E. Cobham Brewer 1810–1897. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 1898.
Lab’yrinth.
A mass of buildings or garden - walks, so complicated as to puzzle strangers to extricate themselves. Said to be so called from Lab’yris, an Egyptian monarch of the 12th dynasty. The chief labyrinths are:—
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(1) The Egyptian, by Petesu’chis or Tithoes, near the Lake Mœris. It had 3,000 apartments, half of which were underground. (B.C. 1800.) Pliny, xxxvi. 13; and Pomponius Mela, i. 9.
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(2) The Cretan, by Dæ’dalos, for imprisoning the Mi’notaur. The only means of finding a way out of it was by help of a skein of thread. (See Virgil: Ænid, v.)
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(3) The Cretan conduit, which had 1,000 branches or turnings.
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(4) The Lem’nian, by the architects Zmilus, Rholus, and Theodrus. It had 150 columns, so nicely adjusted that a child could turn them. Vestiges of this labyrinth were still in existence in the time of Pliny.
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(5) The labyrinth of Clu’sium, made by Lars Por’sena, King of Etruria, for his tomb.
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(6) The Samian, by Theodo’rus (B.C. 540). Referred to by Pliny; by Herodotos, ii. 145; by Strabo, x.; and by Diodrus Siclus, i.
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(7) The labyrinth at Woodstock, by Henry II., for the Fair Rosamond.
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(8) Of mazes formed by hedges. The best known is that of Hampton Court.
id, v.)
rus. It had 150 columns, so nicely adjusted that a child could turn them. Vestiges of this labyrinth were still in existence in the time of Pliny.
lus, i.
