Mazes
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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). These dances have continued to be performed in Italy, Corfu, Munich, Upper Bavaria, and as far away as the Molucca Islands, where a maze-dance commemorates the killing of Hainuwele (divine maiden). |
| − | 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. | + | The Cretan labyrinth may indeed have been a dance. 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. | ||
