Daedalus and his labyrinth - Interesting fact via expanses ← Hodor. Daedalus and his labyrinth - Interesting fact via expanses ← Hodor Where Daedalus built the labyrinth

Character Greek mythology. Famous inventor, engineer and artist. Built the Knossos Labyrinth on Crete for the king. The king settled there, the bull-headed offspring of his own wife Pasiphae, who became involved with a white bull. Previously, Daedalus had designed a wooden “cow” for Pasiphae, into which the queen climbed to seduce the bull. Daedalus is also credited with the invention of various tools.

Origin story

Daedalus is mentioned as a deity in Mycenaean texts. How actor- appears in satyr drama, mentions Daedalus in the Iliad. The hero also appears in Greek comedies, for example, in Aristophanes.

In ancient times, various buildings, inventions and designs were attributed to Daedalus, in addition to the famous labyrinth in Crete. This is the statue of the goddess on the island of Delos, the statue at Knossos, the wooden image in the Theban temple and other statues about which the Greek playwright wrote that they created the visual illusion of movement. Daedalus created several images of Hercules. According to legend, Hercules broke one of them himself, outraged by the excessive similarity.

Myths and legends

The biography of Daedalus begins in Athens. Daedalus comes from an old Athenian family. According to mythology, the goddess Athena herself taught the hero the skill. However, the inventor was expelled from the city for the murder he committed.

Daedalus had a talented nephew, Talos, whom the hero took as his student. However, Talos turned out to be such a good inventor that Daedalus sensed a potential rival in him. The proud Daedalus decided to get rid of Talos so that the young man would not over time take away from him the title of the best among engineers.

The hero lured the young man onto a mountain cliff and pushed him down from there. However, the goddess Athena did not let the young man die and helped Talos, albeit in a somewhat original way - she turned him into a partridge. Daedalus himself was forced to flee the city as a criminal.

The inventor went to Crete, where King Minos used Daedalus’ services in return for the shelter and protection provided for a long time. The master left beautiful works of art and engineering on Crete, for example, statues of King Minos and the royal daughters. But it also brought trouble.

King Minos had to sacrifice a white bull to the gods. This beast emerged from the sea by the will of Poseidon specifically so that Minos would slay it as a sacrifice. However, the king, enchanted by the beauty of the bull, took pity on the beast and left it in his own herd, and sacrificed another, ordinary bull to the gods. The angry one took revenge on the king. Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, became imbued with an unnatural passion for the white bull and wanted to lie with him.

To satisfy this desire, the queen used the services of Daedalus. The master made a wooden “cow” for her, hollow on the inside and with a hole, so that the queen could penetrate the cow, and the bull could penetrate the queen. To make the “bait” attractive to the bull, Daedalus upholstered the structure with freshly skinned cow hide, and to move it, he attached wheels.

The “cow” was rolled out into the meadow, and the queen climbed into it whenever she felt a craving for the bull. These entertainments resulted in the birth of a monstrous child - a man with a bull's head, who was named the Minotaur.

King Minos could not kill the newborn, fearing to offend Poseidon again, but wanted to hide the monster away. For this purpose, Daedalus built a labyrinth on Crete, taking the Egyptian one as a model. The Minotaur was thrown into this labyrinth, who lived there and ate human flesh. Criminals were thrown to the monster, and once every nine years a ship arrived from Athens, bringing tribute - fourteen Athenian girls and boys to be devoured by the Minotaur.

After the Athenian hero killed the Minotaur and freed his compatriots from a monstrous tribute, the labyrinth was empty. Theseus himself fled from Crete along with the daughter of Minos, and the angry king locked Daedalus and his son in the labyrinth.

So his own building became a prison for Daedalus. Such a life was burdensome for the master, and he decided to escape from captivity. Daedalus designed bird wings for himself and his son. The feathers on these wings were held together with wax, and it was necessary to fly carefully, not getting too close to the sun so that the wax would melt, and not falling too low to the water so that the wings would not get wet.

Daedalus and Icarus flew away from the Cretan labyrinth, but the young man died on the way when he flew over the sea. Icarus forgot his father's instructions and rose too high. The wax melted, the wings fell apart, and Icarus fell into the sea.

Later Greek authors interpret this part of the myth in a rationalistic manner. Allegedly, in the form of a story about wings, mythology captures the memory of how slanting sails were invented. According to this version, Daedalus and his son escaped from Crete on a ship with new, slanting sails.

This is a more advanced type of sails, with which you can use not only tailwinds, but side and head winds. Daedalus invented these sails, and before that the Greeks used exclusively straight sails. Icarus in this version drowned by simply falling overboard.

One way or another, Daedalus himself escaped and settled in Sicily. The vindictive Minos wanted to return Daedalus and for this he resorted to a trick. Minos's messengers announced throughout the Greek lands that the king had announced a "competition." Minos promised a generous reward to the one who could thread a thread through a twisted sea shell, so that the thread entered one end, passed one after another and came out at the other end. The Cretan king knew that only Daedalus could do this job and the master would make himself known.

The ruler who sheltered Daedalus was flattered by the promised reward, and the master, in gratitude for his help and hospitality, taught him how to complete Minos’ task. However, having completed the task, the Sicilian ruler did not receive a reward, but only provoked the anger of Minos, who demanded that Daedalus be handed over. The Sicilians did not want to part with Daedalus and came up with a trick. The ruler invited Minos to visit and invited him to the bathhouse, where the Cretan king was doused with boiling water.

Daedalus then moved to Sardinia, where he erected many buildings. There the master got married and took disciples.

Quotes

“The wax melted and flowed; and waves his bare arms

The young man, deprived of wings, cannot capture air.

The lips were accepted that the father was called for help,

The azure sea, which has since received its name from it.” (Ovid)

And for me - "The House of Asteria" by Borges.

House of Asteria.

Maria Mosquera Eastman

And the queen gave birth to a son, who was named Asterius.

Apollodorus. Library, III. 1

I know I have been accused of arrogance, and perhaps of hating people, and perhaps of insanity. These accusations (which I will pay for in due course) are ridiculous. It is true that I do not leave the house, but it is also true that its doors (the number of which is infinite) *1 are open day and night for people and animals. Let whoever wants to come in. Here you will not find either pampering luxury or the magnificent splendor of palaces, but only peace and solitude. And a house that has no equal in all the land. (Those who claim that there is a similar house in Egypt are lying.)

