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The Labyrinths of the classical age and the quaint devices of later times, the Mazes, of which they were the prototypes, present to the archaeologist a subject of investigation which hitherto has not received that degree of attention of which it appears so well deserving. I hope therefore that the following observations may meet with a favourable reception, not only as connected with our early studies of classical antiquity, but as illustrative of certain remarkable ecclesiastical usages in the Middle Ages, and possibly as recalling certain pleasurable reminiscences of gay disports or rural revelries associated with the Maze of more recent times, of which the latest and most familiar example is the verdant puzzle at Hampton Court.
Labyrinths may be divided into several distinct classes, comprising complicated ranges of caverns, architectural labyrinths or sepulchral buildings, tortuous devices indicated by coloured marbles or cut in turf, and topiary labyrinths or mazes formed by clipped hedges. [216.A] I need scarcely observe that labyrinths are of exceedingly ancient origin, or that they have been used for the most varied purposes, viz., as catacombs for the burial of the dead, as prisons, as a means of performing penance, [216.B] and as portions of pleasure-grounds.
Of the first class we may instance the labyrinth near Nauplia in Argolis, termed that of the Cyclops, and described by Strabo; [216.1] also the celebrated Cretan example, which from the observations of modern travellers is supposed to have consisted of a series of caves, resembling in some degree the catacombs of Rome or Paris. It has been questioned, however, whether such a labyrinth actually existed. Apollodorus and others state that it was built by Dædalus, near Cnossus, [216.2] in imitation of a more ancient labyrinth in Egypt, by the command of King Minos, and that it served first as {217} the prison of the monster Minotaur, and secondly as an architectural web wherein to enclose Dædalus himself, whence he was enabled to escape by the aid of artificial wings, the poetical representatives of sails, whose first use has been assigned to him. Ovid and Virgil, however, have both referred to the Cretan labyrinth as an architectural work:—
Dædalus ingenio fabræ celeberrimus artis
Ponit opus, turbatque notas, et lumina flexum
Ducit in errorem variarum ambage viarum.—
Ovid. Met. viii., v. 159.
Ut quondam Cretâ fertur Labyrinthus in altâ
Parietibus textum cæcis iter, ancipitemque
Mille viis habuisse dolum, qua signa sequendi
Falleret indeprensus et inremeabilis error.—
Æneid, Lib. v., v. 588.
Of architectural labyrinths, the most extraordinary specimen was without doubt that at the southern end of the lake Mœris in Egypt, and about thirty miles from Arsinoe. Herodotus, who describes it very distinctly, says that none of the edifices of Greece could be compared with it either as to costliness or workmanship; that it consisted of twelve covered courts, 1500 subterranean chambers, in which the bodies of the Egyptian princes and the sacred crocodiles were interred, and of as many chambers above ground, which last only he was permitted to enter. He states that each court was surrounded by a colonnade of white stone beautifully built, that the walls were ornamented with bas-reliefs of various animals, that a lofty pyramid, 300 feet high, was raised at the angle where the labyrinth terminated, and that the whole work was encircled by a continuous wall, Pliny, Strabo, and Pomponius Mela, have also described this celebrated labyrinth, but they differ both as to the date of its construction and the purpose for which it was intended. Another labyrinth, built by the Æginetan architect, Smilis, in the island of Lemnos, was celebrated for the beauty of its columns, according to Pliny, who also alludes to one built by Theodorus at Samos. [217.3] The last example we may mention as belonging to this architectural class, intended, like the Pyramids of Egypt, to form a royal sepulchre capable of repelling the curiosity or acquisitive propensities of intruders, {218} was that built at Clusium, the modern Chiusi, in Etruria, by Lar Porsena, the noble, but baffled, foe of Rome; it is described by Pliny and Varro.
