Labyrinth
In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth is an elaborate, confusing structure designed and built by the mythological artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, the monster eventually killed by the hero Theseus. Daedalus had so cunningly made the Labyrinth that he could barely escape it after he built it.
Although early Cretan coins occasionally exhibit branching patterns, the single-path seven-course "Classical" design without branching or dead ends became associated with the Labyrinth on coins as early as 430 BC, and similar non-branching patterns became widely used as visual representations of the Labyrinth – even though both logic and literary descriptions make it clear that the Minotaur was trapped in a complex branching maze. Even as the designs became more elaborate, visual depictions of the mythological Labyrinth from the Roman era until the Renaissance are almost invariably unicursal. Branching mazes were reintroduced only when hedge mazes became popular during the Renaissance.
In English, the term labyrinth is generally synonymous with maze. As a result of the long history of unicursal representation of the mythological Labyrinth, however, many contemporary scholars and enthusiasts observe a distinction between the two. In this specialized usage, maze refers to a complex branching multicursal puzzle with choices of path and direction, while a unicursal labyrinth has only a single path to the center. A labyrinth in this sense has an unambiguous route to the center and back and presents no navigational challenge.
Unicursal labyrinths appeared as designs on pottery or basketry, as body art, and in etchings on walls of caves or churches. The Romans created many primarily decorative unicursal designs on walls and floors in tile or mosaic. Many labyrinths set in floors or on the ground are large enough that the path can be walked. Unicursal patterns have been used historically both in group ritual and for private meditation, and are increasingly found for therapeutic use in hospitals and hospices.
Etymology
Labyrinth is a word of pre-Greek origin whose derivation and meaning are uncertain. Maximillian Mayer suggested in 1892 that labyrinthos might derive from labrys, a Lydian word for "double-bladed axe". Arthur Evans, who excavated the Minoan palace of Knossos in Crete early in the 20th century, suggested that the ruins there inspired the story of the labyrinth, and since the double axe motif appears in the palace ruins, he asserted that labyrinth could be understood to mean "the house of the double axe". The same symbol, however, was discovered in other palaces in Crete. Nilsson observed that in Crete the double axe is not a weapon and always accompanies goddesses or women and not a male god.The association with "labrys" lost some traction when Linear B was deciphered in the 1950s, and an apparent Mycenaean Greek rendering of "labyrinth" appeared as da-pu₂-ri-to. This may be related to the Minoan word du-pu₂-re, which appears in Linear A on libation tablets and in connection with Mount Dikte and Mount Ida, both of which are associated with caverns. Caverns near Gortyna, the Cretan capital in the 1st century AD, were called labyrinthos.
Pliny's Natural History gives four examples of ancient labyrinths: the Cretan labyrinth, an Egyptian labyrinth, a Lemnian labyrinth, and an Italian labyrinth. These are all complex underground structures, and this appears to have been the standard Classical understanding of the word.
Beekes also finds the relation with labrys speculative, and suggests instead a relation with Greek λαύρα.
Ancient labyrinths
Cretan labyrinth
When the Bronze Age site at Knossos was excavated by archaeologist Arthur Evans, the complexity of the architecture prompted him to suggest that the palace had been the Labyrinth of Daedalus. Evans found various bull motifs, including an image of a man leaping over the horns of a bull, as well as depictions of a labrys carved into the walls. On the strength of a passage in the Iliad, it has been suggested that the palace was the site of a dancing-ground made for Ariadne by the craftsman Daedalus,where young men and women, of the age of those sent to Crete as prey for the Minotaur, would dance together. By extension, in popular legend the palace is associated with the myth of the Minotaur.
In the 2000s, archaeologists explored other potential sites of the labyrinth. Oxford University geographer Nicholas Howarth believes that "Evans's hypothesis that the palace of Knossos is also the Labyrinth must be treated sceptically." Howarth and his team conducted a search of an underground complex known as the Skotino cave but concluded that it was formed naturally. Another contender is a series of tunnels at Gortyn, accessed by a narrow crack but expanding into interlinking caverns. Unlike the Skotino cave, these caverns have smooth walls and columns, and appear to have been at least partially man-made. This site corresponds to a labyrinth symbol on a 16th-century map of Crete in a book of maps in the library of Christ Church, Oxford. A map of the caves themselves was produced by the French in 1821. The site was also used by German soldiers to store ammunition during the Second World War. Howarth's investigation was shown on a documentary produced for the National Geographic Channel.
