Daedalus, the great inventor Daedalus Daedalus the greatest inventor of Ancient Greece Daedalus, a great invetor, with a tragic fate Daedalus (or Daidalos in Greek, Δαίδαλος) was the greatest inventor of Ancient Greece, a man of many skills and arts, as indicated by his name, which comes from the Ancient Greek verb “daedalo”, meaning “to work cunningly”. The Labyrinth in Minoan Crete, Ariadne’s Clue, Pasiphae’s Wooden Cow, Ariadne’s Dancing-Floor, the prow of contemporary ships and flying with wings of wax and feathers were all, according to mythology, Daedalus’ inventions. Daedalus’ lineage There are several legends concerning Daedalus, written down for the first time by Athenian mythographers of the 6th c. BC, under Peisistratus. Most of the myths on Daedalus’s life are set on Crete, so the myths concerning Daedalus must be Cretan in origin.

The legend of Daedalus tells us that he was born in Athens and was the descendant of Erectheus, the legendary hero and King of Athens, the founder of the Panathenian Games. Daedalus’ mother Alcippe (or Phrasmide or Iphinoe) was also of noble lineage, being descended from Cecrops, the mythical founder of the city of Athens. According to a different version, Daedalus was descended from the god Hephaestus and inherited his ability to make almost anything. Daedalus the architect and sculptor Daedalus soon became the greatest architect and sculptor of Athens. It was even said that the statues which came from his workshop looked alive - so alive that when Hercules saw the statue of a man in fighting stance, he though he was being attacked and instinctively smashed it with his club. When he realised he had destroyed an elaborate statue, which was actually of himself, he was extremely embarrassed and apologised to Daedalus. Daedalus was the first to give the limbs free movement, freeing the arms from the body and setting the legs apart. He also made the face more expressive by adding the details of the eye (eyeball, pupil and iris).

How Daedalus came to Crete Talos or Calos (not to be confused with the giant Talos , guardian of Crete) was the son of Daedalus' sister (Perdicas or Polycastes) and he was a apprentice in Daedalus' workshop. It seems that the family as a whole was talented, and Talos was growing into an exceptionally skilled craftsman. Rumour in Athens had it that the nephew would outstrip his uncle. Daedalus, blinded by jealousy, threw Talos off the Acropolis. The crime was soon out and Daedalus was banished from the city. His sister killed herself for grief at losing her beloved son, and Daedalus eventually ended up in Crete. Daedalus was immediately made welcome in Crete, as his fame as a great artisan had gone before him. He became the confidant of Minos, the mythical King of Knossos.

Minos put Daedalus in charge of all technical works in the Palace, and so legend has it that Daedalus was the inventor of almost every technological innovation of the time In Crete Daedalus met Naucratis, who worked in the service of Minos, and had a son by her: Icarus . Daedalus’ works on Crete Pasiphae’s Wooden Cow Ariadne’s Dancing-Floor Daedalus was the one who built the first “dancefloor” in history for the Princess Ariadne. It was admired even by the gods. The “daedalia” Another invention of Daedalus was supposedly the ship’s prow, which is why prows were also known as “daedalia” in Ancient Greece. Pasiphae’s Wooden Cow Minos had asked his uncle Poseidon, the god of the sea, to send a sign in order to prove that he was greater than his brothers. Poseidon sent Minos a beautiful bull from the sea, which Minos was supposed to sacrifice in his honour. But Minos was reluctant to kill such a wonderful animal, and cunningly sacrificed a different bull in its place.

Poseidon was furious and punished Minos for his impiety in an unusual way: he made Minos’ wife, Queen Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull. Mad with passion for the bull, Pasiphae asked Daedalus to find her a way to lie with it without endangering her life. So Daedalus made a hollow wooden cow, covered it with the hide of a real cow, and left it in a field with the queen inside. The bull was deceived and mounted the false cow, and from this unnatural union was born the Minotaur, a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. Daedalus’ Labyrinth After the birth of the Minotaur, Daedalus was called upon to hide Minos’ guilt for this heavy punishment, by finding a way to imprison the Minotaur. Daedalus built the Labyrinth, a maze-like building of winding corridors and complicated twists and turns, which confused anyone who entered it so much that he could not find the way out. We have no idea where the Labyrinth was, although many people identify it with the Palace of Knossos itself.

It is true that the Palace of Knossos consists of many rooms connected by narrow corridors. In any case, according to legend, Knossos itself was built by the architect Daedalus. Ariadne’s Clue Theseus killing Minotaur Every nine years, the Athenians sent seven youths and seven maidens to Crete, as a blood tax for the unjust murder of Androgeos, the son of Minos. The youths and maidens were cast into the Labyrinth to be devoured by the Minotaur. One year, one of the seven youths was Theseus, the son of the King of Athens. Brave and handsome, he fell in love with Minos’ daughter Ariadne, who would on no account let her beloved become food for the Minotaur. Daedalus’ aid was requested once more, and he gave Ariadne a clue or ball of strong thread. Theseus, following Daedalus’ advice, tied one end of the string to the Labyrinth entrance, and walked through the maze unwinding it until he found the Minotaur. Once he had killed the monster, he followed the thread back out.

Minos imprisons Daedalus Daedalus meant no harm when he helped Pasiphae and Ariadne, but he fell out with Minos as a result. Obviously the king hadn’t wanted his wife to mate with the bull or Theseus to find his way out of the Labyrinth. Furious, he imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the Labyrinth. The UnMuseum - Labyrinth at Knossos Requires javascript The Labyrinth at Knossos According to legend, Thesesus fought the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster, in the depths of the labyrinth. (Copyright Lee Krystek, 2001) According to ancient greek myths, the great greek King Aegeus was forced to pay tribute to King Minos of the Minoans, whose kingdom was on the island we now call Crete. Every year the tribute included seven young men and seven young maidens. Underground far below King Minos' palace at the city of Knossos lay a huge maze built for him by the inventor and master architect Daedalus. Inside the maze Minos kept a monster called the Minotaur.

The Minotaur was a hideous creature that was half man and half bull. The fourteen young people from Greece would be let loose into the maze, the labyrinth, where they would become hopelessly lost and eventually be eaten by the Minotaur. According to the legend, King Aegeus' son, Thesesus, decided to volunteer as one of the sacrificial victims, so that he could attempt to kill the Minotaur. Thesesus was successful. He slew the Minotaur, then used a trail of twine he'd started laying down at the entrance of the labyrinth to find his way out of the maze. So how much of this incredible tale is based on reality? Ancient writers from Roman times argued that the Labyrinth was a set of winding caves they knew were located on the south side of Crete at Gortyna. In the early 19th century C.R. Cockerell visited these caves and wrote in his journal that he and his party entered the cavern through an inconspicuous hole in the hillside of Mount Ida and unwound a length of twine to keep from getting lost.