The Cretan Labyrinth is found on the reverses of coins of Cnossus, as also on Greek and Roman gems, [218.4] or at least what had become its conventional design, and it was occasionally represented upon the mosaic pavements of Roman halls. One specimen was drawn by Casanova at Pompeii, whose sinuous course, designated by coloured marbles, was surrounded by an embattled wall, strengthened at intervals by towers; and the design of another was found in the same city, scratched with a stylus upon a crimson-tinted column, accompanied by this inscription,—“Labyrinthus hic habitat Minotaurus,” a classical euphuism, we presume, for “Here lives a great beast.” [218.5]
But perhaps the most surprising fact connected with the mythological labyrinth is its acceptance by Christians, and its adaptation by the Church to a higher signification than it originally bore. First, it was used as an ornament on one of the state robes of the Christian emperors previously to the ninth century. In the “Graphia aureæ urbis Romæ,” published by A. F. Ozanam, pp. 92 and 178, in the “Documents inédits pour servir à l’Histoire Littéraire de l’Italie,” this rule regarding the emperor’s dress is given,—“Habeat et in diarodino laberinthum fabrefactum ex auro et margaritis, in quo sit Minotaurus digitum ad os tenens ex smaragdo factus; quia sicut non valet quis laberinthum scrutare, ita non debet consilium dominatoris propalare.” Next, it was adopted in all its details, including the Minotaur, by ecclesiastics, and was pourtrayed in churches. A design of this character still exists upon one of the porch piers of Lucca Cathedral, having the following inscription. (Fig. 1.)
HIC QUEM CRETICUS EDIT DEDALUS EST LABERINTHUS,
DE QUO NULLUS VADERE QUIVIT QUI FUIT INTUS,
NI THESEUS GRATIS ADRIANE STAMINE JUTUS.
This is of small dimensions, being only 1 foot 7½ inches in diameter, and from the continual attrition it has received from thousands of tracing fingers, the central group of Theseus and the Minotaur has now been very nearly effaced. {219} The whole device was deemed to be indicative of the complicated folds of sin by which man is surrounded, and how impossible it would be to extricate himself from them except through the assisting hand of Providence. Similar small designs of labyrinths, containing the figures of Theseus and the Minotaur, either exist or did exist, in the very ancient church of St. Michele at Pavia; at Aix in Provence; upon the walls of Poitiers Cathedral; in the Roman mosaic pavement found at Salzburg, now at Lachsenburg, and nearly resembling the Pompeian example alluded to above, as does another of very early date, discovered in a mosaic pavement of a Christian Basilica at Orleansville in Algeria. In this last, however, the words, sancta ecclesia, arranged in a complicated form in the centre, so as to correspond with the sinuosity of the labyrinth around them, take the place of the Minotaur, affording the first instance of an entirely new signification attributed to such works, whilst their designs remained the same as before.
In the church of Santa Maria in Aquiro, at Rome, are several portions of an extremely ancient pavement, the relics of a far earlier building than the present church. Amongst these is a small labyrinth, 1 foot 7½ inches in diameter, composed of porphyry and yellow and green marbles, the central circle being of the first-named material. [219.6] Perhaps this is a work of the early part of the twelfth century, during which period such devices began to abound, and of these several are still preserved. One, 11 feet in diameter, exists near the sacristy of Santa Maria in Trastevere, at Rome, formed, in 1189, by a combination of different coloured marbles, and it is perhaps the most beautiful one still extant. Another, slightly larger, viz., 11 feet 4½ inches, also composed of coloured marbles, is in the church of San Vitale, at Ravenna. An octagonal specimen, 34½ feet in diameter, is in the entrance of the parish church of St. Quentin, built during the twelfth century (fig. 2); and a precisely similar pavement was placed in the centre of Amiens Cathedral, in 1288, but of a rather larger size, measuring 42 feet across. [219.7] It was destroyed in 1825, but its {220} central compartment, still preserved in the Amiens Museum, consists of an octagonal grey marble slab, decorated with a brass or latten cross in the centre, between the limbs of which were ranged small figures of Evrart, Bishop of Amiens, the three architects of the cathedral, and four angels, cut in white marble, with a legend around the whole octagon, referring to the building of the fabric. Another labyrinth, 35 feet in diameter, and precisely like the foregoing, was constructed in the nave of Rheims Cathedral about 1240, but destroyed in 1779, by the desire of one of its canons, Jacquemart by name, who gave a considerable sum to effect this mischievous purpose. On its central stone were cut the figures of the architect and of the four masters of the works employed; this was also surrounded by a legend, like the Amiens labyrinth. An octagonal labyrinth, 34½ feet in diameter, composed of yellow and grey quarries, formed part of the pavement of the nave in Arras Cathedral, until the Revolution.