Even my detractors must admit that there is no furniture in the house. Another absurdity is that I, Asterius, am a prisoner. Repeat that there is not a single closed door, not a single lock? Besides, one day when it was getting dark I went outside; and if I returned before nightfall, it was because I was frightened by the faces of the common people - colorless and flat, like the palm of my hand. The sun had already set, but the inconsolable cries of the child and the pleading cries of the crowd meant that I was recognized. People prayed, ran away, fell to their knees, some climbed to the foot of the Temple of the Double Axe, others grabbed stones. Someone seems to have jumped into the sea. It’s not for nothing that my mother was a queen; I cannot mix with the mob, even if out of modesty I wanted to.

The point is that I am unique. I'm not interested in what one person can tell others; As a philosopher, I believe that nothing can be communicated through writing. These annoying and vulgar little things disgust my spirit, which is destined for great things; I could never remember the differences between one letter and another. A certain noble impatience is preventing me from learning to read. Sometimes I regret it - the days and nights are so long.

Of course, I have enough entertainment. Like a ram ready to fight, I rush through the stone galleries until I fall exhausted to the ground. I hide in the shadows near a pond or around a bend in the corridor and pretend that they are looking for me. I jumped from some rooftops and fell to my death. Sometimes I pretend to be asleep, lying with my eyes closed and breathing deeply (sometimes I actually fall asleep, and when I open my eyes, I see how the color of the day has changed). But most of all the games I like is playing another Asterius. I pretend that he came to visit me, and I show him the house. Extremely respectfully I tell him: “Let’s go back to that corner,” or: “Now let’s go to the other courtyard,” or: “I thought you would like this cornice,” or: “That’s a vat filled with sand,” or: “Now you’ll see how underground passage bifurcates." Sometimes I'm wrong, and then we both laugh happily.

Not only do I come up with these games, I also think about home. All parts of the house are repeated many times, one part is exactly like the other. There is not one pond, yard, watering hole, feeding trough, but there are fourteen (infinite number) feeding troughs, watering holes, courtyards, and ponds. The house is like the world, or rather, it is the world. However, when I get tired of the courtyards with a pond and the dusty galleries of gray stone, I go outside and look at the Temple of the Double Ax and the sea. I could not understand this until one night I dreamed that there were fourteen (an infinite number) of seas and temples. Everything is repeated many times, fourteen times, but two things in the world are unique: above is an incomprehensible sun; below - I, Asterius. Perhaps the stars and the sun and this huge house were created by me, but I am not sure of it.

Every nine years, nine people appear in the house so that I can rid them of evil. I hear their steps or voices in the depths of the stone galleries and joyfully run towards them. The whole procedure takes only a few minutes. They fall one after another, and I don’t even have time to get dirty with blood. Where they fall is where they stay, and their bodies help me distinguish this gallery from others. I don’t know who they are, but one of them, at his death hour, predicted to me that someday my liberator would come. Since then, loneliness has not bothered me, I know that my savior exists and in the end he will step on the dusty floor. If all the sounds in the world reached my ears, I would distinguish his steps. It would be nice if he took me somewhere with fewer galleries and fewer doors. What will my deliverer be like? - I ask myself. Will he be a bull or a man? Or maybe a bull with a human head? Or like me?

The morning sun played on the bronze sword. There was no more blood left on him.

Would you believe it, Ariadne? - Theseus said. - The Minotaur almost did not resist.

Medieval scientists considered Daedalus' labyrinth to be the most complex labyrinth ever created.
According to legend, Daedalus created this labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur in it.
Daedalus very cleverly used psychological factors of behavior that the probability of escaping from the labyrinth is practically zero.

If the passages of this labyrinth were a meter wide, and the walls were 30 centimeters thick, the only path leading out of it would be more than a kilometer long. Most likely, any person would rather die of hunger or thirst before finding a way out.

Arthur Evans carried out excavations for almost 30 years and unearthed not a city, but a palace equal in area to the entire city. This was the famous Knossos labyrinth, which was a structure with total area 22 thousand square meters, which had at least 5-6 above-ground levels-floors connected by passages and stairs, and a number of underground crypts. The Cretan labyrinth turned out to be not an invention of the ancients, but a real miracle of architecture, in which there was something incomprehensible to the mind.

The labyrinth is a real Myth, it is a story about heroes and events that historical science does not recognize as real, but considers as symbols.
We believe that at the heart of any myth, any image, any symbolic narrative lies reality, even if not always historical. Myth accurately describes psychological reality: human experiences, mental processes and forms are hidden behind symbols that have been passed down from generation to generation and have finally reached us so that we can unravel them, remove the veil from them and again see their innermost meaning, realize their deep essence.
The myth of the Labyrinth is one of the oldest, and, I dare say, it is similar to the myths of all ancient civilizations, which say that the labyrinth is a difficult and unclear path, on whose complex and winding paths it is easy to get lost. Sometimes the plot of this myth is woven into the story of an extraordinary person, a hero or a mythical character who overcomes a labyrinth and finds the key to solving a riddle that appears before him in the form of a path.

When we talk about labyrinths, we immediately recall the most famous of them, about which evidence has been preserved in Greek mythology - in a simple and accessible form, close to a children's fairy tale: the labyrinth of the island of Crete. I don't want to talk about it in the same simplified way as it is done in famous legends, we will discover its deeper layers and analyze the archaeological finds made in Crete in order to understand what the Cretans worshiped and what the labyrinth really was for them. And we will see how this story will take on a complex symbolic form, and it will no longer seem so childish to us.

Knossos Labyrinth
So, one of the ancient symbols of Crete, associated with its supreme deity, was a double-edged ax, which can be represented as two pairs of horns, one of which is directed upward, the other downward. This ax was associated with the sacred bull, the cult of which was widespread in Crete. It was called Labrys and, according to an older tradition, served as the instrument with which the god, who later received the name Ares-Dionysus from the Greeks, cut through the First Labyrinth.

Here's his story. When Ares-Dionysus, the god of primordial times, is very ancient god, descended to earth, nothing had yet been created, nothing had yet taken shape, there was only darkness, darkness. But, according to legend, Ares-Dionysus was given a weapon from heaven, Labrys, and it was with this tool, with this weapon, that he created the world.

