Identifier: mazeslabyrinthsg1922matt (find matches)
Title: Mazes and labyrinths; a general account of their history and developments
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Matthews, William Henry, 1882-
Subjects: Labyrinths
Publisher: London, New York, etc. Longmans, Green
Contributing Library: Boston College Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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d, having traversed all of the space within the outerwalls without covering any part twice and without form-ing any branches or loops. Obviously there is no puzzle about this kind oflabyrinth; one has simply to follow the one path, either topenetrate to the inner goal or to escape thence to theexterior. A labyrinth of precisely this type was discoveredtraced on the surface of a crimson-painted pillar in theperistyle of the building known as the House of Lucre-tius, in the excavated portion of Pompeii (Fig. 32). It 45 was evidently scratched with a nail or stylus by someidler of 2000 years ago (Pompeii was overwhelmed byVesuvius in a.d. 79) and is accompanied by the wordslabyrinthus. hic habitat minotaurus, possibly inwaggish reference to the owner or occupier of thepremises. Another house has, in consequence of its mosaic andpictorial references to the Cretan Labyrinth, received thename of the Casa del Labirinto or House of the Laby-rinth. One mosaic discovered therein depicts Theseus
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Fig. 32.—Graffito at Pompeii. (Museo Borbonico.) and the Minotaur struggling on the ground, watched bya group of affrighted maidens. The Romans excelled in the art of designing andexecuting mosaic pavements, abundant remains of whichhave been preserved. These were of various kinds. Therewas thcpavimentum seftile, composed of pieces of marbleof various sizes, shapes, and colours arranged in uniformsets, so as to form when put together an ornamental pat-tern; the pavimentum tessellatum^ in which the pieces ofmarble, though variously coloured, were all of the samesize and shape, generally small squares; the pavimentumvermiculatumj composed of very small pieces of coloured 46 by bl

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