Labyrinth

Old labyrinths

Prehistory

The oldest representation of a labyrinth was found in a tomb Siberian dating from the Paléolithique: it is about a maze of seven convolutions, surrounded by four double spirals, engraved on a piece of ivory of mammoth. One finds also labyrinths at the time of the Neolithic , at the edge of the the Danube, close to the Aegean Sea, in Savoy, Ireland, Sardinia, with the Portugal, in Italy (with the Valley Camonina, there is: 4000 years) with Malta or with Belgrade, on figurines going back to 7000 years. These layouts are registered in squares or circles, accompanied by drawings of bear, birds or snakes. On the island of Gavrinis, in Brittany, it was discovered a gallery with multiple junctions. The changes of management are indicated in particular by spirals. These labyrinthian layouts always fit in crowned places.

Thus, according to Jacques Attali, the labyrinth is registered not only like one symbol, but also like the support of a myth, even means of communication: a language before the writing .

Old Egypt

The oldest labyrinth would be allotted, according to Hérodote, with Amménémès III, Pharaon of XIIe dynasty, which would have had as a project to build close to the lake Moéris (current Birket-Karoun), its monumental palate, comprising a continuation of: 3000 rooms and corridors on several levels. This labyrinth was built for glorifier his capacity but also to recall to the Egyptians the name of their twelve kings and to celebrate the dodécarchie: The Egyptians had been free after the reign of Héphaïstos. But, incompetents in any time to live without king, they gave each other twelve of them, by dividing whole Egypt into twelve batches (...) One their decisions was to leave a common monument which pointed out their names: this decided, they made build a labyrinth above the Lake Moéris and close to the city which one calls Crocodilopolis . This last would have inspired besides Dédale for the construction of the prison which was to lock up Minotaure.

The Pyramide of Hawara has a true labyrinth, to reach the funerary temple. According to Hérodote, this labyrinth counted twelve courses principal surrounded by galleries and rooms. Strabon counted as many rooms as there was name in Egypt.

Ancient Greece

The labyrinth of Minotaure built by Dédale would have been located in Crete, on the island of the king Minos; it is indeed on the order of this king that it was built, in order to make there lock up the monstrous creature born of the loves of the queen Pasiphaé and a Taureau. The archaeological research made in Crete on the Minoan palates , in particular that of Cnossos, reveals extended constructions, whose overall plan is complex. The myth of the Labyrinth could be only one transposition of this architectural complexity; in addition, Crétois dedicated a worship with the Taureau. Étymologiquement, the word would derive from the term “ labrys ” which indicates an axe, more exactly a double axe as those which one found reproductions engraved in the stone with Cnossos.

The Mythe of the Labyrinth is a double representation of the Man and his condition:

It is on the one hand the representation of the obscure Man to itself, which is lost while trying to know. It symbolizes the human heart in all its complexity, in prey with the evil (incarnated by Minotaure, monstrous being). Any meeting with the monster appears fatal.
It represents in addition the Man vis-a-vis the universe: it is lost, does not know from where it comes, where it is, where it goes, and seeks to leave this state, i.e. to find the answers to its questions.

Only three people succeeded in leaving there according to the legend:

First of all, Maze and his/her son Icare. They, according to the versions, were locked up there by Minos itself, the silent partner of the work, which wanted to be certain that its creator does not ventilate the plans of them. However, the design was so perfect that the architect himself was quite unable to find the exit of it. It had to resort to a clever stratagem: to flee by the airs, while rising thanks to made wings of wax and feathers. For others. According to one of the legends, the god finding Dionysos, it deadened, fell in love from there and married it, the ones behind the others, around the furnace bridge of Apollon. This dance evoked the wire of ARIANE, the turnings of the labyrinth,….She was danced during very many years on the island of Délos and with Athens.

The Greek legend takes again some aspects of the Egyptian mystery: death, the possibility of mislaying, the discussion thread, and concept of no return. But the comparison stops there. Indeed, as much for the Egyptians, most important was to reach the center, as much for the Greeks, it was important to return.