Labyrinth of Daedalus
Ares-Dionysus began to walk in the middle of the darkness, describing circle after circle. (This is very interesting, because modern science has discovered that when we find ourselves in the dark in an unfamiliar room or trying to get out of some spacious but unlit place, we most often begin to walk in circles; the same happens when we get lost or wander through the forest We gave such a comparison because from the very beginning we want to emphasize that the symbolism of the labyrinth is associated with certain atavisms inherent in humans.)
And so Ares-Dionysus began to walk in a circle, cutting through the darkness and cutting furrows with his axe. The road that he cut, which became brighter with every step, is called the “labyrinth,” that is, “the path cut by Labrys.”

When Ares-Dionysus, cutting through the darkness, reached the very center, the goal of his path, he suddenly saw that he no longer had the ax that he had at the beginning. His ax turned into pure light - he held in his hands a flame, fire, a torch, which brightly illuminated everything around, for God performed a double miracle: with one edge of the ax he cut through the darkness outside, and with the other - his inner darkness. In the same way that he created light outside, he created light within himself; just as he cut the outer path, he cut the inner path. And when Ares-Dionysus reached the center of the labyrinth, he reached the end point of his path: he reached the light, achieved inner perfection.

This is the symbolism of the Cretan myth of the labyrinth, the oldest that has come down to us. We know later legends much better.
The most famous of them is the myth of the mysterious labyrinth created by Daedalus, an amazing architect and inventor from ancient Crete, whose name is now always associated with a labyrinth, a confusing path.
The name Daedalus, or Dactyl as it is sometimes called, in the ancient language of the Greeks means “He who creates,” “He who works with his hands, builds.” Daedalus is a symbol of a builder, but not just the creator of a complex of parks and palaces, which was the labyrinth of King Minos, but a builder in a deeper sense of the word, perhaps similar to the symbolism of the very first deity, who built the Labyrinth of Light in the darkness.
The Labyrinth of Daedalus was neither an underground structure nor something dark and twisting; This was huge complex houses, palaces and parks, designed in such a way that whoever entered it could not find a way out. The point is not that Daedalus's labyrinth was terrible, but that it was impossible to escape from it.
Daedalus built this labyrinth for the Cretan king Minos, an almost legendary character, whose name allows us to get acquainted with the very ancient traditions of all the peoples of that era.

Minos lived in fairytale palace, and he had a wife, Pasiphae, who caused all the drama surrounding the labyrinth.

Wanting to become a king, Minos counted on the help of another powerful god, the ruler of the waters and oceans, Poseidon. In order for Minos to feel his support, Poseidon performed a miracle: he created a white bull from the waters and sea foam and presented it to Minos as a sign that he really was the king of Crete.
However, as the Greek myth says, it so happened that the wife of Minos fell hopelessly in love with a white bull, dreamed only of him and desired only him. Not knowing how to approach him, she asked Daedalus, the great builder, to build a huge bronze cow, beautiful and attractive, so that the bull would feel attracted, while Pasiphae would hide inside her.
And then a real tragedy unfolds: Daedalus creates a cow, Pasiphae hides in it, the bull approaches the cow, and from this strange union of a woman and a bull, a half-bull, half-man appears - the Minotaur. This monster, this monster settled in the center of the labyrinth, which at the same moment turned from a complex of parks and palaces into a gloomy place inspiring fear and sadness, into an eternal reminder of the misfortune of the king of Crete.
Some ancient legends, in addition to the Cretan ones, preserved a less simplified interpretation of the tragedy of Pasiphae and the White Bull.

For example, in the legends of pre-Columbian America and India there are references to the fact that millions of years ago, at a certain stage of human evolution, people lost their way and mixed with animals, and because of this perversion and violation of the laws of nature, real monsters appeared on earth, hybrids that are difficult to even describe. They inspired fear not only because, like the Minotaur, they had an evil disposition; they bore the mark of shame from a union that should never have taken place, from a secret that should not have been revealed until all these events were erased from the memory of mankind.

So, the connection of Pasiphae with the Bull and the birth of the Minotaur is related to the ancient races and to those ancient events that at a certain moment were erased from people’s memory.
On the other hand, the monster, the Minotaur, is a blind, amorphous matter without reason or purpose, which lurks in the center of the labyrinth, awaiting victims from its benefactor.
Years pass, the legend continues, and the Minotaur in his labyrinth truly turns into something terrifying. The king of Crete, having defeated the Athenians in the war, imposes a terrible tribute on them: every nine years they must send seven young men and seven innocent girls as sacrifices to the Minotaur. When the deadline for paying the third tribute comes, a hero with all the virtues, Theseus, rebels against it in Athens. He makes a promise to himself not to accept rule of the city until he frees it from the scourge, until he kills the Minotaur.
Theseus himself enlists among the young men who are to become victims of the monster, goes to Crete, captivates the heart of Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, and gets her to give him a ball of thread with which he can pass through the labyrinth and then, having killed the Minotaur, find the his way out. The ball played a very important role in this story. Theseus enters the labyrinth and, penetrating further into its complex and intricate corridors, unwinds the thread. Having reached the center, thanks to his colossal strength and will, he kills the Minotaur and finds a way out.

In simple and naive stories, Theseus kills the Minotaur with a sword, sometimes with a dagger. But in the most ancient narratives, as well as in images on ancient Attic vases, Theseus kills the Minotaur with a double-bladed axe. And again the hero, having made his way through the labyrinth, having reached the center, performs a miracle with the help of Labrys, a double axe.

We have to solve one more riddle: Ariadne gives Theseus not a ball, but a spindle with threads. And, penetrating into the depths of the labyrinth, Theseus unwinds it. But the hero returns to the exit, picking up the thread and winding it again, and from the labyrinth he actually takes out a ball - a perfectly round ball. This symbol also cannot be called new. The spindle with which Theseus goes into the labyrinth symbolizes the imperfection of his inner world, which he must “unfold,” that is, pass a series of tests. The ball that he creates by picking up the thread is the perfection that he achieved by putting the Minotaur to death, which means passing the tests and emerging from the labyrinth.

There were many labyrinths, just like Theseus. They are also available in Spain. Along the entire path to Santiago de Compostella and throughout Galicia, there are an infinite number of ancient images of labyrinths on stone that invite the pilgrim to take the path to Santiago and walk this road, and they directly indicate to us that in their symbolic and spiritual meaning this the path is a labyrinth.

