The Winding Hedges In The Classic Film The Shining

Do you remember the winding hedges in the classic film The Shining? Does your child enjoy tracing his or her way through complicated pathways in coloring books or the newspaper? Have you ever gotten lost in a house of mirrors at a carnival? Then you’ve seen examples of mazes.

What exactly is a maze? Is it the same thing as a labyrinth? According to Webster’s Dictionary, it is a winding, intricate, confusing system of pathways that contains at least one blind alley. Usually, a maze has an end goal, and is presented in puzzle form with the object of reaching that goal.

Is a maze the same as a labyrinth? Some sources define a labyrinth almost exactly as Webster’s, but with the condition that there are no loops or blind alleys, but this also means

Plainair Maze – describes any maze not built on a flat surface. One example might be a maze that is depicted on the side of a sphere or cube.

Theta – constructed from concentric sources.

Delta – made up of triangles that interlock.

Braid – a style in which there are branches, but no dead ends. Each branch connects back to the maze’s other branches.

Perfect – refers to a maze with no isolated segments or islands. There is only one solution to a perfect maze.

The Labyrinth at Crete

When most people hear the word labyrinth, they immediately think of the story from Greek mythology of Thesesus and the Minotaur. The story has it that the Minoan King Minos, whose kingdom was on the island of Crete, forced King Aegeus to pay him tribute. This tribute involved the sacrifice of seven young women and seven young men annually. Deep below King Minos’ palace at Knossos was said to exist a huge maze, guarded by a half-bull, half man abomination called the Minotaur. The hapless young men and women would be forced into the maze, where they would be devoured by the Minotaur before they could