Roman labyrinth mosaics and the experience of motion

The author focuses attention on labyrinth mosaics of the 2nd through 4th centuries found in bath buildings of Roman North Africa, with additional reference to a now-lost mosaic of similar content from Pompeii. Among African sites with baths displaying labyrinth mosaics described in the article are Belalis Maior, Thuburbo Maius, Hippo Regius, and Mactar. There is recreated the visual and physical experience of ancient viewers moving within the pavements’ architectural context, in which their passage over the floors led them across a maze of lines toward the narrative image in the mosaic’s center, typically the combat between Theseus and the Minotaur. The spectator thereby became directly engaged in the representation of the mythical event. At the same time, this story and the bather’s movement over the labyrinth pavement (in a frigidarium) reflected circulation within and use of the baths, in which there occurred a nearby palaestra featuring everyday wrestling and boxing matches. The local athlete or contestant became identified with the hero in the narrative, and myth and reality were intertwined in the sporting activity. Especially relevant to this interpretation is the semicircular labyrinth represented in an exedra of the Great East Baths at Mactar, where the ball of thread followed by Theseus (who is not shown) terminates before the entrance to a palaestra.