The Egyptian labyrinth
In Book II of his Histories, Herodotus applies the term "labyrinth" to a building complex in Egypt "near the place called the City of Crocodiles", that he considered to surpass the pyramids. The structure, which may have been a collection of funerary temples such as are commonly found near Egyptian pyramids, was destroyed in antiquity and can only be partially reconstructed. During the nineteenth century, the remains of this ancient Egyptian structure were discovered at Hawara in the Faiyum Oasis by Flinders Petrie at the foot of the pyramid of the twelfth-dynasty pharaoh Amenemhat III.Pliny's Lemnian labyrinth
's Natural History lists the legendary Smilis, reputed to be a contemporary of Daedalus, together with the historical mid-sixth-century BC architects and sculptors Rhoikos and Theodoros as two of the makers of the Lemnian labyrinth, which Andrew Stewart regards as "evidently a misunderstanding of the Samian temple's location en limnais ."Pliny's Italian labyrinth
According to Pliny, the Tomb of Lars Porsena contained an underground maze. Pliny's description of the exposed portion of the tomb is intractable; Pliny, it seems clear, had not observed this structure himself, but is quoting the historian and Roman antiquarian Varro.Ancient labyrinths outside Europe
A design essentially identical to the 7-course "classical" pattern appeared in Native American culture, the Tohono O'odham people labyrinth which features I'itoi, the "Man in the Maze." The Tonoho O'odham pattern has two distinct differences from the classical: it is radial in design, and the entrance is at the top, where traditional labyrinths have the entrance at the bottom. The earliest appearances cannot be dated securely; the oldest is commonly dated to the 17th century.Unsubstantiated claims have been made for the early appearance of labyrinth figures in India, such as a prehistoric petroglyph on a riverbank in Goa purportedly dating to circa 2500 BC. Other examples have been found among cave art in northern India and on a dolmen shrine in the Nilgiri Mountains, but are difficult to date accurately. Securely datable examples begin to appear only around 250 BC. Early labyrinths in India typically follow the Classical pattern or a local variant of it; some have been described as plans of forts or cities.
Labyrinths appear in Indian manuscripts and Tantric texts from the 17th century onward. They are often called "Chakravyuha" in reference to an impregnable battle formation described in the ancient Mahabharata epic. Lanka, the capital city of mythic Rāvana, is described as a labyrinth in the 1910 translation of Al-Beruni's India p. 306.
By the White Sea, notably on the Solovetsky Islands, there have been preserved more than 30 stone labyrinths. The most remarkable monument is the Stone labyrinths of Bolshoi Zayatsky Island – a group of some 13 stone labyrinths on 0.4 km2 area of one small island. Local archaeologists have speculated that these labyrinths may be 2,000–3,000 years old, though most researchers remain dubious.
Labyrinth as pattern
The 7-course "Classical" or "Cretan" pattern known from Cretan coins appears in several examples from antiquity, some perhaps as early as the late Stone Age or early Bronze Age. Roman floor mosaics typically unite four copies of the classical labyrinth interlinked around the center, squared off as the medium requires, but still recognisable. An image of the Minotaur or an allusion to the legend of the Minotaur appears at the center of many of these mosaic labyrinths.The four-axis medieval patterns may have developed from the Roman model, but are more varied in how the four quadrants of the design are traced out. The Minotaur or other danger is retained in the center of several medieval examples. The Chartres pattern is the most common medieval design; it appears in manuscripts as early as the 9th century.
Medieval labyrinths and turf mazes
When the early humanist Benzo d'Alessandria visited Verona before 1310, he noted the "Laberinthum which is now called the Arena"; perhaps he was seeing the cubiculi beneath the arena's missing floor.The full flowering of the medieval labyrinth came about from the twelfth through fourteenth centuries with the grand pavement labyrinths of the gothic cathedrals, notably Chartres, Reims and Amiens in northern France. The symbolism or purpose behind these is unclear, and may have varied from one installation to the next. Descriptions survive of French clerics performing a ritual Easter dance along the path on Easter Sunday. Some labyrinths may have originated as allusions to the Holy City; and some modern writers have theorized that prayers and devotions may have accompanied the perambulation of their intricate paths. Although some books suggest that the mazes on cathedral floors served as substitutes for pilgrimage paths, the earliest attested use of the phrase "chemin de Jerusalem" dates to the late 18th century when it was used to describe mazes at Reims and Saint-Omer. The accompanying ritual, depicted in Romantic illustrations as involving pilgrims following the maze on their knees while praying, may have been practiced at Chartres during the 17th century. The cathedral labyrinths are thought to be the inspiration for the many turf mazes in the UK, such as survive at Wing, Hilton, Alkborough, and Saffron Walden.
Over the same general period, some 500 or more non-ecclesiastical labyrinths were constructed in Scandinavia. These labyrinths, generally in coastal areas, are marked out with stones, most often in the simple 7- or 11-course classical forms. They often have names which translate as "Troy Town." They are thought to have been constructed by fishing communities: trapping malevolent trolls or winds in the labyrinth's coils might ensure a safe fishing expedition. There are also stone labyrinths on the Isles of Scilly, although none is known to date from before the nineteenth century.
There are examples of labyrinths in many disparate cultures. The symbol has appeared in various forms and media at some time throughout most parts of the world, from Native North and South America to Australia, Java, India, and Nepal.