Dantes' Divine Comedy As A Labyrinth
Abstracts from The Labyrinth Society (TLS) Gatherings
TLS Gathering Houston Texas Novemeber, 2016
Abstract: The Labyrinth and the Forty Days and Nights
This proposal for the labyrinth Gathering in Houston, 2016, is a continuation of research
first presented at the Gathering in Vancouver, Canada in 2013. That presentation represented
the classical seven-circuit labyrinth as a calendar. Applying research from Hesiod’s “Works and Days”,
700BC, it was found that the journey into the labyrinth referenced the 40 days and nights that the
Pleiades disappears from the heavens to rise again in the Spring. The research was condensed into a
paper entitled “The Labyrinth as Time Art” and presented at the Athens Institute for Education and
Research Conference, June 2015 and published at http://www.athensjournals.gr/humanities/2015-1-X-Y-Philpot.pdf.
The further historical research sited at the conclusion of that paper forms the basis of this power point
lecture for the 2016 Labyrinth Gathering in Houston. Virgil’s Georgics and Aeneid gives clues
that the Roman foursquare mosaic labyrinth signifies the four-year Julian Calendar. The eleven circuit
Christian labyrinth contains the forty days and nights but Spring symbolizes Easter. Also introduced
will be a new labyrinth design that forms the understructure of Dante’s “Divine Comedy”.
Virgil guides Dante through the underworld and references to the labyrinth story abound.
Though modern labyrinth use is diverse and multi-perspective, research in the labyrinth’s
historical roots brings forth a common source for all to share.
TLS Gathering in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. 2013
Abstract: The Labyrinth as Time Art
Cognitive science states that we share with our ancestors the art of symbol making, an
ability to represent ideas with metaphor, sign, or art. In understanding symbols we must not
confuse the symbol with what it symbolizes. The meaning of the enigmatic symbol of the labyrinth
is illusive, but there are many clues that offer an educated guess. In this lecture we ask: Is the
labyrinth time art? The ancients measured daily time and the calendar by the movements of the
sun, moon and stars. My research proposes that the lines forming the labyrinth reference the
cyclic movement of those heavenly bodies. The myths surrounding the symbol recall the revolving seasons.
The spaces between the lines of the labyrinth denote the times when certain stars seem to disappear.
We know they are in the day sky, but the ancients believed they entered an underworld to restart
temporal time. According to the Greek poet, Hesiod, the Pleiades within the constellation Taurus
played an important role in this. Both Mircea Eliade and Joseph Campbell describe two concepts of
time we share with our ancestors. One is objective, mortal, finite and measurable. The other is an
inner/outer spatial time, immortal, unseen and infinite. When these two concepts of time are unbalanced,
heroic journeys into the underworld or searching the inner psyche are called for. Using power point this
lecture will present research that connects the ancient original symbol of the labyrinth with the tool
for meditation we use today.
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