In England, in famous castle Tintagel, where, according to legend, King Arthur was born, also has its own labyrinths.
We also find them in India, where they were a symbol of reflection, concentration, and turning to the true center.
IN Ancient Egypt In the ancient city of Abydos, founded almost in the predynastic period, there was a labyrinth, which was a round temple. In its galleries, ceremonies were held to commemorate time, evolution, and the endless roads that man traveled before reaching the center, which meant meeting the true man.
According to the history of Egypt, the labyrinth of Abydos was, apparently, only a very small part of the huge labyrinth described by Herodotus, who considered the Egyptian labyrinth so colossal, amazing and unimaginable that even Great Pyramid.
Today we can no longer see this labyrinth; we only have the testimony of Herodotus. For many centuries, for the peculiarities of his presentation, people called him the father of history, Herodotus the truthful, and gave many more similar names, but when not all of his descriptions were confirmed, we naturally decided that Herodotus was not always confident in his words. On the other hand, modern science has confirmed the truth of so many of its descriptions that it is probably worth being patient and waiting - suddenly archaeologists will discover the labyrinth that the Greek historian wrote about.
There were many labyrinths in the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages. One of the most famous, images of which are quite common, is the labyrinth laid out on the stone floor of the main cathedral in Chartres. It was created not for anyone to get lost in it, but for it to be followed: it was a kind of path of initiation, a path of accomplishment and a path of achievement that the candidate, the student, the one who aspired to be had to overcome. accepted into the Mysteries.
Indeed, it is extremely difficult to get lost in the labyrinth of Chartres: all its roads are purely symbolic, all turns and crossroads are visible. The most important thing here is to reach the center, a square stone on which the various constellations are marked with nails. For a person, this allegorically means to reach Heaven and become on a par with the deities.
It is very likely that all such myths of antiquity and all the symbolic labyrinths of Gothic cathedrals reflect not so much historical reality as psychological reality. And the psychological reality of the labyrinth is still alive today. If in ancient times they spoke of the initiatory labyrinth as a path through which a person could realize himself, today we must talk about a material and psychological labyrinth.

It is not difficult to see the material labyrinth: the world around us, what we encounter in life, how we live and how we express ourselves - all this is part of one labyrinth. The difficulty is different: those who found themselves in Cretan parks and palaces did not even suspect that they had entered a labyrinth; so in our daily life we do not realize that we are in a labyrinth that draws a person into itself.

From a psychological point of view, the confusion of Theseus, who longed to kill the Minotaur, is of the same nature as the confusion of a person who is confused and afraid.
We are afraid because we don’t know something and we can’t do it; we are afraid because we don’t understand something and because of this we feel insecure. Our fear usually manifests itself in the fact that we cannot choose, we do not know where to go, what to devote our lives to; it manifests itself in eternal routine and mediocrity, exhausting and sad: we are ready to do anything, just not to make a decision and not show at least a little firmness.
Confusion is another disease that haunts us in the modern labyrinth on the psychological plane. This confusion arises because it is very difficult for us to decide who we are, where we came from and where we are going. These three questions are the main reason for our confusion, although they are so simple and ingenuous that they seem childish to us. Is there any meaning in our lives other than constant confusion? Why do we work and why do we study? Why do we live and what is happiness? What are we aiming for? What is suffering and how to recognize it?
From a psychological point of view, we are still wandering in a labyrinth, and although there are no monsters or narrow corridors in it, traps constantly await us.
And of course it is the myth that offers us the solution. Theseus does not enter the labyrinth empty-handed, and it would be strange if we were to look for a way out of it empty-handed. Theseus takes two objects with him: an ax (or a sword - as you prefer) to kill the monster, and a spindle with thread, his ball, to find his way back.

Today they are increasingly talking about large-scale distortions of world history, and more and more facts are being presented to confirm this. Not only documents are distorted true history, but also myths. We will now try to find traces of such distortion.

We are assured that from deep antiquity the legends about the labyrinth, about Daedalus and Icarus have reached us. But if you open modern books with legends Ancient Greece And Ancient Rome and compare them with texts from books 50 years ago, you will see not only new facts about past legends, but also new words that were not in legends and myths 50 years ago. And this applies not only to the Russian language, but also to many others.

For example, in the dictionaries of foreign words of the Soviet era it is said that in ancient times in Egypt and Greece, labyrinths were considered buildings with complex, confusing passages, from which it was difficult to find a way out. It was noted that according to legend, a huge labyrinth was built by Daedalus for the king of the island of Crete, Minos. Many publications present a bas-relief (drawing, photograph or sketch) supposedly from the second century BC, in the bas-relief the master Daedalus is finishing the wings for himself, and his son Icarus has already put on his wings and is ready for his only flight, which will bring him posthumous glory. The bas-reliefs of the captives of King Minos seem to protrude from brick wall. If they are inside a maze, then the maze is made of brick. What is the labyrinth in Crete made of?

Daedalus is considered the founder of carpentry; he invented the plane, plumb line, glue and other tools and devices for working with wood. He came to the island of Crete to King Minos as a woodworker, why did the king use him for other purposes and force him to make a labyrinth either from brick or stone.

The labyrinth is usually depicted as a complex system of spiral lines or a combination of circles and squares with radii and segments. And if we talk about literary sources, they mention five “great labyrinths”: the Egyptian one under the island of Moeris in Fayum, in Knossos and in the city of Gortyna on the island of Crete, on the island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea and the Etruscan labyrinth in Clusia (Italy).

Allegedly, ancient writers were convinced that the master Daedalus built a labyrinth on the island. Crete, modeled on the Egyptian one, located in the mortuary temple of Pharaoh Amenemhat III (XII dynasty, late 19th century BC; its remains were discovered in the Fayum region).

Ovid in the poem “Metamorphoses” gives a description of the palace of King Minos on the island. Crete:

Daedalus, famous for his talent in the art of construction,
The building was erected; confused the icons and eyes into a delusion
He brought it in through the crookedness, through the nooks and crannies of all sorts of passages...
A network of paths without number; he will return himself
I could hardly have gone to the exit: the building was so confused!

The ancient Roman poet compared the layout of the palace with the winding course of the Meander River.

