LABYRINTH

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The Labyrinth and the Honey Pot

As you know, one of my professions is a specialist in Apitherapy, using the BEE products to help keep human beings healthy and heal diseases.

Checking many things about the bees, I found some information about the honeypot in connection with the labyrinth. Well, my separate interest in Mandala and Bees had finally merged !

.. .. .. .. .. The Honeypot and the Labyrinth



going in circles -
a honeypot at the end
of the quest


Mandalas and labyrinths have been known for more than 4000 years. Some have been used as tools for meditation. Labyrinths come in many ways, usually the ones where you get lost and have to find your way out. The Walking Mandala in the picture above is of a different kind, there is only one path and you can not get lost, but you have to keep going.

This one has its original in the Grand Cathedral in Chartres, France, where it was built in the 13th century. Pilgrims used to walk the labyrinth in the middle of the church to find their final place with God.



It has been so successfull that Church authorities later forbade to use it. Nowadays it is open again and many copies of it are made all over the world to have this experience.

Read a lot more details about the labyrinth later here:
http://www.veriditas.net/about/labyrinths.html

For now, let us get to the honeypot part of the story.

This story takes us back to ancient Greece and the island of Knossos. There was an inaccessible palace called "Labytinth". More than 2000 years ago, the culture of Minos flourished on this island.

According to ancient greek myths, the great greek King Aegeus was forced to pay tribute to King Minos of the Minoans, whose kingdom was on the island we now call Crete. Every year the tribute included seven young men and seven young maidens. Underground far below King Minos' palace at the city of Knossos lay a huge maze built for him by the inventor and master architect Daedalus. Inside the maze Minos kept a monster called the Minotaur. The Minotaur was a hideous creature that was half man and half bull.
. . . CLICK here for Photos !

The fourteen young people from Greece would be let loose into the maze, the labyrinth, where they would become hopelessly lost and eventually be eaten by the Minotaur.

According to the legend, King Aegeus' son, Thesesus, decided to volunteer as one of the sacrificial victims, so that he could attempt to kill the Minotaur. Thesesus was successful. He slew the Minotaur, then used a trail of twine he'd started laying down at the entrance of the labyrinth to find his way out of the maze.

The name "Labyrinth" comes from the word "labrys" meaning "double-ax", and the dynasty of King Minos was referred to as the "House of the Double-Ax". Clearly there is history behind the myth here, for many images of double-axes have been found by archaeologists on Crete from a time even earlier than that of the mythological heroes.

Let us go back to Theseus and Ariadne.
One year the Athenian king sent his own son Theseus as part of the sacrifice. Theseus was determined finally to stop the slaughter, and to this end he was aided by Ariadne, daughter of the Minoan king, half-sister to Asterion and Mistress (or High Priestess) of the Labyrinth. Ariadne shared with Theseus the secrets and mysteries of the Labyrinth, and taught him the means by which Asterion might be killed. This she did because she loved Theseus.



Theseus entered the Labyrinth, and, aided by Ariadne’s secret magic, bested the tricks of the Labyrinth and killed Asterion in combat. Then, accompanied by Ariadne and her younger sister Phaedre, Theseus departed Crete and its shattered Labyrinth for his home city of Athens.


This labyrinth was constructed by Daedalus. Here is a bit about his legend:

He fled to the island of Crete, where he began to work at the court of King Minos and Queen Pasiphae, in the magnificent palace of Knossos. There he constructed a wooden cow for the queen to hide in to satisfy her amorous longings for a white bull sent by Poseidon, and by which she became pregnant with the Minotaur.
When the Minotaur was born, Daedalus built the Labyrinth to contain the monstrous half-man, half-bull. For years Minos demanded a tribute of youths from Athens to feed the creature.

We know that Theseus solved the problem, but that spelled trouble for Daedalus.
Daedalus decided that he and his son Icarus had to leave Crete and get away from Minos, before he brought them harm. However, Minos controlled the sea around Crete and there was no route of escape there. Daedalus realized that the only way out was by air.


http://thanasis.com/daedal2.gif

And as you see in the above picture, off he went with his son Ikarus.