Other civilizations

Symbol of an initiatory advance long and difficult, the labyrinth is known many old civilizations: the prehistoric men, the Mésopotamie NS, Scandinavian, the Hopis, the Navajos, Indian, aboriginals of Australia, the Tuaregs, Jews of Palestine (going back to 2000 before J.C.), the Mayas…. In India the labyrinth is represented in the form of the Mandala, art of ancestral tradition, symbolizing the destiny. It is about a crowned circle, in which one finds divinities Buddhist. It represents the mixture between the organization of the world ideal, and the advance, length and difficult, of the man: the interior voyage. In the same way, in China, one finds labyrinths engraved in the cave of You ong You ing, in the shape of incense ways whose consumation is used to measure the passage of time. They serve especially during the night, when the sun cannot light. In Scandinavia, it is not rare to find many labyrinths, built stones of various dimensions, in order to build the walls of a way. The figure of fylfot (swatiska crowned) thus built, and based on nine points (crowned figure), can be found on isolated islands. It is useful for traditional dances or plays.

In these various cultures, the labyrinths of stone or grass always present a single course with fast exit. To traverse the labyrinth, only or with the whole of the community, is then the occasion of an introspection. The meanders symbolize the course of the human destiny, its traps and its torments.

During millenia, the labyrinth fascinated humanity by its mysteries, because only one path leads to the goal. Layouts of tortuous ways were cut in the rock faces of the American desert and on Scandinavian cliffs. Mazes were cut in the peat of the Wales and England (like the Julian' S Bower with Alkborough). Monsters and giants belong to this myth, and the Churches themselves made use of its symbolism. Today they are not any more that one amusing curiosity, of which one of the most known models is that of Hampton Court in England.

Labyrinths of churches

When the Christianisme occurs, instead of erasing or to fight the signs of the former rites, the worship recovers them, absorbs them: gods, temples, cathedrals, relics, festivals agricultural and labyrinths present in the tombs or various spaces crowned (to be noted that the Bible at all does not evoke the presence of a labyrinth; if it is only indirectly with that which would have surrounded and protected the town of Jericho).

At the 4th century, in 324 exactly, one meets already a labyrinth which was spread in the ground of the Christian basilica San Reparatus in El-Asnam in Algérie. It is necessary to wait the 6th century to see appearing labyrinths of churches in Europe, where oldest is with the Basilique San Vitale of Ravenne in Italy. But the highly pagan symbol of the labyrinth is abandoned during all the Early middle ages, to be begun again only at the 12th century. This feature became common to good number of churches, and the majority of large the cathedrals of Europe. Vastest are in the French Cathédrales: Poitiers, Amiens, Arras, Auxerre, Rheims, Bayeux, Chartres, Mirepoix, Saint-Omer, Saint-Quentin, Toulouse. The labyrinth is always located there west coast, the direction from which the demons come (west being direction of died). Being able to move only in straight line, they were thus trapped before arriving at the chorus.

The majority of these cathedrals were built by semi-skilled workers, called companions, brought together as brotherhoods or fraternities. At this period, there existed three fraternities: children of the Soubise Father, children of Jacques Master, and Children of Solomon related to the Order of the Temple. The latter left on the stones or the beams, some signs engraved which are their signatures.

The old French names used to indicate these types of labyrinth were: “Maze”, of the name of inventive sound , “meander” and “way of Jerusalem”. The center of the maze him was named “paradise” or “Jerusalem”. It is extremely probable that those “were threaded” really by the penitent ones which mimaient a Pèlerinage in Holy Land, which replaced a Pèlerinage for the poor. The sinuosities, the turnings were to symbolize the tribulations of the Christian life. The maze was an optimistic representation of the final sanction, because it almost never comprised junctions, neither loops, nor culs-de-sac.