In modern books and reference books you can find a lot of interesting facts about labyrinths, their connection with the sky and space, their sacredness, their special aura, and so on. A new encyclopedic dictionary of fine arts notes that images of the labyrinth in Crete can be seen on ancient coins. And the English archaeologist A. Evans, who carried out excavations on the island since 1900. Crete, discovered the ruins of the palace at Knossos, in particular Big hall, whose columns are covered with images of a double-sided axe, identified the palace with the legendary labyrinth (“House of the Axe” in Greek Labrys). This etymology is considered "unreliable", but the intricate layout of the Palace of Knossos is associated with the legend of the Minotaur.

That is, we are advised to take into account that the labyrinth was built for the Minotaur, a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull.

Who is the Minotaur in “antiquity”? This is the product of his wife Pasiphae and a sea bull sent by the god Poseidon. The monster, as it turned out, was a cannibal, the king pleased him in everything and supplied beautiful young men and women to kill and eat. This means that the labyrinth should not be a prison for him, but a comfortable home. And what material is used to achieve high level comfort? Of course, a tree. Even today, being inside brick, panel or monolithic residential buildings, we strive to surround ourselves with wood as the most environmentally friendly material.

And Daedalus is a wood specialist, which means his labyrinth must be made of wood. But all sources claim that the labyrinth was made of stone.

What does the word itself say? What is the opinion of etymologists? The School Etymology Dictionary notes that the word Labyrinthos refers to the Greek language and ancient Aegean culture. The Internet provides a wide range of possibilities, but they all agree that the Latin Labyrinthus, from the Greek Labyrinthos, possibly from the pre-Indo-European Labr - “stone”. That's it. But here's the problem. I did not find Labr in any dictionary, reference book or lexicon from 30 years ago, neither in Russian, nor in English, nor in German, nor in Spanish, nor in Italian, and even in the meaning of “stone”, which means that falsifiers of history continue to replace truth with fiction in the 21st century. Labr is their next invention, which has no basis, it is needed in order to cut the ground from under the feet of those who doubt and seek the truth.

I only came across the Latin form of Labyrinthus, ending in –us, on the Internet, which means that this, too, is most likely a recent fake. But there is a word, and it can suggest a lot. There is a technique proposed by A. Fomenko and N. Nosovsky in the dictionary of parallelisms. And there is a desire to understand where the roots come from.

Labyrinthos, we read the word in Russian, but from right to left, while remembering that in Western languages some consonant letters are not readable, they serve either to soften the adjacent consonant or to lengthen the adjacent vowel. SOKHTNIRUBAL. The x is not readable, just like in the Latin h. What happens? HUNDREDS OF RUBAL? By the way, the Latin n could, when rewriting Russian words, be formed from n. Then another version: SOT PIRUBAL, that is, SOTY RUBAL or SOTY RUBAL. In any case, we definitely see that the carpenter worked with an axe, that is, he chopped. Let us remember that in the old days in Rus' they cut down forests, cut down houses, and cut down palaces. And the preparation of a future building from logs was called a log house.

They decided on one root: chopped or chopped. However, maybe he chopped it, because it’s easy to turn Russian even in writing into Latin a.

Now the second root: honeycomb or hundreds, or sot, or sot. The Russian combination ь or тъ in Western languages, when rewritten, often turned into th or ht. Only this can explain why h is not readable. Although many explanations have been invented for each specific case, they try not to notice the general pattern for many languages.

So, the word “chopping”, “chopping”, “chopping” indicates that the structure is made of wood.

What did you chop? Hundreds, hundreds or honeycombs? Most likely we are not talking about hundreds, but about honeycombs. This is again prompted by Dahl's dictionary, which notes that in the old days in Novgorod, the Konchansky elders were elected (those who represented the interests of the ends of the city; there were five such ends), Ulichansky (they represented the interests of the streets, there were many of them) and Sotsky, representing the interests separate parts of the streets and nooks and crannies of the city, that is, cells.

These honeycombs are in no way connected with hundreds, although some historians believe that this name is derived from the word “hundred”. Note that when we say “the hundredth time,” we do not mean that something has been done 99 times before. The hundredth is an indefinitely large value. And the sotskys in Novgorod did not necessarily represent the interests of a whole hundred citizens, but rather of some small part that was smaller than the street.

One thing is clear: the labyrinth was apparently cut down with an axe. And Daedalus did not fold this labyrinth, but got along. Ladil: this is indicated by the name of the master. Daedalus gets along well. The rook, a large boat for the river fleet, was also assembled from neatly fitted planks. Among the Novgorodians, a lazhevy person was called a dexterous, smart, intelligent person, capable of not only doing something well, but also reaching an agreement and settling it. The Daedalus of the “ancient” myths possessed precisely such qualities. And when he could not agree with Minos on the release of himself and his son, he attempted to fly away. He himself successfully flew away. But the son burned in the rays of the hot sun. That is, he rose to such a height that the wax that held the feathers of his wings melted in the sun, and Icarus fell into the Mediterranean Sea. It was the hottest time of the year, as legends say.

Can we calculate the date of the event more precisely? It turns out we can. According to many sources, the hottest time of year for the Mediterranean is the end of June and July. According to the horoscope, this time is occupied by the zodiac sign Cancer. And the deceased “ancient” hero was called Icarus. This name is easy to form if you read the word from right to left. Moreover, he was named Icarus based on the results of his flight after his death.

The famous hero of Russian epics, a hero who was so strong that the earth was tired of carrying him, was named according to the same principle. The place where he found peace was called the Holy Mountains, or Svyatogorye, and he himself was called Svyatogor. We still don’t know Svyatogor’s real name.

Another example. Although Pushkin in the story “Dubrovsky” called the rebellious village Kistenevka, it could have received such a name after the suppression of the rebellion, as a memory of this uprising, since the main weapons of the men were homemade flails.

In Soviet times, this practice was used everywhere. Cities appeared in honor of revolutionaries, politicians, and astronauts. These names did not always coincide with the names of the heroes. So the city on the Vyatka River was named Kirov, and the politician bore the last name Kostrikov. I'm not sure all high school graduates can get this right.

When there are few written sources, accurate facts are forgotten within a period of 15-30 years. This is what those who falsify history are counting on. We don’t know the name of the builder of the structure, called a labyrinth in mythology, or the name of his son, but we have discovered the point where the forgery was committed.

We do not know exactly when this construction and this famous flight took place. But we are sure that not before our era. This is an event of the Middle Ages. Why? But because the surge in astrological research and interest in horoscopes - the exact determination of an event taking into account the sun, moon and seven planets - occurred in the Middle Ages. Horoscopes that are found in supposedly “ancient” Egypt, in temples and museums in Europe, were also created in the Middle Ages and indicate medieval dates.

