bull. The angry one took revenge on the king. Pasiphae, wife of Minos, was imbued with an unnatural passion for the white bull and wished to lie down with him.
To satisfy this desire, the queen used the services of Daedalus. The master made for her a wooden "cow", hollow from the inside and with a hole, so that the queen could penetrate the cow, and the bull - into the queen. To make the "bait" attractive to the bull, Daedalus upholstered the structure with freshly tattered cow hide, and to move it, he attached wheels.
The "cow" was rolled out into the meadow, and the queen climbed into it whenever she felt a craving for a bull. This entertainment turned into the birth of a monstrous child - a man with a bull's head, who was named the Minotaur.
King Minos could not kill the newborn, fearing to offend Poseidon again, but he wished to hide the monster away. For this, Daedalus built a labyrinth on Crete, taking the Egyptian as a model. The Minotaur was thrown into this labyrinth, who lived there and ate human meat. The monster was thrown by criminals, and once every nine years a ship arrived from Athens, which brought tribute - fourteen Athenian girls and boys to be devoured by the Minotaur.
After the Athenian hero killed the Minotaur and freed his compatriots from the monstrous tribute, the labyrinth was empty. Theseus himself fled from Crete with the daughter of Minos, and the angry king locked Daedalus and his son in the labyrinth.
So his own building became a prison for Daedalus. Such a life burdened the master, and he decided to escape from captivity. Daedalus designed wings on the model of birds' wings for himself and his son. The feathers on these wings were held together with wax, and one had to fly carefully, not getting too close to the sun so that the wax would not melt, and not dropping too low to the water so that the wings would not get wet.
Daedalus and Icarus flew away from the Cretan labyrinth, but the young man died on the way while flying over the sea. Icarus forgot his father's instructions and climbed too high. The wax melted, the wings fell apart, and Icarus fell into the sea.
Later Greek authors interpret this part of the myth in a rationalistic way. Allegedly in the form of a story about wings in mythology, the memory of how oblique sails were invented was captured. According to this version, Daedalus and his son fled from Crete on a ship with new, oblique sails.
This is a more advanced type of sails, with which you can use not only tailwind, but also side and headwind. Daedalus invented these sails, and before that the Greeks used exclusively straight sails. Icarus in this version drowned simply by falling overboard.
One way or another, Daedalus himself escaped and settled in Sicily. The vindictive Minos wanted to return Daedalus and for this he went to the trick. Minos's messengers announced throughout the Greek lands that the king had announced a "competition." Minos promised a generous reward to anyone who can thread a thread through a twisted seashell, so that the thread enters one end, passes one by one convolutions and exits at the other end. The Cretan king knew that only Daedalus could do this and the master would make itself felt.
The ruler who sheltered Daedalus was flattered by the promised reward, and the master, in gratitude for the help and hospitality, taught how to complete the task of Minos. However, having completed the task, the Sicilian ruler did not receive a reward, but only provoked the anger of Minos, who demanded to hand over Daedalus. The Sicilians did not want to part with Daedalus and came up with a trick. The ruler invited Minos to visit and invited him to the bathhouse, where the Cretan king was poured with boiling water.
Daedalus then moved to Sardinia, where he erected many structures. There the master got married and took disciples for himself.
Quotes
“The wax melted and flowed; and waving his bare hands
A young man, deprived of wings, cannot capture air.
The mouth was received that the father was called for help,
The azure sea, which has since received its name from it. " (Ovid)
Medieval scholars considered Daedalus's labyrinth to be the most complex ever created.
According to legend, Daedalus created this labyrinth in order to enclose the Minotaur in it.
Daedalus very cleverly used psychological factors of behavior that the probability of escape from the maze is practically zero.
If the passages of this labyrinth were a meter wide, and the walls were 30 centimeters thick, the only path leading from it would have a length of more than a kilometer. Most likely, anyone would be more likely to die of hunger or thirst before finding a way out.
During its long history, the Cretan labyrinth was destroyed and rebuilt several times, and in 1380 BC it was destroyed and abandoned completely, until the English archaeologist A. Evans discovered a mysterious hieroglyphic writing in the Oxford Museum. The letter spoke of an ancient labyrinth. In 1900, an archaeologist arrived in Crete and began excavations.
Arthur Evans has been excavating for almost 30 years and has unearthed not a city, but a palace equal in area to an entire city. This was the famous Knossos labyrinth, which was a structure with total area 22 thousand square meters, which had at least 5-6 above-ground levels, floors, connected by passages and stairs, and a number of underground crypts. The Cretan labyrinth turned out to be not an invention of the ancients, but a real miracle of architecture, in which there was something incomprehensible to the mind.
The labyrinth is a real Myth, it is a story about heroes and events that historical science does not recognize as real, but considers as symbols.
We believe that any myth, any image, any symbolic narrative is based on reality, even if not always historical. The myth accurately describes psychological reality: human experiences, mental processes and forms are hidden behind symbols that have been passed down from generation to generation and finally come down to us so that we can unravel them, remove the veil from them and again see their innermost meaning, realize their deep essence.