The labyrinth of the cathedral of Chartres is an imposing labyrinth twelve meters in diameter, its drawing on the ground has a complex significance, and results from an opposition of white and blue pavings. The center was formerly decorated of a copper plate representing Thésée, Dédale and the Minotaure (withdrawn in 1793 to melt of the guns for the Republic). A psalm proceeds on the 150 m of its course. Around the center, the corridors are held in eleven circles: the way of Jerusalem thus represented does not reach the perfection, symbolized by the number 12. The ambulations of the believers (and in particular of the pilgrims of Compostelle) at the time of his course symbolic system, a true spiritual way, are the occasion of an introspection. They followed the layout without really controlling the direction, starting by moving right to the goal, towards the center, before moving away some, thus forcing the faithful one to multiple turnings. The labyrinth is not visible all the time, of the benches being placed on the pavement. But Friday, of Easter to the All Saints' day, (and sometimes the remainder of the year, information to the diocese of Chartres) it is discovered and the faithful ones can saunter there. This labyrinth was the subject of a very thorough and detailed recent study, made public in 1984, under the title " A cathedral dévoile". To note that, if the labyrinth of Chartres consists of arcs of circles, that of Amiens consists of segments of right-hand sides, but according to a plan rigorously identical to that of Chartres. In the same way, the basilica of Saint-Quentin also proposes, on its paving stone, a labyrinth déambulatoire.

One finds one of the smallest labyrinths of church to the cathedral of Lucques in Italy (see illustration). It is engraved on the wall, and measures approximately 50 cm broad. The faithful ones followed the course of the finger: it is a digital labyrinth. Inside, one recognizes - badly - the worn figures of Thésée and the Minotaure engraved in the center. The inscription says “This is a labyrinth that the Crétois Dédale builds, and of which no one having entered did not come out from it there except Thésée; still it could it without ARIANE, which helped it by love”. A labyrinth is in the ruins of the Abbaye Saint-Bertin, with Saint-Omer.

At the end of the the Middle Ages, the labyrinth becomes synonymous with evil: it is the cursed place of the lust, the sin and the wandering. Starting from the XIVe century, the men of the church will carry out the obliteration of the labyrinths drawn on the ground. Those which cannot be destroyed, are diverted in completely ridiculous plays, or are hidden under carpets. In 1538, a stop of the Parliament of Paris still prohibits these drawings. With the XVIIIe century, one destroys those of the cathedral of Sens, or of the abbey of Saint-Omer, Poitiers, Auxerre, Arras and Amiens (in 1825). The labyrinth of the cathedral of Rheims, is thus destroyed in 1779 because of the noise generated by the faithful young people who had fun these mazes during the offices. This one, called the labyrinth of Solomon, was the sign of the indefinite existence and the mutability of the matter. This mobility of massive destruction is followed in all the other Christian countries, because they represented an unforgivable concession with paganism. Only those of Saint-Quentin, Bayeux and Chartres remain still today (of others were rebuilt thereafter).

Some labyrinths, of various forms, thus were discovered in all the Europe. But the structure known as “official” of the labyrinth of church is the circular shape with eleven concentric rings. Since the Antiquity, the circle is the symbol of eternity, of infinity and consequently, of the power of the Divinity. It is also the symbol of the sun, and this last, for the Christianisme, is not other than the Christ.

Some Enluminure S labyrinthian were noticed besides in some religious manuscripts, as the Livre of Kells ( Book off Kells in English; Leabhar Cheanannais in Irish), realized by Celtic monks about the year 800.

Through the centuries, the labyrinth of church knew various names: Maze (in reference to the architect of the labyrinth of Cnossos), “way of Jerusalem” (the Holy Land pilgrimage), “mile” (referring to time that it was necessary to traverse the labyrinth with knees), “the Via Dolorosa” (the way which Christ between the court of Pontius Pilate took and the Golgotha)…

Symbolism of the labyrinth

The circle in which the labyrinth fits symbolizes the unit, the perfection: it returns to the finitude of the life. In many cultures, the Universe is represented by a series of concentric circles. The oval represents the female one in general, the broken lines point out the rivers, and the straight lines, the rain (water being the symbol of the life). The square, as for him represents the Universe or the Earth, Creation, and the central cross, Cosmos, with a vertical line (symbol of the male spirit) and an horizontal line (symbol of the female matter), whose point of meeting is humanity. The labyrinth is thus a representation of the life even. In addition, the spiral can also represent to become it: it implies a cyclic vision of the history, " any cost eternally, but with a new dimension, perfect contradiction of the line, unilinear design of the temps" .

