Labyrinths and Mazes—Why So Intriguing?
By Awake! correspondent in Britain
Although the words “labyrinth” and “maze” can be used interchangeably, their structures do differ. The pathway of a labyrinth takes a meandering course to its center. On the other hand, a maze can have blind passageways, and the correct path, when discovered, usually leads through the maze, exiting another way.
Both labyrinths and mazes can frighten, puzzle, or frustrate those who enter. But ancient labyrinths are also bound up in superstitious folklore. Why, then, did Christendom’s church builders incorporate labyrinths into their buildings? The answer is intriguing.
WHAT was the greatest building feat of the ancient Egyptians? According to some writers, it was not the pyramids, as is generally believed, but, rather, their mighty Labyrinth. It was built near Lake Moeris, known today as Lake Qarun, located west of the Nile River and 50 miles [80 km] south of the modern city of Cairo.
In the fifth century B.C.E., the Greek historian Herodotus wrote: “I visited this place [the Labyrinth] and found it to surpass description; for if all the walls and other great works of the Greeks could be put together in one, they would not equal, either for labour or expense, this Labyrinth.” He added: “The Labyrinth surpasses the pyramids.” Four centuries later Strabo, another Greek historian, declared the Labyrinth to be “a work equal to the Pyramids,” even though by that time it had greatly decayed.
The area was visited by historian F. Barham Zincke in 1871, and the site was finally identified by archaeologist Flinders Petrie in 1888. Only fragments of the Labyrinth remained then, and today guidebooks barely mention it. At one time, however, the Labyrinth was famous. What was it like, and why was it built?
Description and Purpose
The Labyrinth was constructed very early in Egypt’s history, possibly even before the Hebrews resided in Egypt. (Genesis 46:1-27) It was said to have had 3,000 rooms equally divided between two stories—one story being below ground level. It covered a total area of some 800,000 square feet [70,000 sq m].
So complicated and bewildering was the Labyrinth’s intricate system of passages, courts, rooms, and colonnades, that a stranger could never find his way in—or out—without a guide. Much of it was in total darkness, and when some of the doors were opened, they were said to have made a terrifying sound, like thunder. Following the decline of the Egyptian World Power, the Labyrinth’s impressive red granite pillars, enormous stone slabs, and finely polished limestone were plundered and reused.
Although the Labyrinth reportedly served as a center from which kings of Egypt administered the country, its real function was religious. It was a temple complex where sacrifices were made to all the gods of Egypt. No visitors were permitted to see the lower rooms of the Labyrinth, which contained tombs both for kings and sacred crocodiles.
The mythical significance of the Labyrinth is best understood in connection with the religious rituals that surrounded the Egyptian god Osiris, who the Egyptians believed was at one time king of Egypt. Osiris was the god of the dead, or the god of the underworld.
Mythology and Immortality
The death of Osiris was reenacted in the Egyptian annual Mystery Drama. Apis, a sacred bull, was ceremonially slain in the place of Osiris amid great wailing and weeping. This weeping turned to joy when the officiating priest announced to the people the glad tidings of Osiris’ resurrection. To the Egyptians, these mysterious events were the focal point of their hope of life. They believed that every man, not just the king, became identified with Osiris at death.
The book The Labyrinth, edited by Professor S. H. Hooke, observed: “In Egypt the early myth of Osiris suggests the existence of forces which menaced the life of the king-god, both on earth and in the after-world.” The Labyrinth, with its bewildering system of passages, was thus believed to provide protection for the god-king from his enemies in this life and the next—even from death itself.
In time, the belief in human immortality became firmly established in ancient Egypt and throughout the ancient world. Indeed, the teaching of the immortality of the human soul that developed over the ensuing centuries was soon embraced not just by kings but by the whole of mankind.
The Cretan Labyrinth
The labyrinth at Knossos, on the island of Crete, was apparently built some years after the Egyptian one. Although its site has not yet been positively identified, records say that it was similar to, but very much smaller than, the Egyptian pattern.a Our word “labyrinth” may be related to laʹbrys, a double-headed ax representing the two horns of the sacred bull. This bull was featured in Minoan (Cretan) worship, which was deeply influenced by mythology.
The Cretan labyrinth was famous in mythology for its resident Minotaur—a mythological man with a bull’s head. Pasiphaë, the wife of Minos, king of Crete, is said to have given birth to this creature—hence its name, Minotaur, meaning “Bull of Minos.” According to the myth, the city of Athens lost a war with Crete, and its people were compelled every nine years to send 14 youths—7 boys and 7 girls—as sacrifices to the Minotaur. These youths were released into the labyrinth, where they got lost and were then supposedly devoured by the Minotaur.
In time, however, one youth, Theseus, took up the challenge and entered the labyrinth to kill this mythical monster. Upon encountering it, Theseus is said to have killed the Minotaur with his sword. To escape, he retraced his steps by following a golden thread, which he had laid down from the entrance of the labyrinth. The thread had been given to him by Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos.
Michael Ayrton, who constructed a conjectural model of the Cretan labyrinth, explained: “Each man’s life is a labyrinth at the centre of which lies his death, and even after death it may be that he passes through a final maze before it is all ended for him.” In this sense, the mythological Theseus’ escape from the labyrinth symbolized his rebirth, his escape from death. Again, the teaching of human immortality becomes apparent.
Greece and Rome
The pattern of the classical Cretan labyrinth appears on coins found at Knossos. Soon this pattern was imitated by the Greeks and the Romans. Pliny mentions a labyrinth on the Mediterranean island of Samos and another, which was renowned for the beauty of its 150 columns, on the island of Lemnos. He also refers to an elaborate Etruscan tomb written about by an earlier writer, Varro, which allegedly contained a subterranean labyrinth.
