The Idea of Labyrinth

Abstract

The general knowledge and the image of the term labyrinth are strongly connected with the Greek myth of the Cretan labyrinth, which was a kind of prison, and the key characters in its story, namely the Athenian hero Theseus, the Minotaur and Daedalus, the builder of the prison. The combination of history and concepts related to the term labyrinth make it a symbol of complexity: sometimes it represents a positive complexity — for example, when it is applied admiringly to the art works of Battista Piranesi or the texts of Luis Borges — and in other cases, a negative one, the result of irregularity and chaos.