The labyrinth is also a prototype of Knowledge. Its route is between the Horns of the Monster which the initiate must face. Its course is a way of tests corresponding to the imagery symbolic system of a bridge to cross. This archetypal bridge is named, in the tradition mazdéenne Pont of Cinvat . It separates two universes according to Henry Corbin. The passage from one universe to another is carried out at the prices of this crossing which is achieved according to precise strategies, where nothing is not left randomly, with the image of the Sortie Egypt. The directives having to lead to the exit of the labyrinth are consigned in the rites and traditions.

The labyrinth is also symbol of voyage. Union between the Spiral and the Braid, it represents a different voyage according to whether one must cross the labyrinth, or to reach its center. In the first, the test is single (the last voyage of the man towards death, or the passage towards beyond). In the second case, the test can be double, triple… because in addition to the fact of reaching the center, still is necessary it to be able to leave there. It is the image even of the individual who crosses a test (physical, psychological…), and which must sacrifice part of itself to survive. That which succeeded becomes an initiate; he enters a new life (from where the importance of the initiatory rites since the prehistoric men). Face to face with death the individual his resurrection allows.

For Alain de Benoist, the topic of the labyrinth associates a royal construction and a not held promise, that it is of king Minos and the labyrinth, of the construction of the walls of Troy, or the fortress of Asgaard… The topic implies in addition obligatorily a woman or a goddess (Helene for Troy, ARIANE in Crete,…)

Modern labyrinths

Until the Rebirth, the labyrinths of ambulation were an object of spirituality and were only in the religious buildings. It is only as from the 16th century that meanders of thickets were spread in many gardens of Europe bringing to the labyrinth a profane dimension: pleasure of losing itself and the Play (in particular the Play of the goose). The creators multiplied artistic and sophisticated convolutions. Lastly, ultimate misadventure, the labyrinth became the play of the Marelle. The radical of this word means " pierre" , which is not without relationship with the construction of the Dédale architect. But by the form even of the layout, this play evokes the churches with their nave, their transept and the chorus. Similar christianization of the initial myth shows that it is a question now either of being mislaid or of prohibiting somebody from finding the exit, but insists on the spiritual advance to follow: the heart must pass from the ground (the entry of the church) to the sky (symbolized by the chorus) by knowing various vicissitudes (boxes of the Nef and the Transept). But it is true than ever the children did not realize that they played in fact… the safety of their heart.

The writer Jacques Attali uses of this Métaphore to describe the modern world. This one became more and more complex indeed so much that the success of a course depends today, according to him, of the Hasard of the choices that actually produced work. Extremely of this report, the birth of the concept of labyrinthor is essential consequently.

Vegetable labyrinths

It is as from the 16th century, that the Italians transpose the labyrinth in the gardens. Today, largely widespread in Europe, the vegetable labyrinth is an original concept tourist - sometimes transitory (field of corn) or permanent (thujas) - which approaches the initiatory layouts of the pagan times. Bored whimsical mazes, they are accompanied by attractions based on tales of Fée S, enigmas to be solved…

In Europe, some achievements can be visited, such as that of Guéret (Creuse), that of the Jardin of the priory of Orsan (Cher - France), that of Durbuy in (Belgium) or that of Evionnaz in (Swiss), that of the Castle of Vendeuvre (France). Others are visible with Toulon-on-Arroux (Burgundy - France), with Ribeauvillé (Haut-Rhin), with the Château of Versailles, where the labyrinth, created by Ours in 1665, and destroyed in 1778, does not exist any more but figure still on the plan. Let us not forget the labyrinth of Tom Thumb in the Gardens of Bagatelle, the labyrinth of Graminée S and its Jeu of the goose to the Park of the castle of Chantilly, the labyrinth of Corn of Beaugency or that of the park of the castle of Auvers-sur-Oise.

