Wiktionary
n. a double-headed ax in Minoan mythology
Wikipedia
Labrys ( Greek: , ) is the term for a symmetrical double- bitted axe originally from Crete in Greece, one of the oldest symbols of Greek civilization; to the Romans, it was known as a bipennis. The symbol was commonly associated with female divinities.
The double-bitted axe remains a forestry tool to this day, and the labrys certainly functioned as a tool and hewing axe before it was invested with symbolic function. Labrys symbolism is found in Minoan, Thracian, and Greek religion, mythology, and art, dating from the Middle Bronze Age onwards, and surviving in the Byzantine Empire.
Labrys is a genus of bacteria from the family of Xanthobacteraceae.
Usage examples of "labrys".
For a moment, though the physical resemblance was slight, he recalled certain images from ancient Crete, Our Lady of the Labrys, and then he had time only to think of what was before him.
She wouldn't need much trickery to start the cult of the Labrys down in Crete, centuries ago.
And the Axe of those sun-worshipping invaders was not the tree-felling Labrys: it was a tomahawk.
A brooch shaped like the Labrys upheld a cloak whose lining was white as a summer cloud but which outside was grey for thunderheads and mare's-tails.
Now an emblem shone in gold and silver, the Labrys across the Sun Disc.
Caspar was his friend, and Eleph an annoyance—but it was Eleph who had made the decisive suggestion that had given Don two days in the ruins, and Eleph who had found the labrys and cups.