Labyrinth Symbology: Myth and History

  • 2017
Table of contents hide 1 The Myth: its origin 2 Types of Labyrinth 3 Unicursal Labyrinth: from Antiquity to the Middle Ages 4 Multicursal Labyrinth: from the Renaissance to the present day. 5 Labyrinth dances in Palestine 6 The dance of the partridge 7 Labyrinth and the death of the king 8 Labyrinth dances in Brittany 9 Modern interpretations of the Greek Labyrinth 10 Construction of modern labyrinths 11 Cultural significance 12 Natural labyrinths

“I meditated on that lost labyrinth: I imagined it inviolated and perfect on the secret summit of a mountain, I imagined it erased by rice paddies or under water, I imagined it infinite, not only of ochavados kiosks and paths that return, but of rivers and provinces and kingdoms… I thought of a labyrinth of labyrinths, of a sinuous growing labyrinth that encompassed the past and the future and that somehow implied the stars . ”

- JL Borges-

LABYRINTH, from the Latin labyrinthus, and east from the Greek λαβύρινθος labýrinzos: “A place artificially formed by streets, crossroads and rodeos arranged with such an artifice that, once inside, it is very difficult to find the exit ”.

This definition describes a delimited, closed, artificial, tortuous and complex space with a route that we undertake voluntarily or by an imposed obligation, despite this it will simply be a route between two points.

The essence of the maze is movement . This will be necessary to enter, to travel, to reach the center and find the exit.

The maze as a metaphor implies a whole range of symbolic and even physical possibilities that proliferate in different parts of the world and in different times:

Can there be natural mazes?

Could the problems and decisions made during our existence form a maze?

The Myth: its origin

The different literary versions of the myth of the labyrinth contain as a common denominator some fundamental formal narrative elements: the labyrinth built by Daedalus, the monster or minotaur called Asterius or Asterion, the hero Theseus and the magic thread of Princess Ariadne.

All of them come from a legend that in Greece itself will emerge from very old rituals and we do not have a unique version of the myth, but there are several variants. Plutarch tells that King Minos reigned on the island of Crete. His son was a monster with a bull's head and a man's body that caused a lot of damage on the island, until Hercules managed to lock him in a maze built by the great architect Daedalus. As the wars were frequent, the losers used to pay tribute to the victors and the city of Athens paid for a long time to King Minos a tribute that consisted of sending seven young men and seven maidens to the island to be eaten by the beast. This happened every year, until the young Theseus appeared, who killed the monster, with the help of Ariadna, the daughter of Minos. The princess helped the young man out of the labyrinth thanks to a ball of yarn and a sword he handed to her. This story has derived over time in a topic of universal literature, which will be discussed to this day.

Types of Labyrinth

Throughout mankind, from prehistory to the present day, labyrinths have experienced variations in shape and size, but have maintained their primal essence. Circling through mazes can be a bodily, visual, and tactile experience, but it can also be a mental and imaginary journey through the world of magic, science, religion and morals, symbol and aesthetics. The distinction between unicurial and multicural labyrinths is crucial, and establishes great differences.

UNICURSAL LABYRINTH. Despite its apparent complexity, it has a unique path, without any crossroads, dead end street or shortcut. Whoever travels it will not have the possibility of choice, nor of error, From the very beginning it will lead directly to the center, to his heart, and once there he must return to the same place we enter. It originates in antiquity.

MULTICURSAL LABYRINTH. It appears in the Renaissance. Its network is complex, because whoever travels it will be forced to decide where it should continue its path. Each time you reach the successive crossroads, you will have the risk of losing the route that will lead you to the center or not finding the exit. It will be essential to get out of it have a good memory, or have the thread of Ariadne.

They can also be classified by their FORM:

The square or rectangular labyrinths are the oldest that exist; The first known representation of such a labyrinth is found on a tablet of Pilo and we also find it, as a seal, in the tombs of ancient Egypt.