"The windings," wrote Cockerell, "bewildered us at once, and , my compass being broken, I was quite ignorant as to where I was. The clearly intentional intricacy and apparently endless number of galleries impressed me with a sense of horror and fascination I cannot describe. At every ten steps one was arrested, and had to turn to right or left, sometimes to choose one of three or four roads. What if one should lose the clue!" A sketch of the Gortyna cavern as seen in the 19th century. The caves at Gortyna, as much as they might seem to fit the legend are in the wrong place as the Labyrinth was supposedly located at Knossos. Some writers have speculated that another similar set of caves, now lost, near Knossos served as the Labyrinth, but modern archaeologists have come to another conclusion. Archaeologists have found no evidence that a horrible half-man, half-bull-like creature existed at Knossos. However, they have found what looks like a labyrinth. The labyrinth wasn't built in a cave below the palace, though. It was the palace. The Minoans are a mysterious people.

We do not know where they came from, but they seemed to have arrived in Crete about 7000 BC. By all indications the Greeks feared the Minoans, but the Minoans did not seem like a warlike people (their cities had few fortifications). Little is known about the Minoan's religion or their form of government. We cannot read the writing they left behind. In fact, researchers have been unable to figure out even by what name the Minoans called themselves. The term Minoan comes from the legend of King Minos and was coined by archaeologists because they needed a term to describe their discoveries at Knossos. A fresco from the Minoan palace at Knossos showing the sport of "bull leaping." If the Minoans had power it must have come from trade, not war. They exchanged goods with peoples from all around the eastern Mediterranean. Ostrich plumes came from northern Africa, alabaster from Egypt, gold and silver from the Aegean Islands and ivory from Syria. They alll passed through Minoan hands, making Mionan profits, on their way to distant destinations.

The wealth from the trade financed a number of palaces on Crete, the largest of which was the palace at Knossos. Archaeologists are not exactly sure who lived in the Knossos palace. However, they have uncovered a quantity of ceremonial and religious imagery there. This leads some to believe that the chief occupant of the building was a 'priest-king' who had the dual function of leading the state and the religion. Other scholars see the palace as a only a temple. Others as a center for trade. Whatever the palace's function, the building itself was enormous. It contained hundreds of rooms at many levels grouped around a central courtyard. The palace had storerooms, bathrooms, private apartments, public rooms, workshops and even what appears to be a throne room. Some of the storerooms contained dozens of huge jars, called pithoi, which were used to contain olive oil. According to some estimates 60,000 gallons of olive oil could be put in these, which is a testament to the Minoan's wealth. This siliver coin from Knossos dated at around 500 B.C. shows the Minotaur on one side and the Labyrinth on the other.

While there is no archaeological evidence of a labyrinth, the palace itself to a visitor must have seemed like an intimidating maze of corridors, staircases and rooms. This is probably where the legend of the labyrinth began. An early version of the palace was started around 1900 BC, but was demolished for a grander one in 1700 BC. Unlike the Greeks, the Minoans did not consider symmetry an important attribute of architecture. Rooms and halls seem to be added almost at random, though they were undoubtedly placed with a practical purpose in mind. The lack of symmetry does not mean the palace was ugly. Each room had its own beauty and many were decorated with frescoes. The palace reflected the Mnoans practicality. Much of the structure and columns were made of wood, which was more likely to survive an earthquake than stone. The palace had a sanitary drainage system to take wastewater away from the apartments. The drainage channel was even designed with zigzags and basins to slow down the water to prevent overflows. Many of the rooms are partly underground to keep them cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Colonnaded porches allow cool breezes in, but kept out the hot sun.

If the palace is the origin of the labyrinth myth, where did the legend of the Minotaur come from? We know that the Minoans had a fascination for bulls. Their most mysterious art shows human figures, some of them girls, grabbing the horns of a bull and leaping over it. Archaeologists have wondered if this strange and dangerous activity really did take place. If it did, was it merely a sport, or did it have some religious significance? Recent archaeological excavations have shown an arena-like structure outside one of the Minoan palaces that might have been the site of these mysterious activities. Whatever the significance of the bull-leaping, it was probably the genesis of the Minotaur myth. Why bulls? Crete is subject to earthquakes. Perhaps the violent and unpredictable movements of the earth seemed to them like the temperamental acts of a creature such as a bull. The Greek god Poseidon was known as the 'earth-shaker' and was connected to bulls, so perhaps the Minoans were worshiping an earlier form of this god in their ceremonies. Archaeologists think that the end of the Minoan culture came about 1450 BC.

Seventy miles away, a volcano exploded on the island of Thera. This caused a huge tidal wave to hit Crete which destroyed many major buildings and probably their fleet of ships. The wave ended the Minoan's ability to conduct trade, causing them to quickly lose power in the eastern Mediterranean. Some scholars suggest that the end of the Minoan culture may have inspired stories about the continent of Atlantis . The story of the destruction of a powerful and sophisticated culture by water in one night seems extremely similar, though the dates and location must have been exaggerated over time. Copyright Lee Krystek 2001. All Rights Reserved. Daedalos | Article about Daedalos by The Free Dictionary Daedalos | Article about Daedalos by The Free Dictionary Related to Daedalos: Daedalus , Dædalus Daedalus (dĕd`ələs), in Greek mythology, craftsman and inventor. After killing his apprentice Talos in envy, he fled from Greece to Crete. There, he arranged the liaison between Pasiphaë and the Cretan Bull that resulted in the Minotaur.

At the order of King Minos, he built the Minotaur's labyrinth. When Minos refused to let him leave Crete, Daedalus built wings of wax and feathers for himself and his son Icarus. Together they flew away, but Icarus flew too close to the sun and fell to his death when the wax melted. Daedalus escaped to Sicily. Daedalus in Greek mythology, a famous Athenian architect and sculptor. According to the myth, Daedalus, banished from Athens for the murder of his nephew and pupil who had surpassed his teacher in creating various instruments, fled to Crete where he served King Minos. On orders from Minos he constructed a labyrinth in which the monster Minotaur was placed. Daedalus showed Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, how to help Theseus escape from the labyrinth after he had killed the Minotaur. Persecuted by Minos for this, Daedalus devised wings of feathers secured with wax for his son, Icarus, and himself, and with their help reached the coast of Asia Minor by air, from where he later went to Sicily.

But Icarus, not heeding his father’s warning, rose too close to the sun (from whose rays the wax melted) and fell into the water near the island of Samos, in the eastern part of the Aegean Sea, which in ancient times was called the Icarian Sea (allegedly so named after Icarus but actually after the nearby island of Icarius). The myth has been told in the greatest detail in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (see Book 8, lines 157-162; Russian translation, Moscow, 1937). Daedalus mythical Greek architect said to have built the labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. [Gk. Myth.: EB, III: 342] The Myth Of Ikaros & Daedalus Icarus & Daidalos Greek Mythology Ikarus Icaros Myth Houses & Property For Sale The Myth Of Icarus & Daedalus Daedalus was a highly respected and talented Athenian artisan descendent from the royal family of Cecrops, the mythical first king of Athens. He was known for his skill as an architect, sculpture, and inventor, and he produced many famous works.