The myth of the Labyrinth is one of the oldest, and, I dare say, it is similar to the myths of all ancient civilizations, saying that the labyrinth is a difficult and unclear path, on the complex and winding paths of which it is no wonder to get lost. Sometimes the story of this myth is interwoven with a story about an extraordinary person, about a hero or mythical character who overcomes the maze and finds the key to solving the riddle that appeared before him in the form of a path.
When we talk about labyrinths, we immediately recall the most famous of them, about which evidence has been preserved in Greek mythology - in a simple and accessible form, close to a children's fairy tale: the labyrinth of Crete. I do not want to talk about it as simplified as it is done in famous legends, we will open its deeper layers and analyze archaeological findsmade in Crete to understand what the Cretans worshiped and what the labyrinth really was for them. And we will see how this story takes on a complex symbolic form, and it will no longer seem so childish to us.
Knossos labyrinth
So, one of the ancient symbols of Crete, associated with its supreme deity, was a double-edged ax, which can be represented in the form of two pairs of horns, one of which is directed upward, the other downward. This ax was associated with the sacred bull, whose cult was widespread in Crete. She received the name Labrys and, according to an older tradition, served as a tool with which the god, who later received the name Ares-Dionysus from the Greeks, cut through the First Labyrinth.
Here is his story. When Ares-Dionysus, the god of primordial times, a very ancient god, descended to earth, nothing had yet been created, nothing had yet taken shape, there was only darkness, darkness. But, according to legend, from heaven Ares-Dionysus was given a tool, Labrys, and it was with this tool, with this weapon that he created the world.
Daedalus Labyrinth
Ares-Dionysus began to walk in the middle of the darkness, circling around and around. (This is very curious, because modern science has discovered that when we find ourselves in the dark in an unfamiliar room or trying to get out of some spacious but unlit place, we most often start walking in circles; this also happens when we get lost or wander through the forest We made this comparison because from the very beginning we want to emphasize that the symbolism of the labyrinth is associated with certain atavisms inherent in man.)
And so Ares-Dionysus began to walk in a circle, cutting through the darkness and cutting furrows with his ax. The road that he cut, and which with each step became brighter, is called the "labyrinth", that is, "the path cut by Labrys."
When Ares-Dionysus, cutting through the darkness, reached the very center, to the goal of his path, he suddenly saw that he no longer had the ax that he had in the beginning. His ax turned into pure light - he held in his hands a flame, fire, a torch that brightly illuminated everything around, for God performed a double miracle: with one edge of the ax he cut the darkness outside, and with the other - his inner darkness. In the same way that he created light outside, he created light in himself; just as he cut the outer path, he also cut the inner path. And when Ares-Dionysus reached the center of the labyrinth, he reached the end point of his path: he reached the light, reached inner perfection.
This is the symbolism of the Cretan myth of the labyrinth, the most ancient that has come down to us. We know the later traditions much better.
The most famous of them is the myth of the mysterious labyrinth created by Daedalus, an amazing architect and inventor from ancient Crete, whose name is now always associated with a labyrinth, a tangled path.
The name Daedalus, or Dactyl, as it is sometimes called, in the ancient Greek language means "He who creates", "He who works with his hands builds." Daedalus is a symbol of the builder, but not just the creator of the complex of parks and palaces, which was the labyrinth of King Minos, but the builder in a deeper sense of the word, possibly similar to the symbolism of the very first deity who built the Labyrinth of Light in the darkness.
Daedalus's Labyrinth was neither an underground structure, nor something dark and winding; it was huge complex houses, palaces and parks, conceived so that those who entered it could not find a way out. The point is not that Daedalus's labyrinth was terrible, but that it was impossible to get out of it.
Daedalus built this labyrinth for the Cretan king Minos, an almost legendary character, whose name allows us to get acquainted with very ancient legends of all peoples of that era.
Minos lived in fabulous palace, and he had a wife, Pasiphae, who played out the whole labyrinth drama.
Wanting to become king, Minos counted on the help of another powerful god, the ruler of the waters and oceans, Poseidon. In order for Minos to feel his support, Poseidon performed a miracle: from the waters and sea foam, he created a white bull and presented it to Minos as a sign that he really is the king of Crete.
However, as the Greek myth says, it so happened that the wife of Minos fell hopelessly in love with a white bull, dreamed only about him and only wanted him. Not knowing how to approach him, she asked Daedalus, the great builder, to build a huge bronze cow, beautiful and attractive, so that the bull would feel attracted, while Pasiphae would hide inside her.
And then a real tragedy is played out: Daedalus creates a cow, Pasiphae hides in it, the bull approaches the cow, and from this strange union of a woman and a bull, a half bull, half a man appears - the Minotaur. This monster, this monster, settled in the center of the labyrinth, which at the same moment turned from a complex of parks and palaces into a gloomy place inspiring fear and sadness, into an eternal reminder of the misfortune of the king of Crete.