Round or circular labyrinths appeared at the end of the 7th century BC in Etruscan Italy; later, we found them in the coins of Knossos, at the end of the third century and it is believed that they were used as a map of the famous Labyrinth of Crete.

Labyrinth of Crete

The labyrinth owes its name to the legendary construction designed by the inventor Leave it at the request of King Minos of Crete to keep his son Minotaur in prison. Although no site in Crete has been positively identified as the labyrinth of the Minotaur, in Knossos coins of the third century BC were found with the labyrinth symbol on them. The typical format during this period is a circuit of seven meanders or tracks, known as the "classic maze".

Knossos Palace

Knossos Palace

Another element of the formation of the Labyrinth myth may have been that the palace of Knossos - the house of the labrys or double ax - was a complex of rooms and corridors, and that the Athenian invaders had difficulty finding and killing the king when they took it . An open space in front of the palace was occupied by a dance floor with a labyrinthine drawing that served to guide those who danced an erotic spring dance. The origin of this drawing, also called a labyrinth, seems to have been the traditional maze of shrubs that was used to attract partridges to one of their males, caged in the central fence, with food claims, love complaints and challenges; and the dancers would imitate the ecstatic and reluctant love dance of the male partridges, whose destiny was for the hunter to hit them on the head. The labyrinth from which Daedalus and his son Icarus escaped could have been the mosaic floor on which it was drawn and which they had to follow in the ritual partridge dance. It seems that in the spring an erotic dance of the partridge was performed throughout the Mediterranean basin in honor of the moon goddess and that the dancers were hanging and carrying wings.

Labyrinths "City of Troy"

The English labyrinths made in the grass are called "city of Troy", and the same as those of Wales: fall-droia. The Romans probably called them that for their Trojan Game, a labyrinthine dance performed by young aristocrats in honor of Augustus' ancestor, the Aeneas Trojan. According to Plinio, the children also danced in the Italian countryside. The two main designs are classic and medieval and, although there are numerous variations, the basic form is easily recognizable.

Unicursal Labyrinth: from Antiquity to the Middle Ages

We do not know how that maze could be on the island of Crete, since the only image closest to the time, we find it on the faces of the coins that circulated in the Mediterranean between the 5th and 2nd centuries BC. C. The drawing was that of a square or circular maze and that type will be what we know as a classic or seven-circuit labyrinth.

Seeing the image we have a question, because there is a contradiction between the legend and the traditional graphic representation. Could one be lost in a maze that had only one route? Why then Ariadne's thread? Perhaps not to lose sight of Theseus?

This type of maze will also appear in Roman mosaics from the geography that encompassed the Roman Empire (from England to North Africa) with a dating from the first century to the fourth century AD. C. In many cases the perimeter of the mosaic represents the walls with battlements of a city, with doors and towers symmetrically distributed. Remembering for that reason the layout of a Roman city, with the thistle and the decumenus that divided the city into four squares leading to the center of it. It will happen that throughout the Classical antiquity and of the Middle Ages the variants on the drawing of the maze will not change. The image of the maze appears in about sixty medieval manuscripts, often as an illustration that refers to the Cretan myth. Some of these illustrations try to three-dimensionalize the labyrinth, or represent it as a cosmos or as the city of Jericho or Jerusalem.

In the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, the maze undergoes a surprising change in size and location. In France and Italy, they will begin to look like mazes on the pavement of churches and cathedrals. You can walk on them, from the entrance to the center, and thus carry out a ritual of prayer, spiritual rebirth or symbolic pilgrimage to Jerusalem. These labyrinths will be the signature of architects builders of the cathedrals, the new Dédalos. The pagan meaning, goes into a religious context appropriating the myth: The labyrinth becomes the image of the path of sin by which the devil leads us; Only by following Christ will we succeed in the situation. In this way Christ will be the new Theseus who manages to defeat Satan, the new Minotaur, who occupies the center of the labyrinth.