To escape, Daedalus built wings for himself and Icarus, fashioned with feathers held together with wax. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, as it would melt his wings, and not too close to the sea, as it would dampen them and make it hard to fly.
They successfully flew from Crete, but Icarus grew exhilarated by the thrill of flying and began getting careless. Flying too close to the sun god Helios, the wax holding together his wings melted from the heat and he fell to his death, drowning in the sea.

These wings, held together with WAX, another product of the bees.

Let us look at an ancient tablet of the time, with the following inscription

pa-si-te-o-i me-ri
da-pu-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja me-ri

To all the gods, one honey amphor,
To the Mistress of the Labyrinth, one honey amphor

http://www.escaped.it/doublevision/texts.htm


.........................................Another text reads

Be sure to take this Honey as a gift
to give the Lady of the Labyrinth.

http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/HL/ritual.html

The Mistress of the Labyrinth is of course Ariadne, who helped Theseus escape. In ancient times, the honeybee was the symbol of death and rebirth.


When offering honey to the Gods, a dance was performed, known as Geranos.

We learned of Theseus who killed the Minotaur at the labyrinth of Knossos. On his way back to Athens, Theseus stopped at Delos where he offered sacrifice to the gods for having saved him. During the sacrifice, he danced a dance with serpentine movements which represented his tortuous path through the maze and the tight ring in which the fight with the Minotaur took place. This is the dance of the labyrinth or Geranos ( Geranos ) as it is known in the ancient texts. Historians put this myth at the time of the power of the Minoan civilization, that is more than 3000 years ago.

Some 3400 years ago, an unknown scribe employed at Knossos, site of the fabled labyrinth and prison for the unfortunate Minotaur, recorded on a clay tablet the offering of a pitcher of honey to
"Potnia of the Labyrinth."



This is the first evidence for the use of Labyrinthos - the original Greek word we now know as Labyrinth.

http://www.labyrinthos.net/


The name "Potnia" or "po-ti-ni-ja," "The Lady," has survived inscribed on tablets at Knossos.
"Potnia of the Labyrinth," or "da-pu-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja."
A Knossos tablet describes an offering of honey to her, assuring us that she had a sanctuary dedicated to her in some part of the Labyrinth at Knossos. Only this particular temple was referred to in antiquity as the Labyrinth.
http://www.widdershins.org/vol8iss6/07.htm


With the above the connection between the Labyrinth, Ariadne and Honey is firmly established, I believe.

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Links used for this story, where you find more details:
http://www.unmuseum.org/minot.htm
http://www.tqnyc.org/NYC030435/Theseus_Minotaur_Analysis.htm
http://www.pccc.cc.nj.us/asrc/readwrit/theseus.html
http://homepage.mac.com/cparada/GML/Ariadne.html
http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/labyrinth.html
http://www.saradouglass.com/theseus.html
http://thanasis.com/icarus.htm
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~mclennan/BA/HL/ritual.html

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From this link, you can launch the ONLINE labyrinth walker.



Grace Cathedral has two labyrinths. The outdoor labyrinth is made of terrazzo stone and is located to the right of the cathedral doors. This labyrinth is open 24 hours daily for walking.

source www.gracecathedral.org/labyrinth/


Here is the worldwide Labyrinth Locator.

The World-Wide Labyrinth Locator has been designed to be an easy-to-use database of labyrinths around the world. Information about labyrinths you can visit, including their locations, pictures, and contact details, are accessible here, along with information about the many types of labyrinths found worldwide. Labyrinths occur in many forms, shapes, and sizes, and the Locator contains both historic and modern examples.

If you input JAPAN you will find the one in my garden and the one we made in the city of Tsuyama.
http://wwll.veriditas.labyrinthsociety.org/


Pictures of our Labyrinth in Tsuyama Japan and more worldwide labyrinth types are here:


. Tsuyama 2004 - Labyrinth Photos .

. 津山のまちなか・元気ラビリント　 .



