Dance, Magic Dance.

What’s the difference between a maze and a labyrinth? I never thought about it, aside from both being worth a lot in Scrabble even if only one is a potential starting word, until I found The Labyrinth Locator. And I was even more surprised to find that there were four near me—one so near me I could walk to it, and through it, on my lunch break.

Anyway the difference between a labyrinth and a maze is that a maze has multiple paths that may or may not lead to the center while a labyrinth has a single continuous path that leads to the center, which may come as a surprise to Jennifer Connelly, but that’s another story. Labyrinths are also often for quiet reflection and contemplation while mazes, like the corn ones that are popular this time of year or the one at Leeds Castle are for inducing panic if you can’t find your way out.

The infamous hedge maze of The Shining seems like the idea is to get to the center and then to find your way out, all while avoiding Jack Nicholson. Funny enough Stephen King’s original novel doesn’t have a hedge maze in it and The Stanley Hotel that inspired him didn’t either until 2015 when they started planting one but they’ve had a problem with the local elk eating it.

It also turns out the original labyrinth of Greek myth, the one built to hold the Minotaur, wasn’t a labyrinth but a maze which was supposedly so complicated no one could ever find their way out but all the sacrificial victims sent in would eventually find their way to the center. There were a lot of things about that myth that confused me. Was there a plan if the Minotaur did ever find its way out? And why did the bull-headed monster eat people? According to another myth King Nebuchadnezzar went through a phase of thinking he was a cow and ate grass. It seems to me like King Minos could have solved his problem by regularly throwing a few bales of hay into the labyrinth.

The labyrinth pictured here is the one at the Scarritt Bennett Center. I walked all through it, finding my way to the center and, as you can tell, it gave me a lot to contemplate.

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2 Comments

  1. ANN J KOPLOW

    I really enjoyed making my way through that, Chris. You are a-maze-ing.

    Reply
    1. Christopher Waldrop (Post author)

      Thanks for coming along through the labyrinth with me, Ann.

      Reply

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