The roofs of all these are of stone, as also are the walls; but
the walls are full of sculptured figures. Each court is surrounded
with a colonnade of white stone, closely fitted.'[*] Herodotus
believed that the building belonged to the time of Psamtek I.,
in which, of course, he was ludicrously far astray, but otherwise
there seems no reason to question that his description actually
represents what he saw, though no doubt his lively mind somewhat
multiplied the number of the rooms.
[Footnote *: Herodotus II. 148.]
Pliny the elder, judging from his description, evidently saw much
the same thing at Hawara as Herodotus had seen, though time must
have somewhat diminished the splendour of the building. Now, to
this temple there was already applied in the time of Herodotus the
name Labyrinth. It used to be believed that the Hawara Labyrinth
gave its name to the Cretan one, and an Egyptian etymology was
arranged for the word 'labyrinth,' according to which it would
have meant 'the temple at the mouth of the canal.' The Egyptian
form of the title, however, is 'a mere figment of the philological
imagination.' Probably originality lies in the other direction.
The first palace at Knossos dates from a period certainly as early
as, probably somewhat earlier than, the Hawara temple; and since
the derivation of the word 'labyrinth' from the Labrys or Double
Axe, making the palace the House or Place of the Double Axe, seems
quite satisfactory, the Egyptian Labyrinth in all likelihood derived
its name from the House of Minos at Knossos.
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