Before proceeding to instance more examples, we must here advert to another change in the signification of these curious works. The Church had adopted them as symbolical of herself ; and when figures were designed in the centre of their manifold windings, such as those of deceased bishops, architects, or builders, ranged round a cross, instead of the actual words, sancta ecclesia, the same idea doubtless was intended to be conveyed, and the persons so represented were presumed to be resting in the bosom of the Church, as in an ark of salvation; but afterwards these labyrinths were made to serve another purpose, and received an entirely new name. This was when the period of the Crusades was drawing to a close, and when certain spots nearer home than Jerusalem began to be visited by pilgrims, instead of their actually resorting to Palestine; and a pilgrimage to our Lady of Loretto, to St. James of Compostella, or even to the shrine of St. Frideswide at Oxford, to that of St. Thomas of Canterbury or of St. Hugh of Lincoln, began to be looked upon as too great an exertion on the part of the faithful.
Then labyrinths became, as it is stated, instruments of performing penance for non-fulfilment of vows of pilgrimage to {221} the Holy Land, and were called “Chemins de Jerusalem,” as being emblematical of the difficulties attending a journey to the real Jerusalem, or of those encountered by the Christian before he can reach the heavenly Jerusalem; whence the centre of these curious designs was not unfrequently termed “Ciel.” And, finally, they were used as a means of penance for sins of omission and commission in general; penitents being ordered to follow out all the sinuous courses of these labyrinths upon their hands and knees, to repeat so many prayers at fixed stations, and others when they reached the central “Ciel,” which in several cases took a whole hour to effect, whence these works, as stated by M. Wallet, were not unfrequently termed “La lieue.” Unfortunately, many of them have now been destroyed, not a few wantonly during the Revolution, but others because strangers and children by noisily tracking out their tortuous paths, occasioned disturbance during divine service, as in the instance of the next example to which I shall allude. This is a square one, formerly in the Abbey Church of St. Bertin at St. Omer. The design is preserved by a drawing supposed to have been the work of some student of the English college at that town during the last century, having this inscription below, “Entré du chemin de Jérusalem autre fois marqué sur le carreau de l’Eglise de St. Bertin.” It appears to have been composed of black and yellow tiles. [221.8] A large circular labyrinth, composed of grey and white marble, having an escalloped border, and a sexagonal cusped circle in the centre, exists in the middle of the nave of Chartres Cathedral. (Fig. 3.) [221.C] It is 30 feet in diameter, and its path is 668 feet long. At Sens there was another of the same size, formed by lines filled in with lead, and recorded to have required 2000 steps to reach the centre; and in the chapter house of Bayeux Cathedral is an exceedingly beautiful work of this description, 12 feet in diameter, formed of circles of tiles, adorned with shields, griffins, and fleurs-de-lis, and separated from one another by bands of small plain black tiles.
Occasionally something more than the actual path of the life present was attempted to be represented in these works. On a small labyrinth cut upon the pavement beneath the organ of the church of Notre Dame at St. Omer, the winding {222} path towards the central Jerusalem is strangely mixed up with towns, rivers, mountains, and animals, intended probably to shadow forth the refreshments and the difficulties which all Christian pilgrims may expect to meet with on their journey through life towards that heavenly city which they are seeking. This is confirmed by the following inscription, once attached possibly to a labyrinthine design, and now preserved in the Museum of Lyons:—
HOC SPECULO · SPECULARE LEGENS · QUOD
SIS MORITURUS : QUOD CINIS IMMO LUTUM
QUOD VERMIBUS ESCA FUTURUS : SED TA
MEN UT SEMPER VIVAS · MALE VIVERE VITA :
XPM QUESO ROGA · SIT UT IN XPO MEA VITA :
ME CAPUT APRIL’ · EX HOC RAPUIT LABERINTO :
PREBITUM · DOCEO VERSU MA FUNERA QNTO :
STEPHANUS · FECIT
OC. [222.9]
Allegorical designs of spiritual labyrinths were in vogue until the third quarter of the last century: a long title to the following effect accompanies an engraving of one produced at Lyons in 1769, from a drawing by M. Belion:— A spiritual labyrinth watered by four channels of grace, representing, First, the four rivers of the terrestrial paradise and the happy condition of man before the Fall. Secondly, by the different windings that may be seen are intended to be shown the miseries with which human life abounds since the Fall. Thirdly, from this labyrinth, terminating at the same point where it commenced, we are taught that as man was formed of earth he will return to his first element by the corruption of his body. Fourthly, the wholesome water of these channels represents the grace of God, through which a remedy is supplied for a corrupted nature.
