The Labyrinth as Time Art

This paper proposes that the symbolic image of the classical seven-circuit labyrinth with its single meandering path to a central goal represents a calendar. This is not a maze with multiple paths and dead ends. Walking a maze offers too many variations and choices. A calendar consists of repeatable patterns duplicating the circle dance of the heavens. By deconstructing the symbol and applying Hesiod?s Works and Days, this research attempts to demonstrate how the labyrinth represented time to the ancients. The labyrinth offers two expressions of time. One is finite and measurable while the other is infinite and eternal. When these two concepts of time are unbalanced, heroic journeys into the underworld or searching the inner psyche are called for. It is this understanding of time that connects the present day use of the labyrinth as a tool for meditation or as a symbolic referent in works of art.