Labyrinths: What is their real purpose and meaning?

18. 04. 2018
6th international conference of exopolitics, history and spirituality

The origin of the word labyrinth is not yet entirely clear. Egyptologist Karl Lepsius claimed that the term comes from the Egyptian lepi (shrine) and rehint (mouth of the canal). But most researchers assume that the word labyrinth in ancient Greek means underground passage (it can also be understood as a tunnel, noteworthy).

One way or another, this name meant to the ancient Greeks and Romans any intricate structure or large space, consisting of many rooms and transitions. It can be entered, but finding an exit can be extremely difficult. It is interesting that the labyrinth is both an abstract symbol and a completely real work created by human hands.

The first rock depiction of labyrinths was created tens of thousands of years ago. They represent seven lines, circling around the center. This shape is considered to be classical. Some researchers think that its folds copy the thread of the shell or the human brain.

The symbol of the labyrinth can also be seen on the wall of the tomb in Luzzanas, Sardinia, which was built about 4000 years ago. On the Greek island of Pylos, a clay tablet with a picture with seven concentric lines was found and its age was estimated at about 3000 years. Similar drawings can be found on rock walls in Turkey, Italy, USA, Latin America.

Why, then, was the picture of the labyrinths so popular?

The point is that they have long played the role of magical talismans. For example, the healing mandala of the Navaho Indians resembles a labyrinth in shape. But even the Tohono and Pima Native American tribes, who live in Arizona, USA, are in the habit of decorating their knitted baskets with a labyrinth pattern. According to superstition, it serves as protection against evil forces.

This symbol occurs in virtually any tradition, has an initiating meaning and is a representation of spiritual trials. "Every person's life is a labyrinth at the center of death," says researcher Michael Erton. "Before the final end comes, one goes through one's last labyrinth."

Labyrinths tend to be real and fake. In the real ones it is very easy to get lost. In false ones, this is practically impossible, because all paths converge at a single point. Sometimes it is possible to find "keys" here, ie help that helps to find the right path. If the seeker knows them, then he will reach the goal without difficulty.

As the French philosopher and traditionalist René Genon states in his book Symbols of Sacred Science, the labyrinth usually opens or prevents access to a certain sacred or magical place. Many religious and mystical societies offer adepts the opportunity to find their own way in a complex labyrinth, full of dead ends and pitfalls. Not everyone could pass this test. Sometimes a person dies of hunger and thirst without finding a way. It was a cruel choice…

In this case, there was no question of classical labyrinths. These in themselves, as we have already said, represent circular structures and have a precisely marked center. The paths in them do not connect with each other, and the path through the maze will inevitably bring the pilgrim either to the center point or return him to the starting position.

As for the labyrinth representing the trap, it is actually a puzzler, the English maze ("mejz"). These "grandees" are not as old as labyrinths, the idea comes from the Middle Ages. They usually have several inputs and outputs, the tunnels connect and create a number of branches.

Egyptologist Karl Lepsius wrote that one of the oldest labyrinths was built around 2200 BC in Egypt on the shores of Lake Moeris (now Birket-Karuk), west of the Nile. It took the form of a fortress with a total area of ​​seventy thousand square meters, inside which were fifteen hundred above-ground and the same number of underground rooms.

Ancient historian Hérodotos described it as follows: "If we put together all the walls and large buildings built by the Greeks, then it would appear that less work and money was spent on them than this one labyrinth."

As Lepsius proves, the size of the building surpassed the important Egyptian pyramids. The web of courtyards, corridors, chambers, and colonnades was so complex that it was impossible to navigate without the help of a guide. And even most of the rooms were not even lit.

What was the purpose of the construction? It served as the tomb of the pharaohs and crocodiles, who were considered sacred animals in Egypt, the embodiment of the god Sobka. At the same time, ordinary visitors were forbidden to go inside and inspect the tombs.

