SUMMARY
The labyrinth is beyond any doubt one of the most fascinating aspects of human societies. Though its magic forms and implications are well known and have been the subject of important analyses - the best known being perhaps P. Santarcangeli 's Il libro dei labirinti now with many translations in various languages, lately rediscussed by Krzak (1985) - there still are unrevealed aspects, some perhaps improperly understood. It is our purpose to examine here (1) the pre-Indo-European (hereafter pre-IE) family of the fundamental Greek form labýrinthos (a term sometimes labelled 'Mediterranean', which is not ultimately incorrect), (2) the pre-IE family of English forms maze/amaze and their unexpected south and southeast European parallels (noticed a long tirne ago, but unconnected to this context), and (3) the interpretation of the available data in the sense that the labyrinth was initially a projection of the Neolithic Goddess 's sacred body.