The city of Pompeii, destroyed by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E., featured at least two decorative labyrinths. One of these, the House of the Labyrinth, is famous for its extraordinary mosaic pavement depicting the struggle between Theseus and the Minotaur. The writer Marcel Brion contends that this is “an allegory of human life and of the difficult journeys which the soul must make in this world and in the next before attaining the blessed condition of immortality.”
Children in the ancient Roman world played games in labyrinth patterns set out in fields and on pavements. Today throughout Europe there are numerous remains of mosaic labyrinth floor patterns in excavated Roman villas and other Roman civic buildings. But the mythological ideas soon spread even farther afield.
Into Many Countries
The temple of Halebid, in Mysore, India, has a section of frieze that includes a labyrinth. Built about the 13th century C.E., it illustrates an episode from the Mahabharata.
The Chinese believed that evil spirits could fly only in a straight line, so they built entrances of a simple labyrinth type to keep evil spirits out of their homes and cities.
In Scandinavia, there are over 600 stone labyrinths on the shores of the Baltic Sea. It is said that many of them were built by local fishermen who superstitiously walked through them to ensure a good catch and a safe return.
On St. Agnes, a small island off the southwest coast of Cornwall, England, there is a maze that was renewed in 1726 by a lighthouse keeper on the site of an earlier pattern.
What is of particular interest to many is that the labyrinth has been incorporated into churches of Christendom. Consider a few examples.
Christendom’s Labyrinths and Mazes
Of the many remarkable labyrinths in Christendom’s religious buildings, one of the smallest must be the 15th-century circular carved wooden ornamentation high in the roof of St. Mary Redcliffe, a church in Bristol, England. Painted in gold and black, it has a diameter of only eight inches [20 cm]. The most famous labyrinth is in France’s Chartres Cathedral. Constructed in the year 1235, of blue and white stone, it is 40 feet [10 m] in diameter.
Large floor mazes were laid in other medieval French and Italian cathedrals and churches, including those at Amiens, Bayeux, Orléans, Ravenna, and Toulouse. The one at Reims was destroyed 200 years ago, and the Mirepoix Cathedral’s maze features a central Minotaur.
Regarding the incorporation of labyrinths into prominent religious buildings, one authority writes: “The pagan labyrinth was adopted by the medieval Christian church and adapted for its own use by including Christian symbolism in the design.” Thus, labyrinths were apparently used in Christendom’s churches to represent a Christian’s life, in keeping with the mythology established by the ancient Egyptians.
Church mazes were also used to enact journeys made by the crusaders to Jerusalem. Reaching the center symbolized reaching Jerusalem and attaining salvation. For some worshipers a maze was a penitential circuit either to be completed upon the knees to gain forgiveness of sins or to be ritualistically walked as a substitute for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land.
Turf Mazes
Labyrinths that were cut into the soil, known as turf mazes, were constructed in the 12th and 13th centuries, especially in England. Later many were undoubtedly used for recreational purposes, but since they resembled the labyrinths in church buildings, some people also attached a religious significance to them. The largest turf maze in the world, thought by some authorities to be over 800 years old, is on the common in Saffron Walden, in the county of Essex. It is unusual in that it has four large, raised corner bastions. The length of its pathway is almost a mile [2 km].
W. H. Matthews ties in the historical/mythical aspect, noting that religious mazes or labyrinths “may be taken as emblematical of the temptation-labyrinth of this worldly life, which can only be safely traversed by means of the Ariadne thread of divine grace.”—Mazes and Labyrinths—Their History and Development.
Are you surprised that mazes and labyrinths, although of pagan origin, are fixtures in Christendom? Can true Christianity be compatible with pagan superstition?
Compatible With Christian Faith?
Fascinating as the history of the labyrinth is, beliefs in connection with it are not compatible with Christian faith. Nowhere does the Bible teach that the human soul is separate and distinct from the body and that it lives on when a person dies. Rather, the Bible teaches that the human soul is mortal. It says: “The soul that is sinning—it itself will die.”—Ezekiel 18:4.
God’s Word, the Bible, is powerful and has been likened to a sword, “the sword of the spirit.” Christians skillfully use this weapon to overcome a real, superhuman, invisible spirit creature and his demons, not a mythical Minotaur. (Ephesians 6:12, 17) As a result, they have a faith that is invincible and a sure hope of salvation. This will carry them through the end of this present system of things into a new world of righteousness—something belief in mythology can never do.—2 Peter 3:13.
[Footnote]
a In the first century C.E., Pliny, the Roman naturalist, noted that the Cretans built their labyrinth one hundredth the size of the Egyptian one.
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Mazes for Amusement
Six hundred years ago, a new type of maze was created. It had no religious significance but was designed for ornamentation. Throughout England simple garden mazes soon became a common feature. Eventually the mazes were created with more intricate designs, and their paths came to be lined with boxwood, which could be neatly trimmed.
In recent years many modern, intricate maze designs have appeared throughout the world. Children and adults alike love them. They can be fun!
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Christendom’s Use of the Labyrinth
London’s Westminster Abbey has recently introduced this newly embroidered altar cloth. Note the labyrinth in the center flanked by “Α” (alpha, “THE BEGINNING”) and “Ω” (omega, “THE END”). At the center of this labyrinth design, note the “I AM,” which represents Jehovah, the great “I AM” referred to at Exodus 3:14, King James Version. This is an intriguing modern example of the close ties of the labyrinth with religion today.
[Credit Line]
Photo: David Johnson
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Coins of the fourth and fifth centuries B.C.E. found at Knossos, Crete. Note the labyrinth pattern and the bull’s head, representing the Minotaur
[Credit Line]
Copyright British Museum
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The world’s largest turf maze, in Saffron Walden, England
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Courtesy Saffron Walden Tourist Office