Jean-Sebastien Bach carried out a piece of music illustrating whirlings and the difficulty in leaving a vegetable labyrinth, at the time where those were in favor: the Small musical Labyrinth .

The labyrinths cities

Various cities resemble labyrinths of share their construction.

According to a Hebraic manuscript dating from the 15th century, the city Jericho would be made of seven concentric circles (symbolizing the seven walls of the city) and would create a labyrinth. Or Jerusalem associated with the myth of the labyrinth: Holy City, it is the center of the teaching of the Christ and the result of the pilgrimage in Holy Land. It represents also the perfect city where one reached the redemption of the heart.

In the same way, the site Stonehenge would be, according to the writer Jorge Luis Borges, a labyrinth with several exits.

Also let us quote, the Island of Malekula (north-eastern of the New Caledonia), which has many labyrinths. The center of the latter, used in crowned rites, symbolizes the passage between the world of alive and deaths. But also London, where a labyrinth of squares of ceramics on the wall of a subway station in London, Warren Street. Warren is the name of the burrows of rabbits and their mazes of galleries. At the rush hours, the travellers have two minutes of waiting on average between each train. The author of the maze thought that it took approximately three minutes to solve it. Let us not forget Tokyo, labyrinth city par excellence. The crossings and the streets have neither names, nor indication. The city juxtaposes a succession of districts, staircases, highways piled up. New York also has this complexity: Paul Auster estimates that its birthplace is a labyrinth city. In its work the city of glass , the characters lose themselves in the routes of the avenues, being named only by numbers.

Labyrinth and mathematics

Symbolic system and mathematics in the traditional labyrinths

The proportions of the labyrinth follow the mathematical processes establish by Leonardo Pisano in 1202. These proportions correspond to the Golden section: $\ scriptstyle (1+ \ sqrt {5}) /2 \ approx$ 1,618.

The labyrinths are in general of circular form, even if one can discover some of square or octagonal form. The position of the labyrinth, compared to the remainder of the church or another crowned place, is determined by a geometrical layout, implementing concepts of geometry crowned, like the construction known as of the three tables. In addition, the division of the labyrinth in four dials corresponds to the cross of Christ, but also to the four seasons, the four cardinal points…

The symbolic system of the numbers is very present in the labyrinth. The references can be biblical, kabbalistic… In general, the labyrinth has eleven rings, some ten, others seven: eleven for the Layman, ten for the Clergy and seven for the initiate.

Approaches mathematical the generation of a labyrinth

A mathematical approach allows the generation of modern labyrinths. The labyrinths can be modelled in a multidimensional space, most current being the labyrinths in two dimensions. Concerning the latter, one generally discretizes space in square cells.

The labyrinth and sciences

To try out its psychological studies on the Memory, Burrhus Frederic Skinner created, in the years 1930 and 1940, of the boxes in which it worked out labyrinths. Inside, it placed Rat S there: the latter were to traverse these labyrinths as soon as possible, sign of training of the way and the memorizing of this last. A few years later (1945), two scientists Edward Tolman and Roman Honzik, complicated this labyrinth, in order to show the slow training of the rat.

The labyrinth in Art

The labyrinth in literature

The figure of the labyrinth often appears in the literature, like evocation of its form itself, or generally like symbol of a complex interior advance. In scriptural work, the labyrinth takes all its cerebral dimension. Certain authors, as Jorge Shine Borges, develops the labyrinth, by painting it like the symbol of the perplexity of the men, vis-a-vis the mysteries of the life. Many works are impreignées maze, which can represent a movement of outside towards the interior, of the form to contemplation, space to the absence of space, time to the absence of time, the multiplicity to the unit. The labyrinth becomes the image of a chaos ordered and arranged by the human intelligence.