Scientists rank the Cretan culture as one of the most mysterious in world history. Until the 30s of the XX century. practically nothing was known about it until the English archaeologist Arthur Evans made a discovery that became a real sensation, perhaps even greater than the excavations of Tutankhamun’s tomb.

On the trail of an ancient civilization that was spread throughout east coast Greece and the islands Aegean Sea with its center on the island of Crete, Heinrich Schliemann, the discoverer of the legendary Troy, also came out. But the scientist never had time to begin excavations of cultural monuments, which were called “Crito-Mycenaean” (“Creto-Minoan”) - he died. But Evans managed to find something absolutely fantastic, which even Schliemann could not have imagined: the existence of a people and a state that were a thousand years older than Ancient Greece. Having stuck a spade into the ground of Crete for the first time, Evans encountered a real island of mysteries.

All that was known about this once flourishing area was that which belonged to the realm of mythology. According to myths, Zeus the Thunderer himself was born here, and then his son Minos, one of the powerful rulers, reigned on Crete ancient world. The skilled craftsman Daedalus built a legendary labyrinth for the king, which later became the prototype of all future labyrinths.

Arthur Evans began with excavations near Knossos. After just a few hours, it was possible to talk about the first results, and two weeks later the amazed archaeologist stood in front of the remains of buildings that occupied an area of 2.5 hectares. On this huge rectangle was a structure whose walls were made of hollow bricks and whose flat roofs were supported by columns. But the chambers, halls and corridors of the Knossos Palace were located in such a bizarre order that visitors risked getting lost among the countless turns and chaotically placed rooms. It truly resembled a labyrinth, which gave Evans no hesitation to declare that he had found the palace of Minos, the father of Ariadne and Phaedra, the owner of the terrible bull-man Minotaur.

The archaeologist really discovered something amazing. It turns out that a people about whom nothing was known before was drowning in luxury and voluptuousness and, probably, at the peak of its development, reached that sybaritic “decadence”, which already concealed within itself the germs of decline and regression.

This capital must have seemed like a pearl of the sea, a precious diamond set in the blue of the sky, to sailors approaching the island. At least two great people - Ovid and Herodotus, who saw the Cretan palace in a more or less preserved form - described it in unusually enthusiastic tones. True, the Hellenes themselves already vaguely understood what a labyrinth was and what its purpose was. They only retold legends and beautiful legends, like the mythical “Ariadne’s thread”, which helped the princess’s lover Theseus get out of the labyrinth.

It is enough to look at the plan of the Palace of Knossos to be convinced that it was a grandiose building, superior to the Vatican, the Escorial, and Versailles. The labyrinth consisted of a central courtyard surrounded by many buildings, courtyards, a theater and the king's summer villa. The structure stands on a solid foundation and forms a complex system of temples, halls, rooms, corridors, passages and warehouses, located at different levels and connected by countless stairs and passages. But this is by no means a disorderly jumble of buildings, but a single architectural concept, one huge palace-city, building-state, which has no analogues in the history of architecture. The richly decorated entrance to the palace was a majestic portico with a colonnade, the lower part of the wall of which was covered with paintings interspersed with frescoes with complex compositions.

Through the main portico the visitor entered main hall, then to the throne room and exit hall. Along the floor of the corridor leading to this part of the palace there is a path made of limestone slabs, bordered by stripes of blue slate. A special passage led directly from the king’s chambers to the theater, to the royal box, where Minos passed, avoiding the curious glances of the crowd. Next came the chambers of the queen, the royal family, nobles and those close to the sovereign.

The things found in the labyrinth confirm the idea of the richness of its furnishings. Objects and fragments of magnificent furniture have survived to this day, including tables with intricately made legs, decorated alabaster caskets, metal lamps, gold, silver and earthenware vases. Statues and figurines of gods have also been preserved, depicting sacred symbols, very common among the Aegeans. Other treasures were also discovered in the storerooms, for example, swords with elegant inlay, men's belts with precious stones, and reserves of gold. There was especially a lot of all kinds of women's jewelry - necklaces, tiaras, bracelets, rings, earrings, perfume bottles, lipstick boxes, etc.

Evans also found storerooms filled with giant vessels (pithos) with wine, the total capacity of which, according to the archaeologist, was 80 thousand liters. This turned out to be the palace's supply of drink alone.

Scientists attributed the heyday of the Cretan-Mycenaean culture to 1600 BC. e. - the estimated time of life and reign of Minos, leader of the Cretan fleet and ruler of the seas. Civilization was already experiencing obvious signs of decline; it was being replaced by irrepressible luxury, and beauty was elevated to a cult. The frescoes depicted young men picking crocuses in the meadows and filling vases with them, and girls among lilies. In painting, which had previously been subordinated to certain forms, a riotous sparkle of colors now dominated; the home served not only as an abode - it was designed to delight the eye; even in clothing they saw only a means of demonstrating sophistication and individual taste.

Is it any wonder that scientists who studied the nature of the wall paintings and architectural features of the labyrinth used the word “modern”? In fact, this palace, which was not inferior in size to Buckingham’s, had drainage channels, magnificent bathhouses, and even ventilation. A parallel with modernity also emerged in the images of people, which made it possible to judge their manners and Cretan fashion. If at the beginning of the Middle Minoan period women wore high, pointed headdresses and long, colorful dresses with a belt, a deep neckline and a high bodice, then their clothes acquired an even more sophisticated look. And when today we say that women wear short hair in imitation of men, then the Cretan ladies were, from the current point of view, superfashionable, for they had hairstyles even shorter than their gentlemen.

On the walls of the Cretan labyrinth, other, deeper, and even philosophical subjects were discovered, revealing the Minoans’ idea of the universe. These are not just symbols, but the very life of matter, reflecting the rhythm of the cosmos, appearing in the ceramic ornament. All the paintings of Cretan buildings are permeated with the same attitude. In the center of these horizontally running drawings is a man, surrounded above by earth framed by flowers, and below by mountains. The figures resemble the image of the Mother Goddess, the patroness natural world. “Everything flows” - this thought of Heraclitus fully reflects the worldview of the Minoan civilization.

