From: Gerry Reinhart-Waller
Message: 1879
Date: 2000-03-16
> John wrote:Gerry here: I also thought the word labyrinth was from Gk labrys =
>
> > I was of the belief that labyrinth comes from the labyris - the
> double axe, that was found throughout the Aegean,<
>
>Sabine wrote: Well, as far as I know this notion has been given up years ago, although I
> never understood neither the necessary connection of 'labrys' (said to be
> the Lycian word for double-axe in a Greek text from much later) with the
> labyrinth nor the other standpoint that said it couldn't be connected for
> linguistic reasons (is anybody able to explain why?).
> The connection may well have been the other way round: 'labrys' for
> double-axe left over from times where chthonic rituals in
> underground-temples (from Crete? from the Pelasgian Aegean?or from an ever
> larger background?) known as labyrinths.
> I don't see any reason for a >linguistic and ethnic divide between northernGerry here: Back to the idea of *both* again. Cannot Pelasgian be
> and southern Aegean<, so I can't follow this argument. From all I know about
> 'Pelasgian' it was attributed to the whole eastern Mediterranean (including
> Crete) - placenames seem to show that fact. And the belief that the
> labyrinth was spread (or even originated) from Crete relies mainly on the
> widespread trading connections the Minoans and Myceneans had that are seen
> as the only possible means of spreading a symbol like the labyrinth as far
> as Ireland (even more interesting when taking into account that there is a
> myth from Ireland saying some of their oldest forbears, the Milesians, had
> come from Crete - from our village still bearing the telltale name
> 'Milatos', by the way also said to have founded Miletus in western
> Anatolia - :-))
> But if you ask me what I think, John, I don't even believe Crete is theGerry: Yes, I agree that the Minoans were perhaps the best known folks
> 'Pelasgian Urheimat' (but certainly the most important place of use in terms
> of cultural connections). I see the Pelasgian culture as 'sitting' on all
> the coasts of the Aegean (possibly from Neolithic times) and heavily
> influencing the later cultures and languages of the same area - or even
> plainly developing into them (because I don't see any reason that Pelasgian
> was not a (P)IE language). As we don't know enough about the Minoan Language
> (Linear A 'texts' - i.e. mainly accounts with hardly any grammar to be
> seen - fill just about as much as 4 A4 pages - not more!) to judge, we must
> wait for more archaeological proof.
> It is certainly true that the Minoans were the only people with systematic
> seafaring abilities who crossed the Mediterranean (and left their relics
> around), but I personally have the gut-feeling (nothing more!) that they
> were - linguistically - only the best known representatives (because of
> their seafaring) of a group of people(s?) living in the eastern Aegean. This
> gut-feeling I might still substantiate with some ideas (I believe not very
> relevant here, except from the one that Lin.A has been found - in two small
> proofs only! - in western Anatolia and Israel), but to say anything else
> would be pure speculation (or wishful thinking).
> The actual pattern of the so-called 'Cretan Labyrinth' is not even provedGerry: Here we come to spirals and meanders; the circle and the line; 0
> for Minoan times - they had only certain inconographic fore-runners as
> spirals and meanders said to have developed into the actual shape (this may
> or may not be true...), but certainly the 'idea' of labyrinth goes back to
> Minoan times and Pelasgian origins (or even those before???)