Some ancient legends, in addition to the Cretan ones, have retained a less simplified interpretation of the tragedy of Pasiphae and the White Bull.
For example, in the legends of pre-Columbian America and India there are mentions that millions of years ago, at a certain stage of human evolution, people went astray and mixed with animals, and because of this perversion and violation of the laws of nature, real monsters appeared on earth. hybrids that are difficult to even describe. They instilled fear not only because they possessed, like the Minotaur, an evil disposition; they had the stamp of shame from an alliance that should never have taken place, from a secret that should not have been revealed until all these events were erased from the memory of mankind.
So, Pasiphae's connection with the Bull and the birth of the Minotaur is related to ancient races and to those old events that at a certain moment were erased from the memory of people.
On the other hand, the monster, the Minotaur, is a blind, amorphous matter without reason and purpose, which hides in the center of the labyrinth, waiting for sacrifices from its benefactor.
Years go by, the legend continues, and the Minotaur in his labyrinth really turns into something terrifying. The king of Crete, having defeated the Athenians in the war, imposes a terrible tribute on them: every nine years, they must send seven young men and seven innocent girls to sacrifice to the Minotaur. When the time comes for the payment of the third tribute, in Athens, a hero with all the virtues, Theseus, rises against this. He makes a promise to himself not to take control of the city until he frees him from adversity, until he kills the Minotaur.
Theseus himself enters into the number of young men who must become victims of the monster, goes to Crete, captivates the heart of Ariadne, daughter of Minos, and seeks that she give him a ball of thread with which he can pass through the maze and then, after killing the Minotaur, find from his way out. The ball played an important role in this story. Theseus enters the labyrinth and, penetrating deeper and deeper into its complex and intricate corridors, unwinds the thread. Having reached the center, thanks to his colossal strength and will, he kills the Minotaur and finds a way out.
In simple and naive stories, Theseus kills the Minotaur with a sword, sometimes with a dagger. But in the most ancient stories, as well as in the images on ancient Attic vases, Theseus kills the Minotaur with a double-bladed ax. And again the hero, who has made his way in the maze, having reached the center, performs a miracle with the help of Labrys, a double ax.
We have to solve one more riddle: Ariadne gives Theseus not a ball, but a spindle with threads. And, penetrating into the depths of the labyrinth, Theseus unwinds just him. But the hero returns to the exit, picking up the thread and unwinding it again, and from the labyrinth he takes out a really ball - a perfectly round ball. This symbol is also not new. The spindle with which Theseus goes into the labyrinth symbolizes his imperfection inner peace, which he must "unfold", that is, pass a series of tests. The ball that he creates by picking up the thread is the perfection that he achieved by putting the Minotaur to death, which means that he passed the tests and left the labyrinth.
There were many labyrinths, as well as Theseus. They also exist in Spain. All along the way to Santiago de Compostella and throughout Galicia there are an infinite number of ancient images of labyrinths on stone, which call the pilgrim to set foot on the path to Santiago and walk this road, and they directly indicate to us that in its symbolic and spiritual meaning this the path is a maze.
In England, in the famous castle Tintagel, where, according to legend, King Arthur was born, also has its own labyrinths.
We also meet them in India, where they were a symbol of reflection, concentration, appeal to the true center.
IN Ancient egypt in the most ancient city of Abydos, founded almost in the pre-dynastic period, there was a labyrinth, which was a round temple. In his galleries, ceremonies were held dedicated to time, evolution, and the endless paths that a person traveled before reaching the center, which meant meeting a true person.
According to the history of Egypt, the labyrinth from Abydos was, apparently, only a very small part of the huge labyrinth described by Herodotus, who considered the Egyptian labyrinth so colossal, amazing and unimaginable that even the Great Pyramid fades away next to it.
Today we can no longer see this labyrinth, we only have the testimony of Herodotus. For many centuries, for the peculiarities of the presentation, people called him the father of history, Herodotus the truthful and gave many more similar names, but when not all of his descriptions were confirmed, we naturally decided that Herodotus was not always confident in his words. On the other hand, modern science has confirmed the truth of so many of his descriptions that it might be worthwhile to be patient and wait - suddenly archaeologists will discover the labyrinth about which the Greek historian wrote.
There were also many labyrinths in the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages. One of the most famous, the images of which are quite common, is a labyrinth laid out on the stone floor of the main cathedral in Chartres. It was created not so that someone would get lost in it, but in order to be followed: it was a kind of path of initiation, a path of accomplishment and a path of achievement that had to be overcome by the candidate, the student, the one who aspired to be accepted in the Mystery.
Indeed, it is extremely difficult to get lost in the labyrinth of Chartres: all its roads are exclusively symbolic, all the turns and crossroads are visible. The most important thing here is to reach the center, a square stone on which the various constellations are marked with nails. For a person, this allegorically means to reach Heaven and become on a par with the deities.