Like principal literary works, one can quote, inter alia: Hell , of Dante (where Dante and Virgile go down in Hell through nine concentric circles, descent reported in twenty-four songs), Gargantua of Rabelais (with the labyrinth of the Abbaye of Thélème), which finds an echo in the Name of the pink , of Umberto Eco, 1980 (where the labyrinth sheltering the library of the abbey wants to be a representation of the world which shows through finally in the classification of works), the Metamorphoses of Ovide (Book VIII), the labyrinth of Versailles of Charles Perrault, Ulysses , of James Joyce, 1922 (Romance which reports the labyrinthian peregrinations of Léopold Bloom, small middle-class without history, through the streets of Dublin, during on June 16th 1904. This day, called Bloomsday is celebrated every year in Dublin), the Gums , of Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1953 (where the main character, Wallas, new investigating, wander in a city of North, in order to find the assassin of Daniel Dupont (whose corpse remains untraceable) the body itself and his own memories of childhood), which finds an echo with the novel In the labyrinth 1959, of the same author, the city of glass or the loneliness of the labyrinth , of Paul Auster, 1997 (where the Paul Auster author answers series of questions on his life, his career, his work, his New York city and of Brooklyn), Labyrinth , of Kate Mosse, 2006 (where the main character, Alaïs, try to bore the secrecy of Graal, by traversing various complex labyrinths), etc…

Certain childish literary works treat labyrinth and its sympbolique. A perfect example can be given in Alice to the country of the wonders , of Lewis Carroll, 1865 where Alice must traverse a labyrinth in order to be able to join the Queen of Heart (chapter 8); or the Tom Thumb of Charles Perrault, 1697 where the main character sows bread crumbs, then white stones, to find the way of its house.

The labyrinth as cartoons

Some authors of cartoons knew to exploit the figure of the labyrinth in their works. Let us quote some examples with the infernal Labyrinth , volume 9 of the adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, by Jacques Tardi 2007, the Labyrinth , volume 4 of the series Relayer Eric Liberge and Vincent Gravé, 2006, the Ten Flagstones of the labyrinth , volume 2 of the series intergalactic Tessa agent of Nicolas Mitrix and Stephan Louis, In the Black thoughts of Franquin (where a prisoner is locked up in a planet-labyrinth), or in one of the tome cheeses of the series Julius Corentin Acquefacques, prisoner of the dreams of Marc-Antoine Mathieu, where the hero traverses a whole of parts while walking on the top of the walls.

The labyrinth with the cinema

The topic of the labyrinth was many times exploited at the Cinéma, in particular in Science-fiction. In general, the main character is locked up in a labyrinth (physically or psychologically) and tries by all the means of leaving itself there. Let us quote only some examples: the Labyrinth , Jan Lenica, 1963, mysterious Labyrinth , of Shuji Terayama, 1975, Shining , of Stanley Kubrick, 1979 (where the labyrinth is a real obsession. It is on him which rests the narrative screen. The account of Kubrick is labyrinthian and its characters pass by again by the same places and the same stages. This ritual brings new prospects and clearness to them), Glauber the film, labyrinth of Brazil , Silvio Tendler, 1981, Labyrinthe , of Jim Henson, 1986, the Name of the pink , of Jean-Jacques Annaud, 1986 (where the two main characters try to find the library of the abbey, and lose themselves in a labyrinth of corridors and staircases. They reach it after many adventures and leave there thanks to a wire drawn from the frieze from one from the characters, Adso de Melk. The representation of this labyrinth is not identical to that of the book of Umberto Eco), the Labyrinth of the dreams , of Sogo Ishii, 1997, the series Bowler hat and leather boots , of Jeremiah S. Chechik, 1998, Cube, of Vincenzo Natali, 1999 , Harry Potter and the goblet of fire , of Mike Newell, 2005, or the series Prison Station-wagon , of Paul Scheuring, 2005 (where the main character, Michael Scofield is made tattoo the plan of prison in which is locked up his/her brother, in the form of labyrinth, then is made itself imprison to help it to escape. Lastly, let us quote one of last films in date, the Labyrinth of Side , of Guillermo del Toro, 2006 (where the Ofélia young person discovers, in 1944, a mysterious labyrinth, close to the large family home. Side, the guard of the places reveals to him whereas it is the princess missing from a magic kingdom. To discover the truth, the young girl must achieve three tests in this labyrinth.