Read more about my Mandala and Haiku here
MANDALA

Read more about my Mandala Therapy
Mandala Therapy .. coloring mandala patterns

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Lavender Labyrinth
Kastellaun, Germany.

- Shared by GreenBuildTV - facebook -

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。。　。。　。。　迷路の中の蜂蜜ポット

曼陀羅や迷路は4000年も前から瞑想の道具として使われたそうです。でもこちらのパターンは迷路ではなく、曼陀羅です。実物はフランスの有名なチャルトレス市の大聖堂の床にあります。13世紀で作ったものです。古典的な遍路道で、11回のサークリングができます。中央に本当の自分と出会うことが出来ます。

曼陀羅のサークルを歩きながら心が晴れてきて、今まで見えないものが見えてくる。生きる力が湧いてくる。　この曼陀羅の道は一本道です。どこかの分かれ道で物事を決定することが必要ありません。身を任せるだけです。人生にもそう言う捕らえ方があるといいですね。歩きながらものを考えるのではなくて、自分の真の感情に直面することが出来る。

オンラインでも迷路を行く曼陀羅を見つけた。ぜひやってみてください。
http://www.gracecathedral.org/labyrinth/interactions/index.shtml#


迷路の真中に蜂蜜のポットが待っています。

話は古代クレタ島のクノッソス市にもどります。
盛時にはラビリンス（迷宮）と呼ばれていた宮殿は、今でも迷宮だ。そのクノッソス宮殿。紀元前2000年頃にミノア文明時代のクレタの王ミノスがデダロス名大工に築らせたと言われている。ところで現在では迷宮と訳されているラビリンス Labyrinth という言葉だけど、本来の意味は違っていただそうです。クノッソス宮殿の玉座の間には、双頭の斧が置かれていた。その双頭の斧のことをラブリュス Labrys と呼んだらしい。これがミノアの宗教において重要な意味を持っていた。宗教と政治を司る王の宮殿には、聖なる双頭の斧が置かれる。つまり 「双頭の斧の家」。それがラビリンスの本来の意味だと言う話。
これから有名なテセウス神話の世界になりますが、英雄テセウスと王妃アリアドネの話はこちらで読んでください。
http://forum.nifty.com/fworld/pictures/greek0205/04.htm
http://www.infoaomori.ne.jp/~yappi/w.history/100kodai/111chichukai1.html
このテセウス神話は実に有名です。羽や蜜蝋で翼を作り、迷路から逃げるデダロス、イカロス親子の話も、半分雄牛のミノタウロスなどヨーロッパで親しまれた英雄やアイヂアがたくさん登場します。


考古学の発掘でわかったのですが、あるクノッソスの紀元前1400年のタブレットから次の文書が現れた：
Linear B tablet KN Gg702

pa-si-te-o-i me-ri da-pu2-ri-to-jo po-ti-ni-ja me-ri

To all the gods, one honey amphor,
To the Mistress of the Labyrinth, one honey amphor
http://www.escaped.it/doublevision/texts.htm

神々に蜂蜜のアンフォーラを
迷路の女神に蜂蜜のアンフォーラを

迷路の女神はやはりテセウス神話にでるアリアドネのことです。
me-riはmel, mielつまり蜂蜜のことです。
当時では蜂蜜は死や再生のシンボルでもありました。蜂蜜を神様にささげる踊りの時にもつかいました。女神にささげる特別なダンス、Geranosゲラノス踊りはテセウス神話に登場する迷路を再現するダンスです。その話はまだ長いのですから省略。


古いクノッソスのタブレットはこちらです。
Some 3400 years ago, an unknown scribe employed at Knossos, site of the fabled labyrinth and prison for the unfortunate Minotaur, recorded on a clay tablet the offering of a pitcher of honey to "Potnia of the Labyrinth."
http://www.labyrinthos.net/

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. Parikrama - circumambulation .
of a holy place, in Hinduism, Buddhism etc.

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Finally a Japanese version of the book

聖なる道を歩く
黙想と祈りのラビリンス・ウォーク



source :　www.amazon.co.jp

ISBN-10: 4324098549

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