It is very likely that all such myths of antiquity and all the symbolic labyrinths of Gothic cathedrals reflect not so much historical reality as psychological. And the psychological reality of the labyrinth is still alive today. If in ancient times they talked about the initiatory labyrinth as a path through which a person could realize himself, today we must talk about the material and psychological labyrinth.
It is not difficult to see the material labyrinth: the world around us, what we encounter in life, how we live and how we manifest ourselves - all this is part of one labyrinth. The difficulty lies elsewhere: those who entered the Cretan parks and palaces did not even suspect that they had entered the labyrinth; so are we in our everyday life we do not realize that we are in a maze that draws a person into itself.
From a psychological point of view, the confusion of Theseus, who wanted to kill the Minotaur, is of the same nature as the confusion of a man who is confused and frightened.
We are scared because we do not know something and do not know how; frightened because we don't understand something and because of this we feel insecure. Our fear usually manifests itself in the fact that we cannot choose, we do not know where to go, what to devote our lives to; it manifests itself in the eternal ordinariness and mediocrity, exhausting and sad: we are ready for anything, just not to make decisions and not show even a little firmness.
Confusion is another disease that haunts us in the modern labyrinth on the psychological plane. This confusion arises from the fact that it is very difficult for us to decide who we are, where we came from and where we are going. These three questions are the main reason for our confusion, although they are so simple and unsophisticated that they seem childish to us. Is there any meaning in our life other than being constantly at a loss? What are we working for and what are we learning for? Why do we live and what is happiness? What are we aiming for? What is suffering and how do you recognize it?
From a psychological point of view, we are still wandering in the labyrinth, and although there are no monsters and narrow corridors in it, traps constantly lie in wait for us.
And of course it is the myth that offers us the solution. Theseus does not enter the labyrinth empty-handed, and it would be strange if we were empty-handed looking for a way out of it. Theseus takes two items with him: an ax (or a sword - whichever you prefer) to kill the monster, and a spindle with thread, his ball to find the way back.
Today, more and more people are talking about large-scale distortions of world history, more and more facts are cited to confirm this. Not only documents of true history have been distorted, but also myths. We will try to find traces of such distortion now.
We are assured that legends about the labyrinth, about Daedalus and Icarus have come down to us from deep antiquity. But if you open modern legend books Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome and compare them with texts from books 50 years ago, you will see not only new facts about past legends, but also new words that were not in legends and myths 50 years ago. And this applies not only to the Russian language, but also to many others.
For example, in the dictionaries of foreign words of the Soviet era, it is said that buildings with complex, intricate passages, from which it is difficult to find a way out, were considered labyrinths in ancient Egypt and Greece. It was noted that according to legend, a huge labyrinth was built by Daedalus for the king of the island of Crete Minos. Many publications present a bas-relief (drawing, photograph or drawing) of the alleged second century BC, on the bas-relief the master Daedalus is finishing the wings for himself, and his son Icarus has already put on his wings and is ready for his only flight, which will bring him posthumous glory. The bas-reliefs of the captives of King Minos seem to protrude from brick wall... If they are inside a maze, then the maze is made of bricks. And what is the labyrinth made of in Crete?
Daedalus is considered the founder of carpentry, he invented the plane, plumb line, glue and other tools and devices for woodworking. He appeared on the island of Crete to King Minos as a craftsman of wood, why did the king use him for other purposes and forced him to make a labyrinth either of brick or stone.
A maze is usually depicted as a complex system of spiral lines or a combination of circles and squares with radii and segments. And if we talk about literary sources, then they mention five "great labyrinths": the Egyptian under the island of Moeris in Fayum, in Knossos and in the city of Gortina on the island of Crete, on the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea and the Etruscan labyrinth in Clusia (Italy).
Allegedly, ancient writers were convinced that the master Daedalus built a labyrinth on about. Crete is modeled on the Egyptian, located in the funeral temple of Pharaoh Amenemkhet III (XII dynasty, late XIX century BC; its remains were found in the Fayum region).
Ovid in the poem "Metamorphoses" gives a description of the palace of King Minos on about. Crete:
Daedalus, for his talent in the art of building,
The building was erected; confused icons and eyes in delusion
Introduced it curvature, nooks and crannies of all passages ...
A network of paths without number; he himself will return back
I could hardly go to the exit: the building was so confused!
The ancient Roman poet compared the layout of the palace with the meandering course of the Meander River.
In modern books and reference books, you can find a lot of interesting facts about labyrinths, about their connection with heaven and space, about their sacredness, about a special aura, and so on. In the new encyclopedic dictionary visual arts it is noted that images of the labyrinth in Crete can be seen on ancient coins. And the English archaeologist A. Evans, who has been excavating since 1900 on about. Crete, discovered the ruins of the palace at Knossos, in particular big hall, whose columns are covered with images of a double-sided poleaxe, identified the palace with the legendary labyrinth ("House of the poleaxe" in Greek Labrys). This etymology is considered "unreliable", but the intricate layout of the Palace of Knossos is associated with the legend of the Minotaur.
