Labyrinth

King Minos of Crete commissioned Daedalus, the greatest inventor and craftsman of the ancient world, to build a structure so complex that nothing inside could ever find its way out. The result was the Labyrinth — a maze of countless corridors, dead ends, and winding passages beneath the palace of Knossos.

The Minotaur was imprisoned at its heart. Every nine years, fourteen Athenian youths were sent into the Labyrinth as tribute, where they wandered lost until the Minotaur found and devoured them. No one who entered had ever returned.

Theseus broke the pattern. Armed with a sword from Ariadne and, crucially, a ball of thread, he entered the Labyrinth, unwinding the thread as he went. He found and slew the Minotaur, then followed the thread back to the entrance. Minos, furious at Daedalus for helping Ariadne help Theseus, imprisoned the craftsman in his own Labyrinth. Daedalus escaped by building wings of wax and feathers for himself and his son Icarus.