Despite his self-confidence, Daedalus once committed a crime of envy against Talus, his nephew and apprentice. Talus, who seemed destined to become as great an artisan as his uncle Daedalus, was inspired one day to invent the saw after having seen the way a snake used its jaws. Daedalus, momentarily stricken with jealousy, threw Talus off of the Acropolis. For this crime, Daedalus was exiled to Crete and placed in the service of King Minos, where he eventually had a son, Icarus, with the beautiful Naucrate, a mistress-slave of the King. Minos called on Daedalus to build the famous Labyrinth in order to imprison the dreaded Minotaur. The Minotaur was a monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. He was the son of Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, and a bull that Poseidon had sent to Minos as a gift.

Minos was shamed by the birth of this horrible creature and resolved to imprison the Minotaur in the Labyrinth where it fed on humans, which were taken as "tribute" by Minos and sacrificed to the Minotaur in memory of his fallen son Androgenos. Theseus, the heroic King of Athens, volunteered himself to be sent to the Minotaur in the hopes of killing the beast and ending the "human tribute" that his city was forced to pay Minos. When Theseus arrived to Crete, Ariadne, Minos's daughter, fell in love with him and wished to help him survive the Minotaur. Daedalus revealed the mystery of the Labyrinth to Ariadne who in turn advised Theseus, thus enabling him to slay the Minotaur and escape from the Labyrinth. When Minos found out what Daedalus had done he was so enraged that he imprisoned Daedalus & Icarus in the Labyrinth themselves. Daedalus conceived to escape from the Labyrinth with Icarus from Crete by constructing wings and then flying to safety.

He built the wings from feathers and wax, and before the two set off he warned Icarus not to fly too low lest his wings touch the waves and get wet, and not too high lest the sun melt the wax. But the young Icarus, overwhelmed by the thrill of flying, did not heed his father's warning, and flew too close to the sun whereupon the wax in his wings melted and he fell into the sea. Daedalus escaped to Sicily and Icarus' body was carried ashore by the current to an island then without a name. Heracles came across the body and recognized it, giving it burial where today there still stands a small rock promontory jutting out into the Aegean Sea, and naming the island and the sea around it after the fallen Icarus.

View the Ikaros & Daedalus Art Gallery The Labyrinth of Crete, the myth of the Minotaur Archaeology, Mythology and History of Crete The Labyrinth of Crete: The Myth Of The Minotaur Zeus, in the form of a bull, brought Europe from the Phoenician seashore to Gortys in Crete where he made love with her under a plane tree (or on the plane tree after assuming the form of another sacred animal, the eagle), since then the plane tree was blessed to never lose its leaves (evergreen). From their union three sons were born triplets (or two twins). Next, Zeus arranged the marriage of Europe to the Cretan King Asterion (or Asterio), who appointed Europe's and Zeus' sons as his successors. -> Read more about Gortys -> Read more about the Abduction of Europe by Zeus As promised, the three sons of Europe and Zeus (Minos or Minoas, Radamanthis, Sarpidon) succeeded King Asterion to the throne of Crete.

Initially they seemed satisfied to co-govern, but Minos, who wanted the reign to be his exclusively, ended up banishing his brothers: Radamanthis was sent to Viotia (or Cyclades) and Sarpidon to Asia Minor. Minos became the monarch who believed the gods would give him everything and anything he wished. The gods loved Minos because his father, Zeus, honored him above all. They presented him with a wife, Pasiphae, daughter of Helios (Sun) and Persida, and sister of Circe, the sorceress, Kalypso and Aete, and aunt of Mideia, the grand sorceress. There is talk of eight children for Minos and Pasiphae: Androgeos, Katrefs, Defkalion, Glafkos, Akali (or Akakalis), Xenodiki, Ariadne and Phaedra. Once, wanting to offer a sacrifice in honor of his uncle Poseidon, Minos asked Poseidon to send the best bull he could find from the sea. The bull was so beautiful that Minos didn't sacrifice him, but instead kept him with his flock (or in the palace gardens).

To revenge Minos for not keeping his promise, Poseidon made the bull so ferocious and dangerous that his eventual capture in Crete became one of the twelve feats of Hercules (Cretan Bull). When Pasiphae, his immortal wife, saw the bull she fell in love and coupled with him. She was able to couple with him with the help of Daedalus, who constructed a wooden likeness of a cow, in which Pasiphae hid. From this union the monster Minotaur was born, a humanoid being with a bull's head, which Minos promptly jailed in the Labyrinth, an enormous construction in Knossos. -> Read more about the Minoan Palace of Knossos -> Read more about Daedalus Minos, as ruler of the greatest naval kingdom of that time, undertook many journeys and military expeditions. His best known aggressive expedition was against Athens to avenge the murder of his first born son, Androgeos. When the siege of Athens continued for too long of a period, Minos asked his father, Zeus, for help, and Zeus unleashed a terrible epidemic. Following the instructions of the Oracle, the Athenians were forced to surrender and accept all of Minos' terms of submission.

The most onerous condition of the surrender was the blood tribute. This called for Athens to provide every year (or every three or nine years) seven young men and seven young women as food for the monster Minotaur for as long as he lived. When the last group of young men and women arrived from Athens, prince Theseus, son of Poseidon and the successor of King Aegeas of Athens, was among them. The princess of Knossos , Ariadne, fell in love with the brave youth from Athens, and helped him escape. She devised a plan and gave Theseus a ball of yarn (mitos) so he could find his way through the Labyrinth and kill the monster Minotaur. After the killing, Ariadne departed Crete together with Theseus. However, along the way Theseus deserted her. Eventually, Ariadne became the wife of the god Dionysos. During Minos' reigning years, Daedalus, from Athens , took up residence in Knossos, after he was exiled to Crete for committing a crime in his own country. In Crete he eventually became the official architect and sculptor for Minos.

In Knossos he built the Palace, the Labyrinth, the wooden likeness of a cow for Pasiphae, and even helped Ariadne and Thiseas kill the horrible Minotaur. However, when Minos became disillusioned with him, he jailed Daedalus together with his son, Icarus . The brilliant engineer didn't stay long - he made a pair of wings for himself and Icarus and they flew away. The wings were made of feathers held together with wax. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, as it would melt his wings, and not too close to the sea, as it would dampen them and make it hard to fly. They successfully flew from Crete, but Icarus grew exhilarated by the thrill of flying and began getting careless. Flying too close to the sun, the wax holding together his wings melted from the heat and he fell to his death, drowning in the sea. The Icarian Sea, where he fell, was named after him. Daedalus lamented his dead son and then continued to Sicily , where he came to stay at the court of Cocalus in a place called Camicus.

Of Daedalus' many ingenious works, the most famous was the Labyrinth - the gigantic palace comprised of clusters of rooms and corridors so complex and convoluted that only Daedalus himself was able to find the way out again. It was in this Labyrinth that the Minotaur, the horrible creature who was the love-child of Pasiphae's perverse affair with the bull from the sea - was kept. NOTE. This story comes from the book "The Labyrinth of Messara" by Kaloust Paragamian and Antonis Vasilakis. English translation by Lou Duro for ExploreCrete.com - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Daedalus | Article about Daedalus by The Free Dictionary Daedalus | Article about Daedalus by The Free Dictionary Also found in: Dictionary , Thesaurus , Wikipedia . Daedalus (dĕd`ələs), in Greek mythology, craftsman and inventor. After killing his apprentice Talos in envy, he fled from Greece to Crete. There, he arranged the liaison between Pasiphaë and the Cretan Bull that resulted in the Minotaur. At the order of King Minos, he built the Minotaur's labyrinth.

