![]() ![]() But of this Cretan Labyrinth, Pliny says, nothing remained.Īt the same time as these different accounts of the Labyrinth were being written down, artists were producing a variety of depictions of the myth. Writing several hundred years later, the Roman historian Pliny the Elder lists a number of different labyrinths, suggesting that the Egyptian building had inspired Daedalus to build the one in Crete. Only later did authors locate the Labyrinth at Knossos. Herodotus, the earliest Greek historian, describes an impressive building called a labyrinth, but locates it in Egypt, at a city called Crocodilopolis. Intriguingly, Homer tells us that Daedalus built a dancing floor for Ariadne at Knossos, but doesn’t mention the Labyrinth. Knossos, on the island of Crete, is mentioned in the earliest work of Greek literature, Homer’s Iliad, which was composed some time before 700 BCE. ![]() Myths are continually reworked and retold, and that of the Labyrinth is no exception. Or at least that is the most commonly accepted story – digging deeper into the myth reveals a multitude of contradictory versions. In order to escape the maze after killing the Minotaur, Theseus needed a ball of thread, given to him by the princess Ariadne. The Labyrinth was an ingenious maze commissioned by King Minos and designed by the architect Daedalus. Inside the Labyrinth exhibition showing the marble Minotaur statue © Ashmolean.
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