The builders showed considerable architectural skill and imagination in drawing up the very plan of the palace. They skillfully placed its individual parts, connecting large halls and temples into one whole, without neglecting the possibility of optimal lighting of the building. For this purpose, special passages and inner courtyards-wells were built in the labyrinth, through which light fell either on the stairs or directly into the halls, which thus received illumination on one side. The use of columns made it possible to increase the size of the rooms during the study, bringing them closer in area to the most extensive halls of modern palaces.

Nevertheless, a period came when this entire huge kingdom with a population of at least one hundred thousand people was destroyed for some reason. The first version of the death of Knossos was put forward by the same Arthur Evans. He proceeded from the fact that Crete is one of the most earthquake-prone areas in Europe, and therefore the scientist’s hypothesis boiled down to the fact that only the strongest earthquake was able to completely destroy the palace of Minos.

However, not all scientists share this hypothesis. The objections boil down to the following: let us assume that a natural disaster, including an earthquake or fire, is quite sufficient to destroy palace buildings. But for the destruction of the entire Cretan civilization - hardly.

For almost a century, historians have been searching for the answer to this question. And only these days, after yet another excavation in Crete, new facts have surfaced that have once again baffled specialists. What exactly was the Labyrinth of Knossos? It turned out that some details and the general configuration of the ensemble give reason to assume a completely different purpose. Not a palace, but a kind of columbarium, that is, a sacred burial place for dead people - this is what the Knossos labyrinth could actually be. Firstly, the people in the frescoes are not shown in everyday clothes or in everyday settings. And all of them are not having fun. Not a single person smiles in any of the frescoes - the faces are depicted as emphatically stern and restrained. Refined and sophisticated women with open breasts are dressed in bluish dresses and aprons with mountain flowers embroidered on them. We can come to the conclusion that these are not court performers, but mourners. By the way, the priestesses of Ancient Egypt also bared their breasts during a funeral service, and Herodotus wrote about a similar sign of mourning among the Greeks.

In the Knossos labyrinth there was a fairly large room with stepped stands, which Evans' colleagues called the "court entertainment theater." On one of the famous frescoes there is an image of this “theater”. Nothing festive can be seen there either. Fourteen priestesses on a rectangular stage stand in ritual poses, they are dressed in blue dresses. In the stands there are women with white faces and men with brown paint on their faces, which may mean a ritual that was common during funeral services for the dead. In a word, it is quite possible that a funeral service is taking place here, for which the relatives of the deceased have gathered.

However, it must be emphasized once again that this is only a hypothesis that is awaiting confirmation, an attempt at a new reading of the history of the Knossos labyrinth. His mystery remains not fully solved to this day. Perhaps the main discoveries are yet to come, if there are specialists who are lucky enough to completely decipher the inscriptions, called “Cretan Linear B,” and it is very likely that ancient civilization will appear in an even more amazing light.
What do we know about the labyrinth itself?

According to legend, this labyrinth was built by Daedalus in order to imprison the Minotaur in it. Medieval scientists considered this labyrinth the most complex ever created. The mathematical chances of getting out of there are extremely small; Daedalus used psychological factors of behavior so cleverly that the probability of escaping from the labyrinth is practically zero. If the passages of this labyrinth were a meter wide, and the walls were 30 centimeters thick, the only path leading out of it would be more than a kilometer long. Most likely, any person would rather die of hunger or thirst before finding a way out.

Over its long history, the Cretan labyrinth was destroyed and rebuilt several times, and in 1380 BC it was destroyed and abandoned completely, until the English archaeologist A. Evans discovered a mysterious hieroglyphic letter in the Oxford Museum. The letter spoke of an ancient labyrinth. In 1900, an archaeologist arrived in Crete and began excavations. Arthur Evans carried out excavations for almost 30 years and unearthed not a city, but a palace equal in area to the entire city. This was the famous Knossos labyrinth, which was a structure with a total area of 22 thousand square meters, which had at least 5-6 above-ground floors connected by passages and stairs, and a number of underground crypts. The Cretan labyrinth turned out to be not an invention of the ancients, but a real miracle of architecture, in which there was something incomprehensible to the mind.

The labyrinth is a real Myth, it is a story about heroes and events that historical science does not recognize as real, but considers as symbols. We believe that at the heart of any myth, any image, any symbolic narrative lies reality, even if not always historical. Myth accurately describes psychological reality: human experiences, mental processes and forms are hidden behind symbols that have been passed down from generation to generation and have finally reached us so that we can unravel them, remove the veil from them and again see their innermost meaning, realize their deep essence. The myth of the Labyrinth is one of the oldest, it is similar to the myths of all ancient civilizations, which say that a labyrinth is a difficult and unclear path, on whose complex and winding paths it is easy to get lost.

Sometimes the plot of this myth is woven into the story of an extraordinary person, a hero or a mythical character who overcomes a labyrinth and finds the key to solving a riddle that appears before him in the form of a path. When we talk about labyrinths, we immediately recall the most famous of them, about which evidence has been preserved in Greek mythology - in a simple and accessible form, close to a children's fairy tale: the labyrinth of the island of Crete. I don’t want to talk about it in the same simplified way as is done in well-known legends, we will open its deeper layers and analyze the archaeological finds made in Crete in order to understand what the Cretans worshiped and what the labyrinth really was for them. And we will see how this story will take on a complex symbolic form, and it will no longer seem so childish to us.

So, one of the ancient symbols of Crete, associated with its supreme deity, was a double-edged ax, which can be represented as two pairs of horns, one of which is directed upward, the other downward. This ax was associated with the sacred bull, the cult of which was widespread in Crete. It was called Labrys and, according to an older tradition, served as the instrument with which the god, who later received the name Ares-Dionysus from the Greeks, cut through the First Labyrinth. Here's his story. When Ares-Dionysus, the god of primordial times, a very ancient god, descended to earth, nothing had yet been created, nothing had yet taken shape, there was only darkness, darkness. But, according to legend, Ares-Dionysus was given a weapon from heaven, Labrys, and it was with this tool, with this weapon, that he created the world.

Ares-Dionysus began to walk in the middle of the darkness, describing circle after circle. (This is very interesting, because modern science has discovered that when we find ourselves in the dark in an unfamiliar room or trying to get out of some spacious but unlit place, we most often begin to walk in circles; the same happens when we get lost or wander through the forest We gave such a comparison because from the very beginning we want to emphasize that the symbolism of the labyrinth is associated with certain atavisms inherent in man.) And so Ares-Dionysus began to walk in a circle, cutting through the darkness and cutting furrows with his axe. The road that he cut, which became brighter with every step, is called the “labyrinth,” that is, “the path cut by Labrys.”

