Secret_History

Chapter 8: The Culture of Stones 291
labyrinth which was built to house a monster, we naturally wonder just what is
going on here? We also note that the victims of King Minos of Crete were
“Athenians”, and we remember what Plato said about the war between Atlantis
and “Athens”, even if we don’t put any stock in it actually being the Athens we
know today.
According to the myth, the labyrinth was built for one reason only: to hide the
Minotaur, which was a source of horror and shame to Minos, whose wife had
given birth to the monster after mating with a bull. This really doesn’t follow logic
since the victims were rounded up in public, and everyone apparently knew about
the Minotaur.
In South Africa, a popular Zulu game is played where a maze is drawn on the
ground, and the players take turns “finding the way to the king’s hut” which is at
the center. The game is played with toys carved in the shape of bulls. It seems that,
thousands of miles from Crete, the same elements of the legend are played out
from time immemorial: kingship, bulls, and conflict at the center of a labyrinth.
Excavations at Knossos have indeed uncovered evidence of a bull cult practiced
in a maze like “palace” of hundreds of chambers and corridors. There were
innumerable images of bulls in bas-reliefs, small sculptures, bull-shaped vessels,
seals and imprints of seals, as well as stylized bulls’ horns. All of these things
linking the dynasty of Minos with bulls suggested that the vitality of the Minoan
kings, like that of the pharaohs of ancient Egypt, was identified with the bull-god.
What is more, ancient Greek writers came right out and said that the labyrinth of
Minos was modeled on an original in northern Egypt. Very little survives of this
Egyptian marvel except for a few brick courses. What Herodotus had to say about
it is rather fascinating:
Being set free after the reign of the priest of Hephaistos, the Egyptians, since they
could not live any time without a king, set up over them twelve kings, having
divided all Egypt into twelve parts. These made intermarriages with one another
and reigned, making agreement that they would not put down one another by force,
nor seek to get an advantage over one another, but would live in perfect friendship:
and the reason why they made these agreements, guarding them very strongly from
violation, was this, namely that an oracle had been given to them at first when they
began to exercise their rule, that he of them who should pour a libation with a
bronze cup in the temple of Hephaistos, should be king of all Egypt (for they used
to assemble together in all the temples).
Moreover they resolved to join all together and leave a memorial of themselves;
and having so resolved they caused to be made a labyrinth situated a little above the
lake of Moeris and nearly opposite to that which is called the City of Crocodiles.
This I saw myself, and I found it greater than words can say. For if one should put
together and reckon up all the buildings and all the great works produced by the
Hellenes, they would prove to be inferior in labour and expense to this labyrinth,
though it is true that both the temple at Ephesos and that at Samos are works
worthy of note.
The pyramids also were greater than words can say, and each one of them is equal
to many works of the Hellenes, great as they may be; but the labyrinth surpasses
even the pyramids. It has twelve courts covered in, with gates facing one another,
six upon the North side and six upon the South, joining on one to another, and the
same wall surrounds them all outside; and there are in it two kinds of chambers, the