When Minos refused to let him leave Crete, Daedalus built wings of wax and feathers for himself and his son Icarus. Together they flew away, but Icarus flew too close to the sun and fell to his death when the wax melted. Daedalus escaped to Sicily. Daedalus in Greek mythology, a famous Athenian architect and sculptor. According to the myth, Daedalus, banished from Athens for the murder of his nephew and pupil who had surpassed his teacher in creating various instruments, fled to Crete where he served King Minos. On orders from Minos he constructed a labyrinth in which the monster Minotaur was placed. Daedalus showed Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, how to help Theseus escape from the labyrinth after he had killed the Minotaur. Persecuted by Minos for this, Daedalus devised wings of feathers secured with wax for his son, Icarus, and himself, and with their help reached the coast of Asia Minor by air, from where he later went to Sicily.

But Icarus, not heeding his father’s warning, rose too close to the sun (from whose rays the wax melted) and fell into the water near the island of Samos, in the eastern part of the Aegean Sea, which in ancient times was called the Icarian Sea (allegedly so named after Icarus but actually after the nearby island of Icarius). The myth has been told in the greatest detail in Ovid’s Metamorphoses (see Book 8, lines 157-162; Russian translation, Moscow, 1937). Daedalus mythical Greek architect said to have built the labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. [Gk. Myth.: EB, III: 342] Myths, Legends and History | Atlantis Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Myths, Legends and History Share Spoiler warning! This page draws on information from the real world not from the TV show Atlantis. Due to the fact that we do not know which parts of the myths, legends and history that the writers of Atlantis might use in the future, this page may contain spoilers for future characters and plots.

The writers of Atlantis have drawn on various myths, legends and history when creating the show. Atlantis is set in the legendary City of Atlantis , a place found in stories by the ancient Greeks - stories of a naval power that built an empire before itself sinking into the ocean. The series draws on the creatures, deities and heroes of Greek legend, adapted for the present day. [1] Contents Edit Poseidon is one of the twelve Olympian deities [note 1] from Greek mythology. His main domain is the ocean, and he is called the "God of the Sea". Additionally, he is referred to as "Earth-Shaker" due to his role in causing earthquakes, and has been called the "tamer of horses". He is usually depicted as an older male with curly hair and beard. Poseidon was the protector of many Greek cities and according to references from Plato, the island of Atlantis was the chosen domain of Poseidon. Dionysus Edit Dionysus is the god of wine and fertility. He is mentioned in A girl by any other name as the god of satyrs and maenads. Satyr are monsters that prowl the woods and abducted women and take them to the temple. But kill men.

Dionysus can bring divine ecstasy and extreme pain and rage reflecting both sides of wines nature. Dionysus is the only god to a have a mortal mother Semele and Zeus as a father. Hera Zeus's wife found out and told Semele that she should see Zeus in his true form knowing that it would kill her. Next time they met Semele asked Zeus for one wish. Zeus was so much in love that he accepted. Semele asked to see Zeus in his true form and Zeus sadly accepted but before Semele was burnt to a crisp he grabbed Dionysus from her womb and stitched him into his thigh until he was ready to be born. This made him immortal. Monsters Edit In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a creature with the head of a bull on the body of a man. He dwelt at the centre of the Cretan Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction designed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus, on the command of King Minos of Crete. The Minotaur was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. Satyr Edit Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help Atlantis Wiki by expanding it .

Satyrs were mythical creatures followers of Dionysus. They had human body but goat legs and goat horns. They were going after Nympes in the woods. People Edit In Greek mythology Medusa was a monster, a Gorgon, [note 2] generally described as having the face of a hideous human female with living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazing directly upon her would turn onlookers to stone. Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. While ancient Greek vase-painters and relief carvers imagined Medusa and her sisters as beings born of monstrous form, sculptors and vase-painters of the fifth century began to envisage her as being beautiful as well as terrifying.

In a late version of the Medusa myth, related by the Roman poet Ovid, Medusa was originally a ravishingly beautiful maiden, "the jealous aspiration of many suitors," but when she was caught being raped by the "Lord of the Sea" Poseidon in Athena's temple, the enraged Athena transformed Medusa's beautiful hair to serpents and made her face so terrible to behold that the mere sight of it would turn onlookers to stone. Pasiphaë Edit In Greek mythology, Pasiphaë was the daughter of Helios, the Sun, by the eldest of the Oceanids, Perse. She was given in marriage to King Minos of Crete. With Minos, she was the mother of Acacallis, Ariadne, Androgeus, Glaucus, Deucalion, Phaedra, Xenodice, and Catreus. She was also the mother of "starlike" Asterion, called by the Greeks the Minotaur, after a curse from Poseidon caused her to experience lust for and mate with a white bull sent by Poseidon. Pythagoras Edit Pythagoras is a famous mathematician and philosopher.

Little is known about his life due to the lack of records. He was born on the Greek Island of Samos. Despite his many investigations, he is most known for discovering the Pythagorean theorem which states the the lengths of the two legs of a triangle squared is equal to the length of the hypotenuse squared. He is known for having a large influence on Plato and creating an organization similar to a brotherhood or a monastery. Hercules Edit Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help Atlantis Wiki by expanding it . Hercules is perhaps the best known hero of Greek Mythology. He is the son of Zeus and the mortal Alcmene. To pay for a crime he committed he had to complete 12 tasks assigned to him by king Eurystheus. Among his tasks was to kill the nine headed Hydra , retrieve the apples of the Hesperides , kill the Nemea's lion ,go to the underworld and bring back the threeheaded dog Cerberus.Hercules was killed by his (second ) wife Deianira. When centaur Nesus tried to kidnap her she was saved by Hercules.

Nesus then tricked her telling her that if she put some of his blood on Hercules' shirt he would never be unfaithful again. Deianira kept his blood and when she realised that her husband was cheating on her she used it on one of his shirts. Hercules died in horrible pain caused by the cursed shirt. After his death he became a god. Oracle Edit Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help Atlantis Wiki by expanding it . Oracle is a word that was used in ancient Greek to describe the people that could tell the will of the gods or sometimes the places were they made their prediction. Predicting was an important fact of life in ancient Greece so they were oracles everywhere. The best known oracle is that of Delphi. The best known female oracle is Pythia. Other oracles are Dodona and Trophonius. Ariadne Edit She is the daughter of King Minos of Crete and Queen Pasiphae. She is most famous for having guarded the labyrinth. She fell in love with Theseus who was to enter the maze and helped him survive by guiding him with string so he would not get lost in the maze.