Until the fifteenth century the representation of the labyrinth is thus unicursal. It will not be until 1420 when Giovanni Fontana (1395-1455) in his book Bellicorum Instumentorum Liber, represents for the first time two multi-district labyrinths, with bifurcations and dead ends.

Labyrinths drawn on Earth: beyond their symbolism and function, horizontal labyrinths are found in very remote places - in addition to the pavements of the churches, or those represented in Roman mosaics.

A precedent is the Scandinavian Trojaburgen . They were made with stones and located outdoors near the coast, also being passable. Theories about their function range from protection and guidance of navigators to wedding rituals. They are located from the thirteenth century. Similar are also found in England, such as Turf-cut-mazes. Located in the countryside, passable with walls built digging in the grass and being slightly below the road. They were taken to the islands in the Middle Ages, it is said, inspired by the great cathedrals. Its original function is uncertain and points to festive and playful rituals.

Turf-Kurt-Mazes

Multicursal Labyrinth: from the Renaissance to the present day.

The labyrinth in the Renaissance will continue to illustrate the path that leads from ignorance to knowledge. In this sense, the two types of labyrinth describe this type of route in the same way:

• The unicursal suggested a path of certainty, covered with authority.

• The multicursal involves an active participation in the education itself. It will symbolize a world with profane evocation, in which again man will be the model for the measure of all things and he will choose on his destiny far from medieval theocentrism.

The discovery of the perspective will allow the representation of three-dimensional labyrinths such as this engraving by Baccio Baldini in the fifteenth century and will be frequent from the sixteenth century. Vegetable labyrinths appear at the same time. Having high walls will not possess the vision of the 8 set allowing the loss between its streets. With them the nature and artifice of man in his complicated geometry are unified. It thus becomes an orderly chaos, in which nature is subject. From Giovanni Fontana's book, numerous treatises on architecture and garden designs will appear. From the 16th century and throughout the 17th century, all kinds of designs will emerge. Important creators will be Filarete, Serlio, Thomas Hill, Andreas Boeckler among others, providing various paths and forms of representation. These gardens often followed a complicated symbolic program in which the labyrinth was a fragment.

Labyrinth dances in Palestine

In Palestine this ceremony, called the Pesach ( the reluctant ) was still performed, according to Saint Jerome, in Beth-Hoglah ( the Temple of the Lame ), where devotees danced in a spiral. Beth-Hoglah identifies with the era of Atad, in which the death of the reluctant King Jacob was cried, whose name could mean Yah Akeb ( the god of the tal n ). The prophet Jeremiah warns the Jews that they should not take part in these Canaanite organic rites, and quotes: `` The partridge collects chicks that have not given birth. ''

The partridge dance

A jug of Etruscan wine from Tragliatella in which two heroes are seen on horseback, shows the religious theory about the dance of the partridge. The rider in front carries a shield on which a partridge is drawn, and a demon of death perches behind him; the other hero carries a spear and a shield on which a duck is drawn. Behind them there is a labyrinthine drawing similar to that found not only in certain Knossos coins, but also in the intricate drawings made on the lawn and that British schoolchildren stepped on Easter at Easter until the 19th century.

Labyrinth and the death of the king

According to the English writer and historian Robert Graves, the idea of ​​the labyrinth is related to the monarchical system of prehistory: the best of the men of a tribe was elected king, had absolute power over the group, but was killed after a period ( It is believed that one year). Only the exceptional hero — a Daedalus or a Theseus — returned alive from the labyrinth. In this context, the discovery (in the fifties) near Bossiney (Cornwall) of a Cretan labyrinth carved on the surface of a rock is of great importance. The ravine where Dr. Renton Green discovered the labyrinth is one of the last lairs of the Cornish crow chova. It was said that the chova houses the soul of King Arthur who disturbed Hell and with whom this Bosinney labyrinth is intimately related in legend.

