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Labyrinth discovered in Crete

20 October 2009 / 10:10:41  GRReporter
8007 reads

A team of British and Greek scientists most likely found the place, which has inspired the history of the ancient labyrinth. The labyrinth is probably in a cave near to Gortina in Crete.

For one week the scientists were describing everything in the cave in detail – it is deep, with long rambling corridors, some of which lead to halls and others have a dead end, says a Discovery article.

Oxford University geographer Nicolas Howard and his colleagues describe the cave as “dark and dangerous”. “It is impossible to say whether the cave in Gortina, which is famous among the locals as the Labyrinth Cave, is actually the mythic Labyrinth designed by Daedal, says Mr. Howard, leader of the expedition.

“We are talking about an ancient cave, which does not have a creation date, because no diggings were ever made there. It is believed that is dates from the Roman Era but it can also date from the Minoan Era,” notes speleologist Nikos Leloudas for Ta Nea newspaper.

In many ancient cultures, including the Greek one, people have believed that bulls are sacred animals. The cult towards those animals was all over the world and we can see it even in some Christian scenes – a bull sitting right next to Jesus as a child and some Christmas songs mention that a bull was keeping baby Jesus warn with his breath. So it is not strange that bulls have inspired the creation of the ancient Minotaur – creature with head of a bull and a human body. Most probable he was living in the middle of the labyrinth. The scientists believe that probably the governors of the city have locked a bull in the middle of the cave, imprison boys and girls inside and whoever survived – survived…

Tags: Minotaur myth Labyrinth cave in Crete
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