Labyrinth of Knossos
The legendary maze built by Daedalus to contain the Minotaur, possibly inspired by the elaborate palace at Knossos with its hundreds of interconnecting rooms.
The Story of Labyrinth of Knossos
The Labyrinth was built by Daedalus on the orders of King Minos to contain the Minotaur, the monstrous offspring of Queen Pasiphaë and Poseidon's bull. The maze was so complex that even its creator could barely escape it. Every nine years (or annually), Athens was forced to send seven youths and seven maidens as tribute — food for the Minotaur — until Theseus volunteered. Ariadne, Minos's daughter, fell in love with Theseus and gave him a ball of thread (the "clew") to trail behind him. Theseus followed the thread to the centre, killed the Minotaur, and escaped. Daedalus was then imprisoned in the Labyrinth for helping Ariadne but escaped using the wings he fashioned for himself and Icarus. Arthur Evans, excavating Knossos from 1900, found a palace with 1,300 interconnecting rooms, corridors, and multiple levels — a structure that may have seemed labyrinthine to visitors unfamiliar with its plan.
Children
Minotaur (occupant)
Symbols
Fun Fact
The English word "clue" comes from "clew" — the ball of thread Ariadne gave Theseus. A "clue" was originally something you followed to find your way out of confusion, exactly as Theseus followed the thread. Every detective novel, every mystery solved by "following the clues," uses a metaphor born in the Labyrinth of Knossos. Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle were, etymologically speaking, writing Theseus stories.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth. See our full guide to English words from Greek mythology.
Explore Further
Labyrinth
🏛 placeThe great maze built by Daedalus
An impossibly complex maze built beneath the palace of Knossos on Crete by the master craftsman Daedalus. The Labyrinth imprisoned the Minotaur at its center.
Minotaur
💭 conceptMythology and architecture
The bull-headed monster imprisoned in the Labyrinth of Crete, whose myth gave English the concept of the labyrinth as a place of confusion and entrapment
Labyrinth
💭 conceptInescapable maze
The Labyrinth was the maze built by Daedalus beneath Knossos to contain the Minotaur — its name became the word for any complex, confusing structure.
Knossos
🏛 placePalace of Minos and the Labyrinth
Knossos was the vast Bronze Age palace complex in Crete — seat of King Minos and the mythological site of the Labyrinth.
Labyrinthine
💭 conceptLanguage and complexity
An English adjective meaning extremely complex, convoluted, or maze-like, derived from the Labyrinth built by Daedalus to imprison the Minotaur beneath the palace of Knossos
Crete
🏛 placeIsland of the Minotaur and Minoan civilisation
Crete was the largest Greek island and the seat of the Minoan civilisation, home to King Minos, the labyrinth, and the bull-cult that produced some of mythology's most famous stories.
Mycenae
🏛 placeCitadel of Agamemnon
Mycenae was the great Bronze Age citadel in the Argolid, seat of King Agamemnon who led the Greek expedition against Troy — its Lion Gate still stands after 3,200 years.
Tiryns
🏛 placegeography
A massive Bronze Age citadel in the Argolid, birthplace of Heracles, whose cyclopean walls were said to be built by giants.
Ilium
🏛 placeGeography
The citadel of Troy, site of the legendary ten-year siege by the Greek forces
Tempe
🏛 placeSacred geography
The Vale of Tempe, a gorge in Thessaly sacred to Apollo where laurel for the Pythian Games was gathered
Mount Ida
🏛 placeBirthplace cave of Zeus
Mount Ida was the highest peak in Crete, home to the cave where the infant Zeus was hidden from his father Kronos and raised in secret by nymphs and the Kouretes.
Thebes
🏛 placeCity of Cadmus and Oedipus
Thebes was the great city of Boeotia, founded by Cadmus who sowed dragon teeth, and the setting for the tragedies of Oedipus, Antigone, and the Seven Against Thebes.