serpent on the tree. He holds the serpent by the neck in one hand, it speaks into his ear. It passes through his waist. The insertion of the stem line through the walls of the dragon's fort causes the human figure to take on the eyes of the spiral snake. Mission accomplished, the serpent departs, along the three outer edges of the square, its head upper right, its tail under his heel, or it may be thought of as an extension of his leg. The hero also carries a club in one hand. His serpent/leg may also be a ridiculously long phallus, which like that of the Good God Dagda cuts a trench behind it after the manner of a turf maze, Dagda/Hercules carries a club too. He appears cut out of turf in the form of the Cerne Abbas Giant in England. Or, if the bent club is a sickle for corn, we have Chronos, the Greek. So a lot more than the story of Theseus can be read into the iconography of the maze. And why not. They seem to have had a field day with it, the ancient Poets, the "First Path Makers". The Neolithic cabbala is a horse at the head of a wild hunt, indeed.

Fig. 63: Basic Maze in Tree Form , Val Camonica

Artwork copyright © Aidan Meehan