In its essence, the Egyptian labyrinth is a temple complex, designed mainly to bring sacrifices to the gods. The following words were written at his entrance: "Madness or death, this is what will find a weak or apathetic one, only the strongest and the best here will find life and immortality."

It is said that many daredevils who entered the labyrinth have never returned from here. Perhaps they became the crocodile food that lived here. By the way, the victims could also get in here against their will ...

After the fall of Egypt, the complex on the shores of Lake Moeris began to decay. Columns of red granite, huge stone slabs and polished limestone were stolen and the building turned into ruins.

Thanks to ancient Greek mythology, the one in Crete became the most famous labyrinth in the world. According to legend, it was built in Knóss by the Athenian architect Daidal. Its structure resembled an Egyptian labyrinth, but the proportions, as far as Pliny can be trusted, were only one-hundredth the size of an Egyptian building.

The Cretan labyrinth had an exclusively religious significance. It represented the temple of the god Zeus Labrandsky. By the way, the basic symbol and attribute of this god is an ax (Greek labrys). Hence, as some specialists assume, comes the name Labrynthios (labyrinth), which can be translated as "the house of a double-edged ax". In vain, there are often depictions of it on the walls of the palace. The same axes were said to have been found in the cave where Zeus was born.

But, according to the legend, King Mínós did not order the construction of the Labyrinth at Daidalo. It was meant to serve as a sanctuary for the Minotaur, half human, half bull. This monster was said to be the fruit of the love of Mina's wife, Pacephalus and the sacred white bull.

After the Athenians lost the war with Crete, they sent seven girls and seven boys to the island every nine years as a sacrifice to the Minotaur. They all disappeared without a trace in the labyrinth. This lasted until the monster was defeated by the heroic Théseus, who managed to find his way in the maze with the help of Ariadne's ball. It was Mino's daughter who fell in love with the young man.

The labyrinth in Crete was destroyed several times, but then it was always rebuilt. In 1380 BC, however, it was definitively destroyed, but the legend of it lived on.

His remains were found by English archaeologist Arthur Evans. The excavations took place on Kefala Hill for about thirty years. Every year, new and new walls and buildings came out from under the ground. It turned out that they were all grouped around a large courtyard, located on different levels and interconnected by corridors and stairs. Some of them led deep underground. It is very likely that it is indeed the legendary Knós labyrinth.

Today, excavations throughout Europe find fragments of mosaic floors depicting labyrinths. At least two decorative labyrinths were found in Pompeii, a city that was destroyed by the explosion of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD. One of them is known as the House with a Labyrinth. There is a mosaic on the floor of the building, which depicts scenes from a duel between Théeus and Minotaur.

Similar mosaics can be found in medieval temples. Lined with colored stones, ceramic tiles, marble or porphyry, they decorated the floors of temples in Rome, Pavia, Piacenza, Amiens, Reims, Saint-Omer. For example, in Chartres Cathedral, the corridors are paved with 13th-century mosaics, representing four interconnected squares with seven sharp folds in each. They call them the Jerusalem Way because repentant sinners had to crawl on their knees to sing the psalms.

The "labyrinth" mosaics include not only allegorical depictions of Theus and the Minotaur, but also scenes from the Holy Scriptures. Contemporary theologians assume that the symbol of the labyrinth in Christianity served to indicate man's thorny path to God, on which he must meet the devil and can rely only on his own faith.

Very often there are small stone buildings of cult significance in the form of labyrinths. We can meet them all over Europe and even in Russia, for example in Ladoga, the White Sea, the Baltic, on the coast of the Barents and Kara Seas, from the Kanin Peninsula to the polar regions of the Urals. These are stone spirals with a diameter of five to thirty meters.

Inside, there are narrow passages, which often end in dead ends. Their age is not yet precisely determined. Some researchers claim that "labyrinths" appeared in the 1st millennium BC, others think that it was before. The locals attributed their origin to the Celts, druids and even fairy-tale creatures such as gnomes, elves and fairies.

