The seven-circuit labyrinth at Luzzanas, Sardinia, may be the world’s oldest surviving labyrinth.
Certainly, as Attali points out, the labyrinth symbol has been found on Neolithic figurines discovered near Belgrade in Yugoslavia, at the ruins of Kunlani near Madras in India and on a block of granite in the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland. Plus, one of the designs produced by the Yombas of Mauritania (an Islamic Republic between Senegal and Western Sahara, Africa) describes a giraffe alongside a labyrinth in which a bird is being mesmerized by a snake.
Regardless of where the labyrinth concept originated, this symbol has captured the imagination of cultures worldwide. Navigating their way through turf mazes – unicursal labyrinths cut into grass – was a popular game for Roman children. Indeed, many British examples still in existence have been found to have been sited close to Roman encampments and major Roman roads. This is the case at Alkborough, South Humberside, where there is a 44ft diameter turf labyrinth known as “Julian’s Bower.” One correspondent, writing in the mid-nineteenth century, recalls how he and his school friends would run in and out of the labyrinth as part of their May Day celebrations. While no one knows exactly when it was constructed, it is believed to have been built before 1671. However, there are many turf labyrinths throughout Britain that predate that. At Boughton Green in Northamptonshire there was one known as the “Shepherd’s Ring” or “Shepherd’s Race” whose “treading” was a key feature of the village’s June fair – an event dating back to the middle of the fourteenth century. This tradition of cutting a labyrinth pattern into hillsides also became a common custom of Welsh shepherd boys who tended their flocks alone on the mountains and may have offered them some light relief from a tedious occupation. Among the general population in earlier times, these turf mazes were often given the epithet “Troy Towns.”
Troy Towns
Various suggestions have been put forward as to why labyrinths were called “Troy Towns” or “Walls of Troy” in Britain, “Caerdroia” in Wales and “Trojeborn” in Scandinavia. According to a fifteenth century French manuscript detailing a gentleman’s journey to Jerusalem, now in the British Museum, the Knossos labyrinth with which we associate the Minotaur legend was at that time commonly known as “The City of Troy.” According to the poet Virgil (70B.C.–19A.D.), writing about the Trojan Wars (c. 1,300–1,200B.C.), the only Trojan prince to escape after the fall of Troy was Aeneas, who fled to Italy with his father and son. This young boy is said to have popularized a processional parade or dance that wealthy Roman youths subsequently re-enacted, which was known as the “Game of Troy.” (Aeneas is said to have founded Lavinium, from where the founders of Rome originated.) This youthful reconstruction of the epic conflict has also been found depicted on an Etruscan vase found at Tragliatella which is decorated with figures engaging in the Lusus Trojae or “Game of Troy,” alongside a Classical seven-circuit labyrinth.
Legend has it that Aeneas’ great-grandson, Brutus was sent into exile and, after freeing the descendants of Trojan captives, founded a new kingdom which was named after him – Britain. This may account for the fact that while turf mazes, many still surviving, exist in other parts of Europe, the greatest proliferation of them is in Britain.
Given the fact that so many of these stories were handed down by word of mouth for centuries, the “Game of Troy” may have become mixed up with the Crane Dance said to have originated with Theseus and his party after escaping from the Knossos maze (see here).
Later, the Roman Catholic Church embraced the labyrinth motif, describing it on the floors of churches and cathedrals during the thirteenth century, principally across Italy and France. The most famous examples can still be seen at Chartres and Amiens, although many have subsequently been destroyed – including those at Rheims, Sens, and Auxerre Cathedrals.
Despite having in common a single pathway leading to and from the center, there are considerable variations on the general theme. Not all church labyrinths are circular. Some are octagonal, like the example at Amiens. Others have additional corner pieces (called “bastions” or “bellows”), as with the Rheims example. A very early labyrinth, dating back to the fourth century in the Church of Reparatus in Orleansville, Algeria, is square. Not all churches favored pavement labyrinths either. The entrance walls of many Italian churches, like that of Lucca Cathedral (see here), were inscribed with small finger labyrinths that worshipers could trace before entering.
Across the Atlantic, the Hopi Indians of Arizona had their own version of the labyrinth symbol, known as the “Man in the Maze,” which continues to be inscribed on jewelry and other artifacts to this day. Unlike the European labyrinth designs, the Hopi example features the entrance at the top rather than the bottom, and there is always a male figure portrayed at the mouth. This is reminiscent of the games played by young men in Scandinavia who would challenge each other at the entrance to the labyrinth to see who could be the first to reach the female waiting for them in the center.
From several millennia B.C. through to the present time, there have been examples of the labyrinth found in the Far East, Scandinavia, the Americas, and throughout Europe. In the sixteenth century, multicursal hedge mazes became popular as formal gardens began to be established in Europe and wealthy patrons looked to be amused and challenged by these puzzles. Many examples can be found in France, including the hedge maze built at the Palace of Versailles for Louis XIV. The one that was created at the palace of Het Loo in Holland became the inspiration for the maze established in 1690 at Hampton Court, Henry VIII’S palace south-west of London. Given the complexity of their construction and the cost of their upkeep, hedge mazes are mainly found near castles, within the gardens of large country houses and, more recently, in public gardens and large parks.
However fascinating puzzle mazes have been over the past four hundred years, the unicursal labyrinth is now enjoying a renaissance – particularly thanks to the leadership given by Dr. Lauren Artress of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, California where there is both an outdoor terrazzo labyrinth and an indoor tapestry one. As you will discover from the personal stories in this book, anyone with the desire to benefit from this calming, meditative and – some say – healing tool, can produce a labyrinth for themselves, irrespective of space, materials, or money.
ORIGINS OF THE LABYRINTH
So, we have no shortage of historical antecedents for the labyrinth motif, but where might it have originated, and who was responsible?
Established in 1690, the Hampton Court maze is probably the most impressive hedge maze in Britain.
Collective Unconscious
The most popular suggestion focuses on what the Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Gustav Jung termed “the collective unconscious” – a universal thought that is captured and expressed simultaneously by groups separated by space and time. You have probably experienced this for yourself, when hitting upon a “unique” idea, only to find that someone else has been developing something almost identical at the same time.
The most common explanation for the proliferation of labyrinths across so many different cultures is that we are each responsive to subliminal perceptions. Jung argued that the collective unconscious is formed of two parts – instincts and archetypes, which are universally inherited and mutually dependant. While our instincts are biological – such as the flight, freeze or fight responses experienced when facing danger – the archetypes we each store in our unconscious memory are equally primordial but are