The labyrinth in music

Some type-setters knew to put in music the complexity of the labyrinth. Let us quote only the Small musical Labyrinth of Johann Sebastian Bach, 1703 - 1707, the Labyrinth , Yves Duteil, 1976, Madnesses Of Spain - continuation into mid- the labyrinth , of Marin Marais (Type-setter), interpreted by Marianne Muller, 2006, or Song From The Labyrinth , of Sting, 2006. A group of traditional musicians (together of old music XVIe - XVIIe- XVIIIe centuries) named the labyrinth .

The labyrinth in the sculpture, in visual arts, painting

15th in the 1st century of the Christian era, the image of the labyrinth crétois was reproduced on the coins: sometimes represented in circular form or square form, or on the Greek potteries, of the marble sculptures, the mosaics.

Nowadays, the sculpture of the labyrinth is not stripped of symbolism. For several years, Marta Pan has worked out labyrinths, which lock up the vital space of the individual, and protect it from the outside world. In 1996, Muriel Baumgartner created an exposure Labyrinthe , in the Center of contemporary art the Priory, in Gaillon. Waclaw Szpakowski, artist Polish (1883 - 1973), worked him also on formed drawings of only one line, labyrinthian and rhythmic.

The representations of the labyrinth in painting are particularly numerous: that it is about an Italian painting of the 15th century Thésée and ARIANE , kept with the museum of the Louvre of Paris, or an illustration of the Métapmorphoses (Book VIII) of Ovide. It was found besides, there is little, a chart of the world dating from the 13th century carried out by Richard Hallington. On the site of the Crete, a labyrinth is reproduced there, with the inscription Laborintus is domus Dealli ( This is the labyrinth, the house of Maze ).

The labyrinth in the play

The concept of the labyrinth was exploited first of all under the name of Jeu of the goose, then under that of Labyrinthe. For a few years the video games such as Lara Croft, or simply “labyrinth” have exploited this complex figure.

In the same way, the house of the Labyrinthe was one of most spectacular attractions life size of the World Fair Expo 67 of Montreal in 1967, and comprised innovations of Projection of images close to those which will be installation well later in the Futuroscope.

The myth of Maze and the labyrinth are also one of the four myths founders of the Tarot: that of the various stages of the initiatory voyage towards the self-knowledge.

Functions of the labyrinths

The labyrinths can have various functions, concrete or abstract, esoteric and/or spiritual. The labyrinth was used as annual Calendrier (the course of the labyrinth is divided into 31 arcs of circle, which would represent the 31 days per month) or of measure Marée S (a Pictogramme of apparent movements combined of the moon and sun, which made it possible to calculate the force and the hour of the tides): the Vikings would have used a formed labyrinth of two snakes coiled on themselves to determine the calculation of the tides (hour and force). It could also represent various courses such as that of the Pénitence (the labyrinth is then traversed with knees while reciting prayers and psalms, as a sign of penitence and to obtain the remission of the sins), that of the Pèlerinage, or that of initiation (this course allows the transformation of ego, in the center even of the labyrinth and which will find its confirmation at the end of the voyage. The exit of the labyrinth marks the victory of spiritual over the material, of the eternal over the perishable one, the intelligence over the instinct, of the knowledge on violence plugs), or that of the penitentiary (trotts it circular condemned described by Paul Verlaine in its manuscript Cellulairement ).

See too

ARIANE
Maze
Icare
Minos
Minotaure
Thésée
Philippe Fassier, creator of labyrinths
Robert Abbott, creator of labyrinths
mathematical Modeling of a labyrinth

Random links: