Zeus : a study in ancient religion - Warburg Institute

6oo The double axe and the Labyrinth
{6) The double axe and the Labyrinth.
M. Mayer' was the first to suggest that the word Lnbyrinthos,
the ' Labyrinth,' should be brought into the same connexion and so
taken to denote '
the place of the Double Axe.' A few years later a
similar view was expressed independently by P. Kretschmer^ And
this opinion, despite certain doubts and difficulties*, has won its way
to almost universal acceptance*. I share in the general conviction,
and am here concerned merely to emphasise two aspects of the
central fact.
One is this. The Cretan Labyrinthos is the equivalent of the
Carian Labrdynda, Ldbranda both in point of its main formative
element {Idbrys) and in point of its suffix {nth = 7idY. If, therefore,
we were right in thinking that Ldbranda was called 'the place of
the Double Axe' because repeatedly struck by lightning'', we must
give a like explanation of Labyrinthos. The place where the light-
ning fell in the form of the sky-god's axe would be deemed specially
sacred to the sky-god. And mimetic dances in his honour provide
the requisite transition from Labyrinthos, 'the place of the Double
Axe,' to the classical Labyrinth, a dancing-ground made by Daidalos
' M. Mayer in \ht Jahrh. d. kais. deutsch. arch. Inst. 1892 vii. 191 (Xa^vpivBo^ is for
*\a^pvvdws, a possible adjectival form of Xd/3pus).
^ P. Kietschmer Einleitung in die Geschichte der Gricchischen Sprache Gottingen 1896
p. 404 (Aa/Siypfc^os is a Cretan corruption of the Carian Aa^pavvdoi or its alternative form
Aa/SpaiiwSoj).
* See the objections summarised by Gruppe Myth. Lit. 1908 p. 266. E.g. G. de
Sanctis in the Kivista di fllologia 1902 xxx. 100 f. observes that the double axe is repre-
sented in other structures (Phaistos) of the Cretan civilisation beside the palace at Knossos ;
why then should this alone have been termed 'the House of the Double Axe'? And
W. H. D. Rouse in the J^ourn. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 274 notes ' the metathesis of u which
is unexampled.' E. Assmann too in Philologus 1908 Ixvii. 190 f. complains of 'Der Ein-
schub, die Epenthese eines i; zwischen ^ und p.' (But have we not an analogous case in
laburmim ? The ancients may have fancied a resemblance to the Xd^pvs in its flowers.
Cp. p^XeKvs supra p. 588 n. o.
* It has commended itself not only to archaeologists such as Sir A. J. Evans in the
Journ. Hell. Stud. 1901 xxi. 109, H. R. Hall The Oldest Civilization of Greece London
1901 p. 294 n. I, id. The Ancient History of the Near East London 1913 p. 53 n. 6, id.
ALgean ArchcEology London 1915 p. 152, R. Dussaud Les civilisations pr