Labyrinth dances in Brittany

A labyrinthine dance seems to have been taken to Britain from the eastern Mediterranean by Neolithic farmers of the third millennium BC. C. since rough stone labyrinths, analogous to the British made on the grass, occur in the "Beaker B" area of ​​Scandinavia and northeastern Russia; and in the southeast of Europe there are ecclesiastical labyrinths, once used for penitential purposes. The oldest known examples of labyrinths are small and simple petroglyphs that are presumed to be 3000 years old. They are found in numerous places around the world, from Syria to Ireland. The spiral dances, in which the youngsters of both sexes spiraled towards a center to move away later, were still very popular in the 19th century, the labyrinthic dances that are still practiced in Europe descend from the old Crane dance, or Geranos, allegedly executed on the Greek island of Naxos by Theseus and his friends to celebrate his victorious departure.

Modern interpretations of the Greek Labyrinth

In recent times the myth of the labyrinth has been transformed into a play by Ilinka Crvenkovska, in which the notions of man's abilities to control his own destiny are explored. The Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, was fascinated with the concept of the labyrinth and used it many times in the development of his stories. The literary use that this writer gave the subject has inspired many other authors in the world, such as Umberto Eco (in The Name of the Rose).

Construction of modern mazes

In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the labyrinth symbol, which has inspired a resurgence of notable construction in Willen Park (Milton Keynes), Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and Tapfield Park in Chesterfield.

Cultural significance

The cultural meaning and interpretation of the maze as a symbol is very rich. In prehistory the labyrinths drawn on the floor perhaps served as traps for malevolent spirits or more likely as defined routes (choreographies) for ritual dances. In several cultures, the labyrinth is also associated with initiation rites that imply the passing of some test. Garden recreating a maze in Aschaffenburg, Germany. During medieval times the theocentric labyrinth symbolized the hard road to God with a single entrance (birth) and a clearly defined center (God). In the Renaissance the labyrinths lose the center: the person in the labyrinth is the center, a reflection of the anthropocentric humanistic teachings. Today the labyrinths move in different layers of reality; They have an important place in literature, movies and video games.

Natural Labyrinths

Jorge Luis Borges explains that the king of Babylon locked another Arab king in a labyrinth, where he wandered and confused until the decline of the afternoon. Years later that Arab king captured the Babylonian and tied him on a camel to lead him into the desert. They rode for three days, and said: “ O king of time and substance and figure of the century! In Babylon you wanted to lose me in a bronze labyrinth with many stairs, doors and walls; Now the Mighty One has had good to show you mine, where there are no stairs to climb, no doors to force, no tiring galleries to go through, no walls that sell you your way. ” Then he untied his ties and left him in the middle. from the desert, where he died of hunger and thirst.

If a labyrinth is basically a path that joins two points of space, in this case it is a labyrinth without limits. In mathematics, a network is a set of points connected to each other by paths called knots. The networks of knots are observed very frequently in nature, examples are: a tree, the nervous system or the animal circulatory, the brain, could an ecosystem be a network labyrinth? And a sphere?

The tree and the sphere are two beautiful symbols and at the same time metaphors, on the border of the possible labyrinths, because it turns out that the most frequent forms of nature are either the fractal, or well derived from circular symmetry.

The sphere is the maximum maze, and the most frequent form of nature because there is nothing more disorienting than a circular sphere, but in this way other derivatives such as the oval also arise, the spiral, the polygons, etc. The only family of forms that could not be reduced to circular symmetry would be fractal forms, such as trees, clouds.

Then, it can be said that the two most frequent forms in living and inert reality are two extreme families of labyrinths: spheres and fractals.

So far our trip through the Labyrinth. I hope readers enjoyed it as much as I did.

MORE INFORMATION in the Manuals: "The Book of Labyrinths, history of a myth and a symbol" by Paolo Santarcangeli and "Labyrinths" by Jaime Buhigas Tallon.

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