The Labyrinth of Daedalus was neither an underground structure nor something dark and twisting; it was a huge complex of houses, palaces and parks, designed in such a way that whoever entered it could not find a way out. The point is not that Daedalus's labyrinth was terrible, but that it was impossible to escape from it. Daedalus built this labyrinth for the Cretan king Minos, an almost legendary character, whose name allows us to get acquainted with the very ancient traditions of all the peoples of that era. Minos lived in a fairytale palace, and he had a wife, Pasiphae, because of whom all the drama associated with the labyrinth played out.

This monster, this monster settled in the center of the labyrinth, which at the same moment turned from a complex of parks and palaces into a gloomy place inspiring fear and sadness, into an eternal reminder of the misfortune of the king of Crete. Some ancient legends, in addition to the Cretan ones, preserved a less simplified interpretation of the tragedy of Pasiphae and the White Bull. For example, in the legends of pre-Columbian America and India there are references to the fact that millions of years ago, at a certain stage of human evolution, people lost their way and mixed with animals, and because of this perversion and violation of the laws of nature, real monsters appeared on earth, hybrids that are difficult to even describe. They inspired fear not only because, like the Minotaur, they had an evil disposition; they bore the mark of shame from a union that should never have taken place, from a secret that should not have been revealed until all these events were erased from the memory of mankind.

Theseus himself enlists among the young men who are to become victims of the monster, goes to Crete, captivates the heart of Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, and gets her to give him a ball of thread with which he can pass through the labyrinth and then, having killed the Minotaur, find the his way out. The ball played a very important role in this story. Theseus enters the labyrinth and, penetrating further into its complex and intricate corridors, unwinds the thread. Having reached the center, thanks to his colossal strength and will, he kills the Minotaur and finds a way out. In simple and naive stories, Theseus kills the Minotaur with a sword, sometimes with a dagger. But in the most ancient narratives, as well as in images on ancient Attic vases, Theseus kills the Minotaur with a double-bladed axe. And again the hero, having made his way through the labyrinth, having reached the center, performs a miracle with the help of Labrys, a double axe.

The ball that he creates by picking up the thread is the perfection that he achieved by putting the Minotaur to death, which means passing the tests and emerging from the labyrinth. There were many labyrinths, just like Theseus. They are also available in Spain. Along the entire path to Santiago de Compostella and throughout Galicia, there are an infinite number of ancient images of labyrinths on stone that invite the pilgrim to take the path to Santiago and walk this road, and they directly indicate to us that in their symbolic and spiritual meaning this the path is a labyrinth

In England, the famous Tintagel Castle, where, according to legend, King Arthur was born, also has its own labyrinths. We also find them in India, where they were a symbol of reflection, concentration, and turning to the true center. In Ancient Egypt, in the ancient city of Abydos, founded almost in the predynastic period, there was a labyrinth, which was a round temple. In its galleries, ceremonies were held to commemorate time, evolution, and the endless roads that man traveled before reaching the center, which meant meeting the true man. According to the history of Egypt, the labyrinth of Abydos was apparently only a very small part of the huge labyrinth described by Herodotus, who considered the Egyptian labyrinth so colossal, amazing and unimaginable that even the Great Pyramid pales next to it. Today we can no longer see this labyrinth; we only have the testimony of Herodotus. For many centuries, for the peculiarities of his presentation, people called him the father of history, Herodotus the truthful, and gave many more similar names, but when not all of his descriptions were confirmed, we naturally decided that Herodotus was not always confident in his words. On the other hand, modern science has confirmed the truth of so many of its descriptions that it is probably worth being patient and waiting - suddenly archaeologists will discover the labyrinth that the Greek historian wrote about. There were many labyrinths in the Gothic cathedrals of the Middle Ages.

One of the most famous, images of which are quite common, is the labyrinth laid out on the stone floor of the main cathedral in Chartres. It was created not for anyone to get lost in it, but for it to be followed: it was a kind of path of initiation, a path of accomplishment and a path of achievement that the candidate, the student, the one who aspired to be had to overcome. accepted into the Mysteries. Indeed, it is extremely difficult to get lost in the labyrinth of Chartres: all its roads are purely symbolic, all turns and crossroads are visible. The most important thing here is to reach the center, a square stone on which the various constellations are marked with nails. For a person, this allegorically means to reach Heaven and become on a par with the deities. It is very likely that all such myths of antiquity and all the symbolic labyrinths of Gothic cathedrals reflect not so much historical reality as psychological reality. And the psychological reality of the labyrinth is still alive today. If in ancient times they spoke of the initiatory labyrinth as a path through which a person could realize himself, today we must talk about a material and psychological labyrinth. It is not difficult to see the material labyrinth: the world around us, what we encounter in life, how we live and how we express ourselves - all this is part of one labyrinth. The difficulty is different: those who found themselves in Cretan parks and palaces did not even suspect that they had entered a labyrinth; so in our daily life we do not realize that we are in a labyrinth that draws a person into itself.

From a psychological point of view, the confusion of Theseus, who longed to kill the Minotaur, is of the same nature as the confusion of a person who is confused and afraid. We are afraid because we don’t know something and we can’t do it; we are afraid because we don’t understand something and because of this we feel insecure. Our fear usually manifests itself in the fact that we cannot choose, we do not know where to go, what to devote our lives to; it manifests itself in eternal routine and mediocrity, exhausting and sad: we are ready to do anything, just not to make a decision and not show at least a little firmness. Confusion is another disease that haunts us in the modern labyrinth on the psychological plane. This confusion arises because it is very difficult for us to decide who we are, where we came from and where we are going. These three questions are the main reason for our confusion, although they are so simple and ingenuous that they seem childish to us. Is there any meaning in our lives other than constant confusion? Why do we work and why do we study? Why do we live and what is happiness? What are we aiming for? What is suffering and how to recognize it? From a psychological point of view, we are still wandering in a labyrinth, and although there are no monsters or narrow corridors in it, traps constantly await us. And of course it is the myth that offers us the solution. Theseus does not enter the labyrinth empty-handed, and it would be strange if we were to look for a way out of it empty-handed. Theseus takes two objects with him: an ax (or a sword - as you prefer) to kill the monster, and a spindle with thread, his ball, to find his way back.