That is, we are advised to take into account that the labyrinth was built for the Minotaur, a monster with a human body and a bull's head.
Who is the Minotaur in "antiquity"? This is the offspring of the wife of Pasiphae and the sea bull sent by the god Poseidon. The monster, as it turned out, was a cannibal, the king pleased him in everything and supplied beautiful young men and women to be killed and eaten. This means that the labyrinth should not be a prison for him, but a comfortable home. What material is used to achieve a high level of comfort? Of course, with a tree. Even today, being inside brick, panel or monolithic residential buildings, we strive to surround ourselves with wood as the most environmentally friendly material.
And Daedalus is a specialist in wood, which means that his labyrinth must be made of wood. But all sources claim that the labyrinth was made of stone.
And what will the word itself say? What is the opinion of etymologists? The school etymological dictionary notes that the word Labyrinthos refers to the Greek language and ancient Aegean culture. The Internet provides ample opportunities, but they all agree that the Latin Labyrinthus, from the Greek Labyrinthos, possibly from the pre-Indo-European Labr - "stone". So that's it. But here's the bad luck. I have not found any dictionary, reference book or lexicon 30 years ago, either in Russian, or in English, or in German, or in Spanish, or in Italian Labr, and even in the meaning of "stone", which means that the falsifiers of history continue to replace the truth with fiction in the 21st century. Labr is their next invention, without any foundation, it is needed in order to knock the ground out from under their feet from doubters and those seeking the truth.
The Latin form Labyrinthus, ending in –us, I only met on the Internet, which means that this is also, most likely, a fake of recent times. But there is a word, and it can tell a lot. There is a technique proposed by A. Fomenko and N. Nosovsky in the dictionary of parallelisms. And there is a desire to understand where the roots come from.
Labyrinthos, we read the word in Russian, but from right to left, while remembering that in Western languages \u200b\u200bsome consonants are not readable, they serve either to soften a nearby consonant, or to lengthen an adjacent vowel. SOKHTNIRUBAL. Do not read x, as in the Latin h. What happens? HUNDREDS OF RUBALS? By the way, the Latin n could be formed from n when rewriting Russian words. Then there was another version: SOT PIRUBAL, that is, HUNDRED HUNDRED OR HUNDRED RUBAL. In any case, we can definitely see that the carpenter worked with an ax, that is, he chopped. Let us remember that in the old days in Russia they cut down forests, cut down houses and cut down palaces. And the preparation of the future building from logs was called a log house.
They decided on one root: chopped or chopped. However, maybe he chopped it, because the Russian and in the letter can easily be turned into Latin a.
Now the second root: honeycomb or hundreds, or honeycomb, or honeycomb. The Russian combination тъ or тъ in Western languages, when rewriting, often changed into th or ht. Only this can explain why h is not readable. Although many explanations have been invented for each specific case, they try not to notice the general pattern for many languages.
So, the word "chopped", "chopped", "chopped" indicates that the structure is made of wood.
And what was he doing? Hundreds, dry or honeycombs? Most likely we are not talking about hundreds, but about honeycombs. This is again prompted by Dahl's dictionary, where it is noted that in the old days in Novgorod, Konchansk elders were elected (those who represented the interests of the ends of the city; there were five such ends), Ukhodansky (they represented the interests of the streets, there were many of them) and sotsk, representing the interests separate parts of the streets and back streets of the city, that is, honeycombs.
These honeycombs have nothing to do with hundreds, although some historians believe that this name is derived from the word “hundred”. Note, when we say “for the hundredth time,” we do not mean at all that something has been done 99 times before. The hundredth is an indefinitely large value. And the sotskys in Novgorod did not necessarily represent the interests of a whole hundred citizens, rather, some small part, which is smaller than the street.
One thing is clear: the labyrinth was cut down, apparently, with an ax. And Daedalus did not add this labyrinth, but got along. Ladil: this is indicated by the name of the master. Daedalus - gets along. Rook, a large boat for the river fleet, also got along, assembled from neatly fitted planks. Novgorodians called a lazy person a dexterous, intelligent, sensible, capable not only of doing something well, but also of negotiating and settling. Daedalus of “ancient” myths possessed such qualities. And when he could not agree with Minos about the release of his own and his son, he made an attempt to fly away. He himself successfully flew away. But the son burned out in the rays of the hot sun. That is, he rose to such a height that the sun melted the wax, which held the feathers of the wings together, and Icarus fell into the Mediterranean Sea. It was the hottest time of the year, as the legends say.
More precisely, can we calculate the date of the event? It turns out we can. According to many sources, the hottest time of the year for the Mediterranean is late June and July. According to the horoscope, this time is occupied by the zodiac sign Cancer. And the deceased "ancient" hero was called Icarus. This name is easy to form if you read the word from right to left. Moreover, he was named Icarus based on the results of the flight, after his death.