After the death of the Minotaur Ariadne fled Crete with Theseus. Melas Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help Atlantis Wiki by expanding it . Erinna Edit Erinna was a Greek poet, a contemporary and friend of Sappho, a native of Rhodes or the adjacent island of Telos or even possibly Tenos, who flourished about 600 BC (according to Eusebius, she was well known in 352 BC). In 1928, a papyrus was found that contained 54 fragmentary lines by the poet. The poem is a lament on the death of her friend Baucis, a disciple of Sappho, shortly before her wedding. The Seven Sisters Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help Atlantis Wiki by expanding it . Micon Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help Atlantis Wiki by expanding it . Shabaka Shabaka (Shabataka) or Shabaka Neferkare, 'Beautiful is the Soul of Re', was a Kushite pharaoh of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt, between 721 BC-707/706 BC.

Maenad Edit In Greek mythology, maenads were the female followers of Dionysus (Bacchus in the Roman pantheon), the most significant members of the Thiasus, the god's retinue. Their name literally translates as "raving ones". Often the maenads were portrayed as inspired by Dionysus into a state of ecstatic frenzy, through a combination of dancing and drunken intoxication. Tiresias Edit In Greek mythology, Tiresias was a blind prophet of Thebes, famous for clairvoyance and for being transformed into a woman for seven years. He was the son of the shepherd Everes and the nymph Chariclo. He is also the prophet Odysseus consulted when he went to the underworld. Arcas Edit In Greek mythology, Arcas was the son of Zeus and Callisto. Callisto was a nymph in the retinue of the goddess Artemis. Zeus, being a flirtatious god, wanted Callisto for a lover. As she would not be with anyone but Artemis, Zeus cunningly disguised himself as Artemis and seduced Callisto. The child resulting from their union was called Arcas. Places Edit Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned by Plato's in c.

360 BC. According to Plato, Atlantis was a naval power lying "across the Pillars of Hercules" [note 3] that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa in the 10th millennium BC. After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune." Labyrinth Edit In Greek mythology, the Labyrinth was an elaborate structure designed and built by the legendary artificer Daedalus for King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Its function was to hold the Minotaur, a mythical creature that was half man and half bull and was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. Daedalus had so cunningly made the Labyrinth that he could barely escape it after he built it. Theseus was aided by Ariadne, who provided him with a skein of thread, literally the "clew", or "clue", so he could find his way out again. Nysa Note: This is a generic section stub. You can help Atlantis Wiki by expanding it .

Notes MINOTAUR (Minotauros) - Bull-Headed Man of Greek Mythology Bull of Minos Theseus and the Minotaur, Athenian black-figure kylix C6th B.C., Toledo Museum of Art THE MINOTAUROS (Minotaur) was a bull-headed monster born to Queen Pasiphae of Krete (Crete) after she coupled with a bull. The creature resided in the twisting maze of the labyrinth where it was offfered a regular sacrifice of youths and maidens to satisfy its cannibalistic hunger. The beast was eventually slain by the hero Theseus. The Minotauros' proper name Asterion, "the starry one," suggests he might have been associated with the constellation Tauros. FAMILY OF THE MINOTAUR PARENTS THE KRETAN BULL & PASIPHAE (Apollodorus 3.8, Callimachus Hymn 4.311, Diodorus Siculus 4.77.1, Philostratus Elder 1.16, Hyginus Fab.

40, Ovid Metamorphoses 8.130, Virgil Aeneid 6.24, Suidas) ENCYCLOPEDIA MINOTAURUS (Minôtauros), a monster with a human body and a bull's head, or, according to others, with the body of an ox and a human head; is said to have been the offspring of the intercourse of Pasiphaë with the bull sent from the sea to Minos, who shut him up in the Cnossian labyrinth, and fed him with the bodies of the youths and maidens whom the Athenians at fixed times were obliged to send to Minos as tribute. The monster was slain by Theseus. It was often represented by ancient artists either alone in the labyrinth, or engaged in the struggle with Theseus. (Paus. i. 24. § 2, 27, in fin. iii. 18. § 7; Apollod. iii. 1. § 4, 15. § 8.) Source: Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.

ALTERNATE NAMES Theseus and the Minotaur, Athenian red-figure kylix C6th B.C., Musée du Louvre Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 8 - 11 (trans. Aldrich) (Greek mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "Minos aspired to the throne [of Krete (Crete)], but was rebuffed. He claimed, however, that he had received the sovereignty from the gods, and to prove it he said that whatever he prayed for would come about. So while sacrificing to Poseidon, he prayed for a bull to appear from the depths of the sea, and promised to sacrifice it upon its appearance. And Poseidon did send up to him a splendid bull. Thus Minos received the rule, but he sent the bull to his herds and sacrificed another . . . Poseidon was angry that the bull was not sacrificed, and turned it wild. He also devised that Pasiphae should develop a lust for it. In her passion for the bull she took on as her accomplice an architect named Daidalos (Daedalus) . . . He built a woden cow on wheels, . . .

skinned a real cow, and sewed the contraption into the skin, and then, after placing Pasiphae inside, set it in a meadow where the bull normally grazed. The bull came up and had intercourse with it, as if with a real cow. Pasiphae gave birth to Asterios (Asterius), who was called Minotauros (Minotaur). He had the face of a bull, but was otherwise human. Minos, following certain oracular instructions, kept him confined and under guard in the labyrinth. This labyrinth, which Daidalos built, was a ‘cage with convoluted flextions that disorders debouchment.’" Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca 3. 213 : "The god [i.e. the oracle of Delphoi (Delphi)] told them [the Athenians] to give Minos [king of Krete (Crete)] whatever retribution he should chose . . . He ordered them to send seven young men and seven girls, unarmed, to be served as food to the Minotauros (Minotaur).

The Minotauros was kept in a labyrinth, from which there was no escape after one entered, for it closed off its imperceivable exit with convoluted flexions. It had been constructed by Daidalos (Daedalus)." Pseudo-Apollodorus, Bibliotheca E1. 7 - 1. 9 : "Theseus was on the list of the third tribute to the Minotauros (Minotaur)--some day he volunteered--. . . [Ariadne] pleaded with Daidalos (Daedalus) to tell her the way out of the labyrinth. Following his instructions, she gave Theseus a ball of thread as he entered. He fastened this to the door and let it trail behind him as he went in. He came across the Minotauros in the furthest section of the labyrinth, killed him with jabs of his fist, and then made his way out again by pulling himself along the thread." Callimachus, Hymn 4 to Delos 311 ff (trans.

Mair) (Greek poet C3rd B.C.) : "[Theseus] escaped the cruel bellowing and the wild [Minotauros (Minotaur)] son of Pasiphae and the coiled habitation of the crooked labyrinth." Strabo, Geography 10. 4. 8 (trans. Jones) (Greek geographer C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "[Minos] was tyrannical, harsh, and an exactor of tribute, representing in tragedy the story of the Minotauros (Minotaur) and the Labyrinth, and the adventures of Theseus and Daidalos (Daedalus)." Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 24. 1 (trans. Jones) (Greek travelogue C2nd A.D.) : "[On the Akropolis (Acropolis) in Athens] is represented the fight which legend says Theseus fought with the so-called Tauros (Bull) of Minos [the Minotauros], whether this was a man or a beast of nature he is said to have been in the accepted story.

