Mazes
From Maze
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===Ancient and Mythological Mazes=== | ===Ancient and Mythological Mazes=== | ||
| − | Of course, the most famous maze is the Cretan Labyrinth, where Theseus slew the Minotaur, finding his way with the help of Ariadne's string. | + | Of course, the Cretan Labyrinth in which Theseus encounters the Minotaur offers perhaps the most famous ancient maze, through which the Ancient Greek hero found his way only with the help of Ariadne’s thread. While the need for such a clue suggests a puzzle maze, featuring decision points and false paths to swallow the traveler, the traditional depictions of the structure have been labyrinthine, in other words, monocursal. Why would anyone, especially a Greek hero, need a string to find his way through a monocursal passageway without dead-ends or choices? The conflation of the two notions of labyrinth and maze in this ancient myth demonstrates the intermingling of the two kinds of mazes from the earliest accounts. |
| + | In his ''Lives'', Plutarch recounts several tales of the maze. In the most commonly repeated one, he attributes the labyrinth of Knossos to the master builder Daedalus. In the story, in payment for the slaying of his son Angrogeos by the Athenians, Minos required the Athenians send seven men and women who met their fate of death by the Minotaur or "wandering the labyrinth, and finding no possible means of getting out, they miserably ended their lives there" (excerpted in Kern 41). The Minotaur, part man, part bull, was the merciless monster of the maze. | ||
| − | The Cretan Labyrinth in which Theseus encounters the Minotaur offers perhaps the most famous ancient maze, through which the Ancient Greek hero found his way only with the help of Ariadne’s thread. While such necessity suggests that the structure was a maze, having multiple decision points, early depictions of the structure were labyrinthine, in other words, monocursal. Why would anyone, Greek hero or no, need a string to find their way through a labyrinth, a unicursal twisted passageway without deadends or choices? And yet that is exactly the kind of maze depicted in most of the ancient imagery. Regardless of the depictions, the myth portrays a space of twisting paths that is difficult to navigate, and it establishes the challenge of path-finding puzzle in Western culture. | + | To put an end to this bloody tribute, Theseus sets off as part of the retinue. When he arrives at Crete, he wins the affection of Ariadne, the king's daughter, who offers him a technique for defeating the labyrinth by tying a string to the entrance and unraveling it as he proceeded through the maze. Theseus makes his way through the maze, slays the Minotaur, and follows the string back to the entrance. The victorious Greek hero takes Ariadne back with him to Athens. |
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| − | Plutarch includes in his lives the myth of the labyrinth of Knossos, designed by Daedalus. In the story, in payment for the slaying of his son Angrogeos by the Athenians, Minos required the Athenians send as a tribute to Crete seven men and women who met their fate, whether slain by the Minotaru or "wandering the labyrinth, and finding no possible means of getting out, they miserably ended their lives there" (excerpted in Kern 41). The Minotaur, part man, part bull, was the merciless monster of the maze. Actually, this is merely one of the main competing stories Plutarch recounts. | ||
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| − | Theseus set off to end the bloody tribute, by serving as one of the seven. When he arrives at Crete, he wins the affection of Ariadne, the king's daughter, who offers him a technique for defeating the labyrinth by tying a string to the entrance and unraveling it as he proceeded through the maze. Theseus makes his way through the maze, slays the Minotaur, and follows the string back to the entrance. The victorious Greek hero takes Ariadne back with him to Athens. | ||
[note: source of the word clue] | [note: source of the word clue] | ||
| + | Central to the myth is the role of the master builder, Daedalus, this notion of the artist, the architect of confusion. His notoriety and the sacred position of the puzzlemaker will become a legacy of mazes through the hallways of role-playing dungeons, the pages of puzzle-books, and the leafy pathways of the hedgerow tenders. Planning and intentionality become central to the mystique of the maze. In the legacy of this myth, a maze is a space planned by one person to be encountered, solved, and/or traversed by others. | ||
| − | The Cretan maze may have its origins in Egypt, where Herodotus describes a labyrinthine building: [I won’t be using all of this] | + | The Cretan myth has inspired archaeologists to search for the ruins of such a labytinth. Nontheless, the structure may have its origins in Egypt, where Herodotus describes a labyrinthine building: [I won’t be using all of this] |
<blockquote> | <blockquote> | ||
It has twelve covered courts - six in a row facing north, six south - the gates of the one range exactly fronting the gates of the other. Inside, the building is of two stories and contains three thousand rooms, of which half are underground, and the other half directly above them. I was taken through the rooms in the upper storey, so what I shall say of them is from my own observation, but the underground ones I can speak of only from report, because the Egyptians in charge refused to let me see them, as they contain the tombs of the kings who built the labyrinth, and also the tombs of the sacred crocodiles. The upper rooms, on the contrary, I did actually see, and it is hard to believe that they are the work of men; the baffling and intricate passages from room to room and from court to court were an endless wonder to me, as we passed from a courtyard into rooms, from rooms into galleries, from galleries into more rooms and thence into yet more courtyards. The roof of every chamber, courtyard, and gallery is, like the walls, of stone. The walls are covered with carved figures, and each court is exquisitely built of white marble and surrounded by a colonnade.</blockquote> | It has twelve covered courts - six in a row facing north, six south - the gates of the one range exactly fronting the gates of the other. Inside, the building is of two stories and contains three thousand rooms, of which half are underground, and the other half directly above them. I was taken through the rooms in the upper storey, so what I shall say of them is from my own observation, but the underground ones I can speak of only from report, because the Egyptians in charge refused to let me see them, as they contain the tombs of the kings who built the labyrinth, and also the tombs of the sacred crocodiles. The upper rooms, on the contrary, I did actually see, and it is hard to believe that they are the work of men; the baffling and intricate passages from room to room and from court to court were an endless wonder to me, as we passed from a courtyard into rooms, from rooms into galleries, from galleries into more rooms and thence into yet more courtyards. The roof of every chamber, courtyard, and gallery is, like the walls, of stone. The walls are covered with carved figures, and each court is exquisitely built of white marble and surrounded by a colonnade.</blockquote> | ||