The famous hero of Russian epics, a hero, who was so strong that the earth was tired of dragging him, was named according to the same principle. The place where he found peace was called the Holy Mountains, or Svyatogor, and he himself was called Svyatogor. We do not know the real name of Svyatogor.
Another example. Although Pushkin in his story "Dubrovsky" called the rebellious village Kistenevka, such a name could have been given to it after the suppression of the riot, as a memory of this uprising, since the main weapon of the peasants was homemade brushes.
In Soviet times, this practice was used everywhere. Cities appeared in honor of revolutionaries, politicians, astronauts. These names did not always coincide with the names of the heroes. So the city on the Vyatka River was named Kirov, and the politician bore the name Kostrikov. Not sure if all graduates high school can correctly indicate this.
When there are few written sources, the exact facts are forgotten in the period of 15-30 years. This is what those who falsify history count on. We do not know what was the name of the builder of the structure, called a labyrinth in mythology, what was the name of his son, but we found the point where the forgery was committed.
We do not know exactly when this construction and this famous flight took place. But we are sure that it is not BC. This is an event of the Middle Ages. Why? But because the surge in astrological research and interest in horoscopes - the exact definition of an event taking into account the sun, moon and seven planets - occurs in the Middle Ages. Horoscopes, which are found in allegedly "ancient" Egypt, in temples and museums in Europe, were also created in the Middle Ages and indicate medieval dates.
Medieval scholars considered Daedalus's labyrinth to be the most complex ever created.
According to legend, Daedalus created this labyrinth to enclose the Minotaur in it.
Daedalus very cleverly used psychological factors of behavior that the probability of escape from the maze is practically zero.
If the passages of this labyrinth were a meter wide, and the walls were 30 centimeters thick, the only path leading from it would have a length of more than a kilometer. Most likely, anyone would be more likely to die of hunger or thirst before finding a way out.
During its long history, the Cretan labyrinth was destroyed and rebuilt several times, and in 1380 BC it was destroyed and abandoned completely, until the English archaeologist A. Evans discovered a mysterious hieroglyphic writing in the Oxford Museum. The letter spoke of an ancient labyrinth. In 1900, an archaeologist arrived in Crete and began excavations.
Arthur Evans has been excavating for almost 30 years and has unearthed not a city, but a palace equal in area to an entire city. This was the famous Knossos labyrinth, which was a structure with a total area of \u200b\u200b22 thousand square meters, which had at least 5-6 above-ground levels-floors connected by passages and stairs, and a number of underground crypts. The Cretan labyrinth was not an invention of the ancients, but a real miracle of architecture, in which there was something incomprehensible to the mind.
The labyrinth is a real Myth, it is a story about heroes and events that historical science does not recognize as real, but considers as symbols.
We believe that any myth, any image, any symbolic narrative is based on reality, even if not always historical. The myth accurately describes psychological reality: human experiences, mental processes and forms are hidden behind symbols that have been passed down from generation to generation and finally come down to us so that we can unravel them, remove the veil from them and see their innermost meaning again, realize their deep essence.
The myth of the Labyrinth is one of the most ancient, and, I dare say, it is similar to the myths of all ancient civilizations, saying that the labyrinth is a difficult and unclear path, on the complex and winding paths of which it is no wonder to get lost. Sometimes the story of this myth is interwoven with a story about an extraordinary person, about a hero or mythical character who overcomes the maze and finds the key to solving the riddle that appeared before him in the form of a path.
When we talk about labyrinths, we immediately recall the most famous of them, about which evidence has been preserved in Greek mythology - in a simple and accessible form, close to a children's fairy tale: the labyrinth of Crete. I do not want to talk about it as simplified as it is done in famous legends, we will open its deeper layers and analyze the archaeological finds made in Crete in order to understand what the Cretans worshiped and what the labyrinth really was for them. And we will see how this story takes on a complex symbolic form, and it will no longer seem so childish to us.
Knossos labyrinth
So, one of the ancient symbols of Crete, associated with its supreme deity, was a double-edged ax, which can be represented in the form of two pairs of horns, one of which is directed upward, the other downward. This ax was associated with the sacred bull, whose cult was widespread in Crete. She received the name Labrys and, according to an older tradition, served as a tool with which the god, who later received the name Ares-Dionysus from the Greeks, cut through the First Labyrinth.
Here is his story. When Ares-Dionysus, the god of primordial times, a very ancient god, descended to earth, nothing had yet been created, nothing had yet taken shape, there was only darkness, darkness. But, according to legend, from heaven Ares-Dionysus was given a tool, Labrys, and it was with this tool, with this weapon that he created the world.
Daedalus Labyrinth
Ares-Dionysus began to walk in the middle of the darkness, circling around and around. (This is very curious, because modern science has discovered that when we find ourselves in the dark in an unfamiliar room or trying to get out of some spacious but unlit place, we most often start walking in circles; this also happens when we get lost or wander through the forest We made this comparison because from the very beginning we want to emphasize that the symbolism of the labyrinth is associated with certain atavisms inherent in man.)
