Last para of the Pythagoras and the Barbarians section.
Nevertheless, we have now reached the point where we have some idea that there was an ancient technology that utilized simple arithmetic, and geometry, or spatial relationships, in conjunction with sound, to accomplish something of great import. We have also come to the idea that this ancient technology was the science of the mastery of space and time and gravity. This is the great secret of the Golden Age. This is why their civilization was based on different elements than our own. Aside from the fact that cataclysms may have washed away most of the evidence of this civilization, we have here an additional reason for the lack of metal and other such artifacts of the type we would consider to be evidence of "civilization".
Just before The Dancing God section.
The Secret of Crete [section]
The majority of experts who write about the labyrinth, tell us that the plan and meaning of the maze clearly originated in Egypt, where it was the scene of the religious dramas involcing killing the god-king in the form of a bull. They further tell us that the sacrifice was only token, and that a divine bull was substituted for the king in the culmination of several days of ritual dance, drama and combat performed in a labyrinth. A smiliar cult is said to be at the root of the Cretan labyrinth myth. The "bull of Minos" would be the representative of the kingship and power of Minos; and Theseus, by killing the bull and taking the king's daughter, was claiming the throne symbolically.
[Location 7849 of 18408 on the kindle]
Chapter 9 -> Percy-ing The Veil
- Why Perceval? [last two paragraphs]
We also recall that, in our survey of labyrinths, we found that the majority of experts tell us that the plan and meaning of the maze originated in Egypt, where it was the scene of the religious dramas involved in killing the god-king in the form of a bull. They further tell us that the sacrifice was only token, and that a divine bull was substituted for the king in the culmination of several days of ritual dance, drama and combat performed in a labyrinth. Most scholars of ancient history and archaeology are powerfully influenced by the theories of Egyptology, which posits that all civilizations diffused from ancient Egypt, or from Mesopotamia, at least. However, the shee volume of evidence suggests that this is not the case.
We also wish to recall that there are two types of mazes. The Egyptian labyrinths were always composed of straight lines, and the abstract mazes on seals were usually made up of square fret patterns. Cretan coins from classical times often show labyrinths, some of which are of the Egyptian fretwork kind, but most of them show a maze of a very different construction - the square or rounded spiral design - the Greek meander - of European tradition, which is never found in Egypt. It seems that Crete was the meeting ground of two completely separate tradition.
. And it comes, so I guess, just with the weight of a single kindle ;).
