From: Vincente Watkins <vewatkin@owu.edu>
                                                                 12/12/01
Subject: Re: Maze by MansonTo: jmb184@frontiernet.net (John Bailey)

Sorry to belabor the point, but:

"Ovid says that Daedalus built a house in which he confused the usual
passages and deceived the eye with a conflicting maze of various wandering
paths (in errorem variarum ambage viarum) (Metamorphoses 8.161):
"so Daedalus made the innumerable paths of deception [innumeras errore
vias], and he was barely able to return to the entrance: so deceptive was
the house [tanta est fallacia tecti]" (8.166-68)."--from
http://www.auburn.edu/~downejm/Ovid/MetindexLMN.htm#Minos

From Maze--
Prologue: "Even I get lost...I take some pride in my role as architect."

It should also be noted that Daedelus was descended from the gods, so that
some of the divinity/royalty references which were interpreted as applying
to Minos or the Minotaur could also apply to Daedalus.  I was previously of
the opinion that the narrator was Minos, and many of the clues (especially
those referring to his royalty and position as judge) still point more to
Minos than anyone else.  However, the references to Daedalus seem to go
beyond winking red herrings, and most importantly, Minos was not an
architect.  On the otherhand, Daedalus was never a judge or a king, nor did
he have the dark side that Minos did (the narrator being somewhat helpful
and somewhat malevolent and somewhat macabre).

The whole Minotaur/Minos/Daedalus chain could be a dead end, although they
certainly fit better than any other interpretations I've heard.  I'm still
looking for some definitive clue that would signify Minos over Daedalus, or
vice versa.

[Note: Socrates was supposedly a descendent of Daedalus.  Does this mean
anything to anyone?]