[2583] Herodotus, B. ii. cc. 134, 5, takes great pains to prove the absurdity of this story; and there is little doubt that the beautiful courtesan has been confounded with the equally beautiful Egyptian Queen, Nitocris, who is said by Julius Africanus and Eusebius to have built the third pyramid. As to the courtesan having been a fellow-slave of the fabulist, Æsop, it is extremely doubtful.
[2584] The greater harbour, there being two at Alexandria.
[2585] Ptolemy Lagus.
[2586] Supposed by Thiersch to have been the same person as the statuary mentioned in B. xxxiv. c. [19].
[2587] A risk that is now obviated, if, indeed, there is such a risk, by the use of revolving lights and coloured lights.
[2588] See B. v. c. 9.
[2589] The site of this labyrinth has not been traced, but Sir G. Wilkinson is inclined to think that it was at Howarah el Soghaïr in the Faiöum.
[2590] Similar, probably, to the one at Hampton Court.
[2591] Most modern writers, and some of the ancients, have altogether denied the existence of the Cretan Labyrinth; but, judging from the testimony of Tournefort and Cockerell, it is most probable that it really did exist, and that it was a vast natural grotto or cavern, enlarged and made additionally intricate by human ingenuity. There are many caverns of this nature in Crete, and one near Gortyna, at Hagios-Deka, is replete with galleries and intricate windings similar to those ascribed to the Labyrinth of Dædalus.
[2592] See Chapter [13] of this Book. He is surprised that the people of Egypt, a country which abounded in exquisite marbles, should have used that of another country in preference to their own.