For even in our time women have given birth to far more extraordinary monsters than this." Pausanias, Description of Greece 1. 27. 10 : "Minos sailed against Athens with a fleet, not believing that the Athenians were innocent of the death of Androgeos (Androgeus) [killed by the Marathonian Bull], and sorely harassed them until it was agreed that he should take seven maidens and seven boys for the Minotauros (Minotaur) that was said to dwell in the Labyrinth at Knossos." Pausanias, Description of Greece 2. 31. 1 : "In the market-place of Troizenos (Troezen) [in Argolis] is a temple of Artemis Soteira (Saviour), with images of the goddess. It was said that the temple was founded and the name Soteria (Saviour) given by Theseus when he returned from Krete after overcoming Asterion [the Minotauros (Minotaur)] the son of Minos." Pausanias, Description of Greece 3. 18.

10 - 16 : "[Amongst the scenes depicted on the throne of Apollon at Amyklai (Amyclae) :] I cannot say why Bathykles (Bathycles) has represented the Bull of Minos bound, and being led along alive by Theseus . . . There is represented the fight between . . . Theseus and the Bull of Minos (Tauron ton Mino) [the Minotauros]." Labyrinth of the Minotaur, Greco-Roman mosaic from Villa on the Via Cadolini C1st A.D., Archaeological Museum of Cremona Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 61. 4 (trans. Oldfather) (Greek historian C1st B.C.) : "[Minos demands compensation from the Athenians for the murder of his son Androgeus :] Minos commanded them that they give seven youths and as many maidens every nine years to the Minotauros (Minotaur) for him to devour, for as long as the monster should live. And when the Athenians gave them, the inhabitants of Attika (Attica) were rid of their evils and Minos ceased warring on Athens . . .

Theseus after conversing with her [Ariadne, daughter of Minos] and securing her assistance, both slew the Minotauros and got safely away, since he had learned from her the way out of the labyrinth." Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 4. 77. 1 : "Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, became enamoured of the bull [the Cretan Bull], and Daidalos (Daedalus), by fashioning a contrivance in the shape of a cow, assisted Pasiphae to gratify her passion. In explanation of this the myths offer the following account: before this time it had been the custom of Minos annually to dedicate to Poseidon the fairest bull born in his herds and to sacrifice it to the god; but at the time in question there was born a bull of extraordinary beauty and he sacrificed another from among those which were inferior, whereupon Poseidon becoming angry at Minos, caused his wife Pasiphae to become enamoured of the bull.

And by means of the ingenuity of Daidalos Pasiphae had intercourse with the bull and gave birth to the Minotauros (Minotaur), famed in the myth. This creature, they say, was of double form, the upper parts of the body as far as the shoulders being those of a bull and the remaining parts those of a man. As a place in which to keep this monstrous thing Daidalos, the story goes, built a labyrinth, the passage-ways of which were so winding that those unfamiliar with them had difficulty in making their way out; in this labyrinth the Minotaur was maintained and here it devoured the seven youths and seven maidens which were sent to it from Athens, as we have already related." Plutarch, Life of Theseus 15. 1 & 17. 3 & 19. 1 (trans. Perrin) (Greek historian C1st to C2nd A.D.) : "[The young Theseus arrives in Athens :] Not long afterwards there came from Krete (Crete) for the third time the collectors of the tribute . . .

an agreement to send him [Minos] every nine years a tribute of seven youths and as many maidens. And the most dramatic version of the story declares that these young men and women, on being brought to Krete, were destroyed by the Minotauros (Minotaur) in the Labyrinth, or else wandered about at their own will and, being unable to find an exit, perished there; and that the Minotauros, as Euripides says, was ‘A mingled form and hybrid birth of monstrous shape’, and that ‘Two different natures, man and bull, were joined in him’ . . . . Hellanikos (Hellanicus) . . . says the agreement was that the Athenians should furnish the ship, and that the youths should embark and sail with him carrying no warlike weapon, and that if the Minotauros was killed the penalty should cease.

On the two former occasions, then, no hope of safety was entertained, and therefore they sent the ship with a black sail, convinced that their youth were going to certain destruction; but now Theseus encouraged his father and loudly boasted that he would master the Minotauros, so that he gave the pilot another sail, a white one, ordering him, if he returned with Theseus safe, to hoist the white sail, but otherwise to sail with the black one, and so indicate the affliction . . . When he reached Krete on his voyage, most historians and poets tell us that he got from Ariadne, who had fallen in love with him, the famous thread, and that having been instructed by her how to make his way through the intricacies of the Labyrinth, he slew the Minotauros and sailed off with Ariadne and the youths." Philostratus the Elder, Imagines 1. 16 (trans.

Fairbanks) (Greek rhetorician C3rd A.D.) : "[Description of an ancient Greek painting :] Pasiphae is in love with the bull and begs Daidalos (Daedalus) to devise some lure for the creature; and he is fashioning a hollow cow like a cow of the herd to which the bull is accustomed. What their union brought forth is shown by the form of the Minotauros (Minotaur), strangely composite in its nature." Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana 4. 34 (trans. Conybeare) (Greek biography C1st to C2nd A.D.) : "[Apollonios of Tyana] sailed to Knossos (Cnossus) [in Krete (Crete)], where a labyrinth is shown, which, I believe, once on a time, contained the Minotauros (Minotaur)." Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 40 - 43 (trans.

Grant) (Roman mythographer C2nd A.D.) : "Pasiphae, daughter of Sol [Helios] and wife of Minos, for several years did not make offerings to the goddess Venus. Because of this Venus inspired in her an unnatural love for a bull. At the time when Daedalus came there as an exile, he asked her to help him. For her he made a wooden heifer, and put in it the hide of a real heifer, and in this she lay with the bull. From this intercourse she bore the Minotaur, with bull's head but human body. Then Daedalus made for the Minotaur a labyrinth with an undiscoverable exit in which it was confined. When Minos found out the affair he cast Daedalus into prson, but Pasiphae freed him from his chains . . . After he [Minos] conquered the Athenians their revenues became his; he decreed, moreover that each year they should send seven of their children as food for the Minotaur. After Theseus had come from Troezene, and had learned what a calamity afflicted the state, of his own accord he promised to go against the Minotaur . . .

When Theseus came to Crete, Ariadne, Minos' daughter, loved him so much that she betrayed her brother and saved the stranger, or she showed Theseus the way out of the Labyrinth. When Theseus had entered and killed the Minotaur, by Ariadne's advise he got out by unwinding the thread. Ariadne, because she had been loyal to him, he took away, intending to marry her." Theseus and the slain Minotaur, Greco-Roman fresco from Pompeii C1st A.D., Naples National Archaeological Museum Pseudo-Hyginus, Fabulae 38 : "He [Theseus] killed the Minotaur in the town of Cnossus." Ovid, Metamorphoses 8. 130 ff (trans. Melville) (Roman epic C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "That adulteress [Pasiphae] who in a cow of wood beguiled a savage bull and bore a monster [the Minotaur] in her womb! . . .

