All 3 Uses of
labyrinth
in
Moby Dick
- The counterpane was of patchwork, full of odd little parti-coloured squares and triangles; and this arm of his tattooed all over with an interminable Cretan labyrinth of a figure, no two parts of which were of one precise shade—owing I suppose to his keeping his arm at sea unmethodically in sun and shade, his shirt sleeves irregularly rolled up at various times—this same arm of his, I say, looked for all the world like a strip of that same patchwork quilt.†
Chpt 4-6
- Between his ribs and on each side of his spine he is supplied with a remarkable involved Cretan labyrinth of vermicelli-like vessels, which vessels, when he quits the surface, are completely distended with oxygenated blood.†
Chpt 85-87 *
- The anatomical fact of this labyrinth is indisputable; and that the supposition founded upon it is reasonable and true, seems the more cogent to me, when I consider the otherwise inexplicable obstinacy of that leviathan in HAVING HIS SPOUTINGS OUT, as the fishermen phrase it.†
Chpt 85-87
Definition:
-
(labyrinth) a maze (a complex system of paths or tunnels in which it is easy to get lost)
or: anything so complicated that it is extremely confusing
or: a complex anatomical system of interconnecting cavities -- especially the inner eareditor's notes: The word "labyrinth" comes from the name of the maze of passages where, in Greek mythology, Theseus had to escape from the Minotaur.