_The labyrinth of Crete._
LII. Pliny gives an account of four famous labyrinths, that of Egypt,
that of Crete, that of Lemnos, and that of Italy. The first was esteemed
the most compleat as well as the most ancient and magnificent. That of
Crete, although exceedingly inferior in grandeur to that of Egypt (for it
was only so diminutive an imitation of the Egyptian one, that, according
to the author before quoted, it was not a hundredth part so big), had
the lot to make more noise in the world than the eminent original. This,
without doubt, proceeded from the fanciful imaginations and loquacity
of the Greeks, who, as it was nearer their neighbourhood, talked more
of it than they did of the others; and, according to their genius and
custom, transformed the truth of some immaterial facts into portentous
fables: the amour of Pasiphaë with Taurus, for example, who according to
some was general of Minos’s army, and according to others his secretary,
they converted into a lascivious bestiality with a bull, and they
metamorphosed the first of the two sons that were the offspring of this
princess, who was begotten by the adulterer Taurus, into a monster,
which was half man and half ox, which they called a minotaur; for
whose confinement the labyrinth of Crete was destined, where, with the
threads of Ariadne, he was enjoined to weave in tapestry the adventures
of Theseus. I say, that these fictions, promulged to all the world by
the loquacity of the Greeks, made that labyrinth so famous and so much
talked of, that the name of it is familiar to people of the lowest class,
although they never mention, nor have the least idea of any other.
LIII. Notwithstanding this, it is probable, that such a labyrinth never
existed. The most learned prelate, Peter Daniel Huet, upon the faith
of some authors he quotes, whose testimony he enforces with probable
conjectures of his own, firmly denies that it ever was in being; and
says, the fiction was derived from two great winding caverns at the foot
of Mount Idas, which were made by king Minos in digging stones at that
place, wherewith to build the city of Cnoso, and other large towns. He
adds, that these caverns are still remaining, and that Peter Belonius,
a famous traveller of the sixteenth century, testifies his having seen
them. What Pliny says, is not unfavourable to this opinion, who declares,
that although in his time there remained vestigies of the labyrinth of
Egypt, which was the most antient, there were not the least traces to be
found of that of Crete.