His [Minos'] dynasty's disgrace has grown; the monstrous beast [Minotauros] hybrid beast declared the queen's obscene adultery. To rid his precincts of this shame the king planned to confine him shut away within blind walls of intricate complexity. The structure was designed by Daedalus, that famous architect. Appearances were all confused; he led the eye astray by a mazy multitude of winding ways . . . Daedalus in countless corridors built bafflement, and hardly could himself make his way out, so puzzling was the maze. Within this labyrinth Minos shut fast the beast, half bull, half man, and fed him twice on Attic blood, lot-chosen each nine years, until the third choice mastered him. The door, so difficult, which none of those before could find again, by Ariadne's aid was found, the thread that traced the way rewound." Ovid, Heroides 2. 67 ff (trans. Showerman) (Roman poetry C1st B.C. to C1st A.D.) : "With record of his [Theseus'] deeds. When men shall have read of . . . the mingled form of bull and man [i.e.

the Minotaur]." Ovid, Heroides 4. 59 ff : "[Theseus] the faithless son of Aegeus followed the guiding thread, and escaped from the winding house through the aid my sister [Ariadne] gave." Ovid, Heroides 4. 113 ff : "The bones of my [Phaedra's] brother [the Minotaur] he [Theseus] crushed with his triple-knotted club and scattered o'er the ground; my sister [Ariadne] he left at the mercy of wild beasts." Ovid, Heroides 10. 99 ff : "[Ariadne laments after being abandoned by Theseus on Naxos :] O, that Androgeos (Androgeus) [Ariadne's brother] were still alive, and that thou, O Cecropian land [Athens], hadst not been made to atone for thy impious deeds with the doom of thy children! [I.e.

the children sent to Krete (Crete) to feed the Minotaur.] And would that thy upraised right hand, O Theseus, had not slain with knotty club him [the Minotauros] that was man in part, and in part bull; and I had not given thee the thread to show the way of thy return--thread oft caught up again and passed through the hands led on by it. I marvel not--ah, no!--if victory was thine, and the monster smote with his length the Cretan earth. His horn could not have pierced that iron heart of thine." Ovid, Heroides 10. 125 ff : "You [Theseus] will go to the haven of Cecrops; but when you have been received back home, and have stood in pride before your thronging followers, gloriously telling the death of the man-and-bull [the Minotaur], and of the halls of rock cut out in winding ways, tell, too, of me [Ariadne], abandoned on a solitary shore." Virgil, Aeneid 6. 24 (trans.

Day-Lewis) (Roman epic C1st B.C.) : "Crete rising out of the waves; Pasiphae, cruelly fated to lust after a bull, and privily covered; the hybrid fruit of that monstrous union--the Minotaurus (Minotaur), a memento of her unnatural love." Propertius, Elegies 4. 4 (trans. Goold) (Roman elegy C1st B.C.) : "What marvel that the horns of a monster [the Minotaur] were betrayed by his sister [Ariadne], when the twisted path was revealed by the gathering of her thread." Seneca, Hercules Furens 121 ff (trans. Miller) (Roman tragedy C1st A.D.) : "He [Daidalos (Daedalus)] should return, mighty in Attic cunning, who shut our monster [the Minotaur] in the dark labyrinth." Seneca, Phaedra 173 ff : "[Phaedra's nurse addresses her mistress :] ‘Why do monsters cease? Why does thy brother's [the Minotaur's] labyrinth stand empty?

Shall the world hear of strange prodigies, shall nature's laws give way, whenever a Cretan woman [i.e. such as Pasiphae] loves?’" Seneca, Phaedra 647 ff : "I love, those former looks of his [Theseus'] which once as a youth he had, when his first beard marked his smooth cheeks, when he looked on the dark home of the Cretan monster [the Minotaur], and gathered in the long thread o'er the winding way." Seneca, Phaedra 687 ff : "Thy monster-bearing mother [Pasiphae] . . . She did but pollute herself with her shameful lust, and yet her offspring by its two-shaped infamy [the Minotaur] displayed her crime, though long concealed, and by his fierce visage the hybrid child made clear his mother's guilt." Seneca, Phaedra 1170 ff : "What Cretan bull [the Minotauros], fierce, two-formed monster, filling the labyrinth of Daedalus with his huge bellowings, has torn thee asunder with his horns?" Nonnus, Dionysiaca 47.

434 ff (trans. Rouse) (Greek epic C5th A.D.) : "[Dionysos addresses Ariadne :] ‘He [Theseus] shed the blood of the halfbull man [the Minotauros (Minotaur)] whose den was the earthdug labyrinth . . . But you know your thread was his saviour: for the man of Athens with his club would never have found victory in that contest without a rosy-red girl to help him.’" Suidas s.v. Aigaion pelagos (trans. Suda On Line) (Byzantine Greek Lexicon C10th A.D.) : "Theseus, the son of Aigeos (Aegeus) the king of Attika (Attica), ruled the Kretans (Cretans) and pursued the Minotauros (Minotaur) into the area of the labyrinthos (and killed him when he was hidden in a cavern. He took to wife the woman Ariadne, who had been born to Minos of Pasiphae, and thus he ruled Krete (Crete)." Suidas s.v.

En panti muthoi kai to Daidalou musos : "It is said that Pasiphae was in love with a bull and begged Daidalos (Daedalus) to make a wooden cow and rig it up and put her in it; and mounting her like a cow, the bull made her pregnant. From her the Minotauros (Minotaur) was born. Minos for certain reasons became angry with the Athenians and collected a tribute of seven virgins and an equal number of young men from them; they were thrown to the beast." ANCIENT GREEK & ROMAN ART The Labyrinth at Knossos | Circa71 The Labyrinth at Knossos by circa71 According to ancient greek myths, the great greek King Aegeus was forced to pay tribute to King Minos of the Minoans , whose kingdom was on the island we now call Crete. Every year the tribute included seven young men and seven young maidens. Underground far below King Minos’ palace at the city of Knossos lay a huge maze built for him by the inventor and master architect Daedalus. Inside the maze Minos kept a monster called the Minotaur.

The Minotaur was a hideous creature that was half man and half bull. The fourteen young people from Greece would be let loose into the maze, the labyrinth, where they would become hopelessly lost and eventually be eaten by the Minotaur. According to the legend, King Aegeus’ son, Thesesus, decided to volunteer as one of the sacrificial victims, so that he could attempt to kill the Minotaur. Thesesus was successful. He slew the Minotaur, then used a trail of twine he’d started laying down at the entrance of the labyrinth to find his way out of the maze. So how much of this incredible tale is based on reality? Ancient writers from Roman times argued that the Labyrinth was a set of winding caves they knew were located on the south side of Crete at Gortyna . In the early 19th century C.R. Cockerell visited these caves and wrote in his journal that he and his party entered the cavern through an inconspicuous hole in the hillside of Mount Ida and unwound a length of twine to keep from getting lost.

