The labyrinth contains many meanings; it is a metaphor for life, truth, moral conduct, and philosophy. In this book, mythologist Mary Hackworth argues that the particular form the labyrinth takes in literature and culture at a given time is a projection of the way the Western mind sees itself in relation to the world. By tracking the emergence of the labyrinth in ritual, myth, literature, and the arts, this book reveals how the changes as well as the constancy in the symbol trace the broad outlines of Western intellectual history. This lively analysis of the labyrinth includes Greek mythology, the literature of the Middle Ages, Shakespeare, Herman Melville, Jorge Luis Borges, Umberto Eco, and the rituals, music, dance, and popular entertainment of various periods. It demonstrates that the coexistence of two forms of the labyrinth mirrors an ongoing quest for individual and universal truths that each of us experiences over the course of a lifetime. Based on the insights of depth psychology and archetypal theory, this book should appeal to anyone interested in mythology, Jungian psychology, Joseph Campbell, religion, philosophy, or the labyrinth movement.