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So while the location or shape of this mythical maze becomes a grail quest, the labyrinth becomes the icon of the story of the maze and the two concepts become entangled. Mazes and labyrinths become places of beastial horror, puzzles that require the collusion of paramours. Mazes become elevated into the pantheon of heroic challenges, literally the stuff of legends. Without a doubt, this mythological status has fueled the search for physical mazes and labyrinths from antiquity to the present. | So while the location or shape of this mythical maze becomes a grail quest, the labyrinth becomes the icon of the story of the maze and the two concepts become entangled. Mazes and labyrinths become places of beastial horror, puzzles that require the collusion of paramours. Mazes become elevated into the pantheon of heroic challenges, literally the stuff of legends. Without a doubt, this mythological status has fueled the search for physical mazes and labyrinths from antiquity to the present. | ||
| − | 10 PRINT... hides no minotaur in its center. But the Cretan Labyrinth and the search for the mazes of antiquity present mazes as the challenges of heroes. Mastering that maze requires a clever hero with an enamored helper. 10-Print was part of Ariadne's string and in that maze-like output novice programmers no doubt hear the echo of the minotaur's roar. | + | 10 PRINT... hides no minotaur in its center. But the Cretan Labyrinth and the search for the mazes of antiquity present mazes as the challenges of heroes. Similarly, 10 Print... does not offer a solitary puzzle to its viewers and the code of the program itself takes the role of Daedalus. Nonetheless, the wit and riddle of 10 Print... stems from the cleverness of its concision, the elegance of its simple conceit. Mastering that maze requires a clever hero with an enamored helper. 10-Print was part of Ariadne's string and in that maze-like output novice programmers no doubt hear the echo of the Minotaur's roar. |
Mazes and Labyrinths, however, are not associated only with their physical structures or two-dimensional forms; They can also be patterns of physical movements. In other words, pathways. Dance executions of mazes have been and continue to be performed as areas, such as Italy, Corfu, Munich, Upper Bavaria. There is the Geranos (Crane) dance performed by Theseus performed on Delos. | Mazes and Labyrinths, however, are not associated only with their physical structures or two-dimensional forms; They can also be patterns of physical movements. In other words, pathways. Dance executions of mazes have been and continue to be performed as areas, such as Italy, Corfu, Munich, Upper Bavaria. There is the Geranos (Crane) dance performed by Theseus performed on Delos. | ||
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===Mazes in Dance=== | ===Mazes in Dance=== | ||
The Cretan Labyrinth did not survive into the present, but the maze dances based on it seem to have. For while Theseus met the Minotaur in a Minoan maze, he and his men immortalized that adventure in dance on the way back from their miision. As Miller explains, "on the island of Delos they performed a peculiar dance called the ''Geranos'', or 'Crane Dane,' in which they went through the motions of threading the Labyrinth, and...this dance was perpetuated by the natives of that island until fairly recently" (19). Indeed Bord has found these dances alive in Italy, Munich, and Bavaria. | The Cretan Labyrinth did not survive into the present, but the maze dances based on it seem to have. For while Theseus met the Minotaur in a Minoan maze, he and his men immortalized that adventure in dance on the way back from their miision. As Miller explains, "on the island of Delos they performed a peculiar dance called the ''Geranos'', or 'Crane Dane,' in which they went through the motions of threading the Labyrinth, and...this dance was perpetuated by the natives of that island until fairly recently" (19). Indeed Bord has found these dances alive in Italy, Munich, and Bavaria. | ||
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| + | As mentioned, Kern wonders whether the maze was a building at all. In the Iliad, Homer credits Daedalus both with a dance floor and the labyrinth. Kern speculates that labyrinth was a choros, which has the double meaning of dance and dance surface. Since no labyrinthine building in Crete survives, the depictions of labyrinths on coins may indicate the path of the dance. | ||
A maze becomes a dance when the pathways become the visual depiction of the dancer's path. Indeed the Crane Dance is just one many labyrinthine dances tracing back to antiquity. Several Roman writers, including Virgil , Suetonius, and Tacitus, recount a "Game of Troy" or simply "Troja", which appear disparately as a ritual around a grave site and a kind of formal demonstration performed by youths, perhaps a military review. Other labyrinthine dances appear as part of an exclusion right, in which "movements ....are intended to weave a magical entanglement and spread a field of magical force to exclude all that is not wanted to enter the guarded place" (Knight qtd. in Bord)". Still more appear to be tied to rites of Spring. | A maze becomes a dance when the pathways become the visual depiction of the dancer's path. Indeed the Crane Dance is just one many labyrinthine dances tracing back to antiquity. Several Roman writers, including Virgil , Suetonius, and Tacitus, recount a "Game of Troy" or simply "Troja", which appear disparately as a ritual around a grave site and a kind of formal demonstration performed by youths, perhaps a military review. Other labyrinthine dances appear as part of an exclusion right, in which "movements ....are intended to weave a magical entanglement and spread a field of magical force to exclude all that is not wanted to enter the guarded place" (Knight qtd. in Bord)". Still more appear to be tied to rites of Spring. | ||