More than a thousand mounds and various symbolic stone patterns can be found on the Solovetsky Islands. They are called northern labyrinths. In the 20s, archaeologist NN Vinogradov, a prisoner of the Solovetsky Special Purpose Camp, researched stone labyrinths and concluded that they were shrines left here by an ancient tribe and were said to be a symbolic journey into the graveyard world. Human remains found under stones also serve as proof of this.

In the book Mysterious St. Petersburg, researcher Vadim Burlak tells the story of a blissful pilgrim, Nikit, who believed that the entire Northern Capital was standing on "knots" - labyrinths that connect "earth with heaven, fire with water, light with darkness, living with the dead." He said that a large number of them had been built in northern Russia.

Each genus or indigenous tribe has built its own labyrinth. If a child was born in it, then they added another stone to the building. It served man as a talisman. For our ancestors, the labyrinth was a model of the universe and they called it a "protector of time."

The space inside was used for ceremonies and rituals of healing. By means of "knots", humans have determined the time to fish and game, collecting herbs and roots, etc. But most of them have disappeared underground or water today and can only find them "protectors of ancient secrets".

In recent centuries, so-called garden labyrinths have spread in Europe. These are gardens and parks in which a number of alleys intertwine and where you can easily get lost without a guide or special indicators.

In the United Kingdom, the construction of labyrinths has become a national tradition. It began in the 12th century with King Henry II of England, who surrounded the palace of his beloved Rosamund Clifford in Woodstock with a series of tangled alleys and hedges. The labyrinth was named Rosamund's boudoir. Only her servants and Henry II himself knew about the path leading to the palace.

And it was not just an unnecessary whim of a tyrant; at that cruel time, the king's favorite was constantly in danger of being killed by enemies or intrigues. But as the legend goes, even prudence did not save her. Henry's jealous wife, Queen Eleonora of Aquitaine, managed to learn the secrets of the maze from insiders, slipped into her opponent's residence, and killed her.

The most important of such buildings in England is Hampton Court, built in 1691 by order of Prince William of Orange. The book Jerome Klapka Jerome Three Men in a Boat, not to mention a dog, describes the wandering of a hero in this labyrinth. To this day, tourists come here to find out if it is really possible to get lost in the alleys of Hampton Court. By the way, it is said that the labyrinth is not really that complicated. His whole secret is said to be that when moving in it, you only need to stick to one side at a time.

Some, in their passion for the secrets of labyrinths, went to extremes. For example, in the 19th century, the English mathematician Raus Boll built a labyrinth of alleys in his garden, which did not have a traditional center. He then suggested a walk in the garden to his guests. But with the same place not going through twice. Of course, few have succeeded.

Similar labyrinths have emerged in Britain in recent times. One of them appeared in Leeds in 1988 and consists of 2400 thousand. The paths create the image of the royal crown. The center of the park can be reached in the usual way, ie alleys, but back it is necessary to walk through an underground cave, the entrance to which is located on a hill. It also serves as a viewing terrace.

The largest garden labyrinth in the world is located in the garden of the English castle Blenheim. Its length is eighty-eight meters, then its width fifty-five and a half meters. The building is remarkable because it is possible to see the heraldic features of the British Empire on its "walls".

There is another European tradition and that is the creation of turf labyrinths. In the middle of such a creation there is usually a sod hill or a tree and paths in the form of not very deep ditches lead to it. These labyrinths are usually in the shape of a circle with a diameter of nine to eighteen meters. But there are square and polygonal floor plans. There are now eleven similar labyrinths in the world, eight of which are in England and three in Germany.

"Living" labyrinths still attract the attention of tourists. It serves as intellectual entertainment and a test of wit. Of course, it's really hard to get lost in the bends of the labyrinth, because the guides won't let you, but at least for a while the excitement is guaranteed!

Similar articles