And so Ares-Dionysus began to walk in a circle, cutting through the darkness and cutting furrows with his ax. The road that he cut, and which with every step became brighter, is called the "labyrinth", that is, "the path cut by Labrys."
When Ares-Dionysus, cutting through the darkness, reached the very center, to the goal of his path, he suddenly saw that he no longer had the ax that he had in the beginning. His ax turned into pure light - he held in his hands a flame, fire, a torch that brightly illuminated everything around, for God performed a double miracle: with one edge of the ax he cut the darkness outside, and with the other - his inner darkness. In the same way that he created light outside, he created light in himself; just as he cut the outer path, he also cut the inner path. And when Ares-Dionysus reached the center of the labyrinth, he reached the end point of his path: he reached the light, reached inner perfection.
This is the symbolism of the Cretan myth of the labyrinth, the oldest that has come down to us. We know the later traditions much better.
The most famous of them is the myth of the mysterious labyrinth created by Daedalus, an amazing architect and inventor from ancient Crete, whose name is now always associated with a labyrinth, a tangled path.
The name Daedalus, or Dactyl, as he is sometimes called, in the ancient Greek language means "He who creates", "He who works with his hands builds." Daedalus is a symbol of the builder, but not just the creator of the complex of parks and palaces, which was the labyrinth of King Minos, but the builder in a deeper sense of the word, possibly similar to the symbolism of the very first deity who built the Labyrinth of Light in the darkness.
Daedalus's Labyrinth was neither an underground structure, nor something dark and winding; it was a huge complex of houses, palaces and parks, conceived so that those who entered it could not find a way out. The point is not that Daedalus's labyrinth was terrible, but that it was impossible to get out of it.
Daedalus built this labyrinth for the Cretan king Minos, an almost legendary character, whose name allows us to get acquainted with very ancient legends of all peoples of that era.
Minos lived in a fairytale palace, and he had a wife Pasiphae, because of whom the whole drama associated with the labyrinth was played out.
Wanting to become king, Minos counted on the help of another powerful god, the ruler of the waters and oceans, Poseidon. In order for Minos to feel his support, Poseidon performed a miracle: from the waters and sea foam, he created a white bull and presented it to Minos as a sign that he really is the king of Crete.
However, as the Greek myth says, it so happened that the wife of Minos fell hopelessly in love with a white bull, dreamed only about him and only wanted him. Not knowing how to approach him, she asked Daedalus, the great builder, to build a huge bronze cow, beautiful and attractive, so that the bull would feel attracted, while Pasiphae would hide inside her.
And now a real tragedy is played out: Daedalus creates a cow, Pasiphae hides in it, the bull approaches the cow, and from this strange union of a woman and a bull, a half bull, half a man appears - the Minotaur. This monster, this monster, settled in the center of the labyrinth, which at the same moment turned from a complex of parks and palaces into a gloomy place inspiring fear and sadness, into an eternal reminder of the misfortune of the king of Crete.
Some ancient legends, in addition to the Cretan ones, have retained a less simplified interpretation of the tragedy of Pasiphae and the White Bull.
For example, in the legends of pre-Columbian America and India there are mentions that millions of years ago, at a certain stage of human evolution, people went astray and mixed with animals, and because of this perversion and violation of the laws of nature, real monsters appeared on earth. hybrids that are difficult to even describe. They instilled fear not only because they possessed, like the Minotaur, an evil disposition; they had the stamp of shame from an alliance that should never have taken place, from a secret that should not have been revealed until all these events were erased from the memory of mankind.
So, Pasiphae's connection with the Bull and the birth of the Minotaur is related to ancient races and to those long-standing events that at a certain moment were erased from the memory of people.
On the other hand, the monster, the Minotaur, is a blind, amorphous matter without reason and purpose, which hides in the center of the labyrinth, waiting for sacrifices from its benefactor.
Years go by, the legend continues, and the Minotaur in his labyrinth really turns into something terrifying. The king of Crete, having defeated the Athenians in the war, imposes a terrible tribute on them: every nine years, they must send seven young men and seven innocent girls to sacrifice to the Minotaur. When the time comes for the payment of the third tribute, in Athens, a hero with all the virtues, Theseus, rises against this. He makes a promise to himself not to take over the rule of the city until he frees him from adversity, until he kills the Minotaur.
Theseus himself enters into the number of young men who must become victims of the monster, goes to Crete, captivates the heart of Ariadne, daughter of Minos, and seeks that she give him a ball of thread with which he can pass through the maze and then, after killing the Minotaur, find from his way out. The ball played an important role in this story. Theseus enters the labyrinth and, penetrating deeper and deeper into its complex and intricate corridors, unwinds the thread. Having reached the center, thanks to his colossal strength and will, he kills the Minotaur and finds a way out.