“The windings,” wrote Cockerell, “bewildered us at once, and, my compass being broken, I was quite ignorant as to where I was. The clearly intentional intricacy and apparently endless number of galleries impressed me with a sense of horror and fascination I cannot describe. At every ten steps one was arrested, and had to turn to right or left, sometimes to choose one of three or four roads. What if one should lose the clue!” The caves at Gortyna, as much as they might seem to fit the legend are in the wrong place as the Labyrinth was supposedly located at Knossos. Some writers have speculated that another similar set of caves, now lost, near Knossos served as the Labyrinth, but modern archaeologists have come to another conclusion. Archaeologists have found no evidence that a horrible half-man, half-bull-like creature existed at Knossos. However, they have found what looks like a labyrinth. The labyrinth wasn’t built in a cave below the palace, though. It was the palace. The Minoans are a mysterious people. We do not know where they came from, but they seemed to have arrived in Crete about 7000 BC.

By all indications the Greeks feared the Minoans, but the Minoans did not seem like a warlike people (their cities had few fortifications). Little is known about the Minoan’s religion or their form of government. We cannot read the writing they left behind. In fact, researchers have been unable to figure out even by what name the Minoans called themselves. The term Minoan comes from the legend of King Minos and was coined by archaeologists because they needed a term to describe their discoveries at Knossos. If the Minoans had power it must have come from trade, not war. They exchanged goods with peoples from all around the eastern Mediterranean. Ostrich plumes came from northern Africa, alabaster from Egypt, gold and silver from the Aegean Islands and ivory from Syria. All of these goods passed through Minoan hands, making Mionan profits, on their way to distant destinations. The wealth from the trade financed a number of palaces on Crete, the largest of which was the palace at Knossos. Archaeologists are not exactly sure who lived in the Knossos palace. However, they have uncovered a quantity of ceremonial and religious imagery there.

This leads some to believe that the chief occupant of the building was a ‘priest-king’ who had the dual function of leading the state and the religion. Other scholars see the palace as a only a temple. Others as a center for trade. Whatever the palace’s function, the building itself was enormous. It contained hundreds of rooms at many levels grouped around a central courtyard. The palace had storerooms, bathrooms, private apartments, public rooms, workshops and even what appears to be a throne room. Some of the storerooms contained dozens of huge jars, called pithoi, which were used to contain olive oil. According to some estimates 60,000 gallons of olive oil could be put in these, which is a testament to the Minoan’s wealth. While there is no archaeological evidence of a labyrinth, the palace itself to a visitor must have seemed like an intimidating maze of corridors, staircases and rooms. This is probably where the legend of the labyrinth began. An early version of the palace was started around 1900 BC, but was demolished for a grander one in 1700 BC. Unlike the Greeks, the Minoans did not consider symmetry an important attribute of architecture.

Rooms and halls seem to be added almost at random, though they were undoubtedly placed with a practical purpose in mind. The lack of symmetry does not mean the palace was ugly. Each room had its own beauty and many were decorated with frescoes. The palace reflected the Minoans practicality. Much of the structure and columns were made of wood, which was more likely to survive an earthquake than stone. The palace had a sanitary drainage system to take wastewater away from the apartments. The drainage channel was even designed with zigzags and basins to slow down the water to prevent overflows. Many of the rooms are partly underground to keep them cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Colonnaded porches allow cool breezes in, but kept out the hot sun. If the palace is the origin of the labyrinth myth, where did the legend of the Minotaur come from? We know that the Minoans had a fascination for bulls. Their most mysterious art shows human figures, some of them girls, grabbing the horns of a bull and leaping over it. Archaeologists have wondered if this strange and dangerous activity really did take place. If it did, was it merely a sport, or did it have some religious significance?

Recent archaeological excavations have shown an arena-like structure outside one of the Minoan palaces that might have been the site of these mysterious activities. Whatever the significance of the bull-leaping, it was probably the genesis of the Minotaur myth. Why bulls? Crete is subject to earthquakes. Perhaps the violent and unpredictable movements of the earth seemed to them like the temperamental acts of a creature such as a bull. The Greek god Poseidon was known as the ‘earth-shaker’ and was connected to bulls, so perhaps the Minoans were worshiping an earlier form of this god in their ceremonies. Archaeologists think that the end of the Minoan culture came about 1450 BC. Seventy miles away, a volcano exploded on the island of Thera . This caused a huge tidal wave to hit Crete which destroyed many major buildings and probably their fleet of ships. The wave ended the Minoan’s ability to conduct trade, causing them to quickly lose power in the eastern Mediterranean. Some scholars suggest that the end of the Minoan culture may have inspired stories about the continent of Atlantis .

The story of the destruction of a powerful and sophisticated culture by water in one night seems extremely similar, though the dates and location must have been exaggerated over time. 0.000000 0.000000 greek - What did the Labyrinth look like? - Mythology Stack Exchange What did the Labyrinth look like? up vote 13 down vote favorite 2 Did the Labyrinth have concentric circular walls with passages blocked by radials or it did it have rectangular lines? Or do we simply not know? The Labyrinth has been described as : ... a maze-like building of winding corridors and complicated twists and turns, which confused anyone who entered it so much that he could not find the way out. Which could be considered an apt description of the palace. The Palace of Knossos Knossos itself was built by the architect Daedalus The Minoan building complex at Knossos, from the excavations of Arthur Evans (1851 – 1941) Regarding this answer, it's important to note that the case for the palace comes from the origin of the word labyrinth.

It derives from a pre-Greek word " labrys ", referring to a type of sacred, double-edged axe . Thus "labyrinth" may have meant something like "palace of the sacred axe". – DukeZhou Dec 20 at 16:55 up vote 13 down vote The settlement of Knossos is associated with the palace of king Minos who housed the Minotaur, as Wikipedia tells us. There are, however, as far as I know, no actual remains discovered of the labyrinth itself. A common interpretation is that the Laybyrinth is actually the palace. However, Wikipedia also shows us a coin that supposedly is from Knossos, around 400BC, that looks like this: Whether the coin represents the actual labyrinth (if that ever existed) or an artist impression of what they thought the labyrinth would have looked like is of course hard to tell. Doesn't look look like mutch of a maze to me, that is at least if the lighter color is the path. So I doubt that it is to represent the maze. – maam27 Apr 30 '15 at 11:24 2 I assume the darker colour is the path.

Also, don;t forget the original labyrinth was meant to keep the Minotaur inside, it wasn't build as a pass-time for people to go and find the centre (on the contrary!). Thirdly, this is a 2.5KA old coin. Artistic license, technical limits and sheer size of the coin may play a role in slightly simplifying the actual layout as well... – oerkelens Apr 30 '15 at 11:29 That is true but if it was to keep someone in or some beast, one wouldn't go for a straight path but I do get where you are comming from with the arguments. – maam27 Apr 30 '15 at 11:31 Actually, two of the three paths that connect in the centre are only connected to each other and form a small closed loop, which would keep the monster in quite nicely. – oerkelens Apr 30 '15 at 11:34

Question: According to Greek legend, the labyrinth built by architect Daedalus housed which monster?
Answer: The Minotaur