Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 14.djvu/192

180 LABYRINTH

older writers, placed beside Cnossus, and is figured on coins of that city. Late writers, such as Claudian, represent it as being beside Gortyna, and there is a wonderful set of winding passages and chambers in the rocks near that place, which is still pointed out as the labyrinth. When the name had once acquired this meaning, it was applied to several real buildings, of which the following are the most famous. 1. The Egyptian labyrinth, beside the town of Arsinoe or Crocodilopolis, was in two stories, one of them underground, and contained three thousand rooms. Strabo thinks it was built as a common place of meeting for the people of the various nomes; Herodotus and Diodorus say that it was the burial place of the twelve kings who ruled Egypt about 700 B.C. Müller (Hist. Greek Art, § 50-2) also thinks the object of such buildings must have been sepulchral. 2. The Samian labyrinth was built by Theodorus, one of the Samian school of sculptors, for the tyrant Polycrates. It had a hundred and fifty columns, and Pliny says that some scanty remains of it existed in his time. 3. The Lemnian labyrinth, mentioned by Pliny, seems to be a confusion with the Samian (cf. Pliny, xxxvi. 19, 3 with 83). 4. The Italian labyrinth was a series of chambers in the lower part of the grave of Porsenna at Clusium. Some maintain that this tomb has been found in the mound named Poggio Gajella near Chiusi.

See Herod. ii. 148; Str. p. 811; Plin. xxxvi. 13 and 19 ; Müller, Etrusker; Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria; Hoek, Kreta. Cockerell (Travels), and Prokesch (Denkwurdigkeiten) describe the so-called labyrinth of Gortyna.

II. In gardening, a labyrinth or maze means an intricate network of pathways enclosed by hedges or plantations, so that those who enter become bewildered in their efforts to find the centre or make their exit. It is a remnant of the old geometrical style of gardening, but is yet occasionally introduced into pleasure grounds. There are two methods of forming it. That which is perhaps the more common consists of walks, or alleys as they were formerly called, laid out and kept to an equal width or nearly so by parallel hedges, which should be kept so close and thick that the eye cannot readily penetrate through them. The task is to get to the centre, which is often raised, and generally contains a covered seat, a fountain, a statue, or even a small group of trees. After reaching this point the next thing is to return to the entrance, when it is found that egress is as difficult as ingress. To every design of this sort there should be a key, but even those who know the key are apt to be perplexed. Sometimes the design consists of alleys only, as in fig. 1, published in 1706 by London and Wise. In such a case, when the further end is reached, there only remains to travel back again. Of a more pretentious character was a design published by Switzer in 1742. This is of octagonal form, with very numerous parallel hedges and paths, and "six different entrances, whereof there is but one that leads to the centre, and that is attended with some difficulties and a great many stops." Some of the older designs for labyrinths, on the other hand, avoid this close parallelism of the alleys, which, though equally involved and intricate in their windings, are carried through blocks of thick planting, as shown in fig. 2, from a design published in 1728 by Batty Langley. These blocks of shrubbery have been called wildernesses. To this latter class belongs the celebrated labyrinth at Versailles (fig. 3), of which Switzer observes, that it "is allowed by all to be the noblest of its kind in the world."

Fig. 1. – Labyrinth of London and Wise. Fig. 2. – Labyrinth of Batty Langley. Fig. 3. – Labyrinth at Versailles.