In simple and naive stories, Theseus kills the Minotaur with a sword, sometimes with a dagger. But in the most ancient stories, as well as in the images on ancient Attic vases, Theseus kills the Minotaur with a double-bladed ax. And again the hero, who made his way in the maze, reaching the center, performs a miracle with the help of Labrys, a double ax.
We have to solve one more riddle: Ariadne gives Theseus not a ball, but a spindle with threads. And, penetrating into the depths of the labyrinth, Theseus unwinds just him. But the hero returns to the exit, picking up the thread and unwinding it again, and from the labyrinth he brings out a really ball - a perfectly round ball. This symbol is also not new. The spindle with which Theseus goes into the labyrinth symbolizes the imperfection of his inner world, which he must "unfold", that is, pass a series of tests. The ball that he creates by picking up the thread is the perfection that he achieved by putting the Minotaur to death, which means that he passed the tests and left the labyrinth.
There were many labyrinths, as well as Theseus. They also exist in Spain. All along the way to Santiago de Compostella and throughout Galicia there are an infinite number of ancient images of labyrinths on stone, which call the pilgrim to set foot on the path to Santiago and walk this road, and they directly indicate to us that in their symbolic and spiritual meaning this the path is a maze.
In England, in the famous castle Tintagel, where, according to legend, King Arthur was born, also has its own labyrinths.
We also meet them in India, where they were a symbol of reflection, concentration, appeal to the true center.
In ancient Egypt, in the most ancient city of Abydos, founded almost in the pre-dynastic period, there was a labyrinth, which was a round temple. In its galleries, ceremonies were held dedicated to time, evolution, and the endless paths that a person traveled before reaching the center, which meant meeting with a true person.
According to the history of Egypt, the labyrinth from Abydos was, apparently, only a very small part of the huge labyrinth described by Herodotus, who considered the Egyptian labyrinth so colossal, amazing and unimaginable that even the Great Pyramid fades next to it.
Today we can no longer see this labyrinth, we only have the testimony of Herodotus. For many centuries, for the peculiarities of his presentation, people called him the father of history, Herodotus the truthful and gave many more similar names, but when not all of his descriptions were confirmed, we naturally decided that Herodotus was not always confident in his words. On the other hand, modern science has confirmed the truth of so many of his descriptions that it might be worthwhile to be patient and wait - suddenly archaeologists will discover the labyrinth about which the Greek historian wrote.
There were also many labyrinths in the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages. One of the most famous, the images of which are quite common, is the labyrinth laid out on the stone floor of the main cathedral in Chartres. It was created not so that someone would get lost in it, but in order to be followed: it was a kind of path of initiation, a path of accomplishment and a path of achievement that had to be overcome by a candidate, a disciple, one who aspired to be accepted in the Mystery.
Indeed, getting lost in the labyrinth of Chartres is extremely difficult: all its roads are exclusively symbolic, all the turns and crossroads are visible. The most important thing here is to reach the center, a square stone, on which the various constellations are marked with nails. For a person, this allegorically means to reach Heaven and become on a par with the deities.
It is very likely that all such myths of antiquity and all the symbolic labyrinths of Gothic cathedrals reflect not so much historical reality as psychological. And the psychological reality of the labyrinth is still alive today. If in ancient times they talked about the initiatory labyrinth as a path through which a person could realize himself, today we must talk about the material and psychological labyrinth.
It is not difficult to see the material labyrinth: the world around us, what we face in life, how we live and how we manifest ourselves, are all part of one labyrinth. The difficulty lies elsewhere: those who entered the Cretan parks and palaces did not even suspect that they had entered the labyrinth; so, in our daily life, we do not realize that we are in a labyrinth that draws a person into itself.
From a psychological point of view, the confusion of Theseus, who wanted to kill the Minotaur, is of the same nature as the confusion of a man who is confused and frightened.
We are scared because we do not know something and do not know how; frightened because we don't understand something and because of this we feel insecure. Our fear usually manifests itself in the fact that we cannot choose, we do not know where to go, what to devote our lives to; it manifests itself in the eternal ordinariness and mediocrity, exhausting and sad: we are ready for anything, just not to make decisions and not show even a little firmness.
Confusion is another disease that haunts us in the modern labyrinth on the psychological plane. This confusion arises from the fact that it is very difficult for us to decide who we are, where we came from and where we are going. These three questions are the main reason for our confusion, although they are so simple and unsophisticated that they seem childish to us. Is there any meaning in our life other than being constantly at a loss? What are we working for and what are we learning for? Why do we live and what is happiness? What are we aiming for? What is suffering and how do you recognize it?
From a psychological point of view, we are still wandering in the labyrinth, and although there are no monsters and narrow corridors in it, traps constantly lie in wait for us.
And of course it is the myth that offers us the solution. Theseus does not enter the labyrinth empty-handed, and it would be strange if we were empty-handed looking for a way out of it. Theseus takes two items with him: an ax (or a sword - whichever you prefer) to kill the monster, and a spindle with thread, his ball to find the way back.
