BL - Labyrinth and Mythology

I don't know if this will help with some background info, hard to say. I still am not sure we are really looking at a true labyrinth. If so it must be a Processional Labyrinth (entrance and exit).


Labyrinth and Mythology Terms
These items reference types of life size Mazes and Labyrinths used for spiritual purposes, and things from stories that feature Mazes and Labyrinths in them. These include the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur, and the Old English tragedy of Rosamond the Fair.

Aegeus: King of Athens. When Androgeous was killed at the Olympics, Minos attacked Athens and as a condition of peace forced King Aegeus to annually submit seven youths and seven maidens to be thrust into the Labyrinth as food for the Minotaur.

Androgeous: Son of King Minos who was so gifted that he won all the prizes at the Olympics, and was therefore killed out of jealousy.

Ariadne: Daughter of King Minos. She enabled Theseus to slay the Minotaur by giving him a clew of thread which he tied to the entrance and unrolled as he went into the Labyrinth in order to find his way back without becoming lost. She fell in love with Theseus and left Crete with him.

Asterion: The Minotaur's name.

Bower: Another term for a Maze or Labyrinth, especially a hedge Maze.

Chartres Labyrinth: A style of unicursal Labyrinth characterized by eleven rings and four quadrants, where the start and end passages are close but not perfectly lined up, popularized by a Labyrinth of this style in the floor of Chartres Cathedral in France, and commonly walked for spiritual purposes today.

Classical Labyrinth: A style of unicursal Labyrinth characterized by seven rings, that's been around for hundreds of years and has been seen in many different cultures around the world. This is sometimes mistakenly called the Cretan Labyrinth, where that's a different pattern.

Clew of Thread: A ball of string. Ariadne gave a clew of thread to Theseus so he could find his way out of the Labyrinth, and Eleanor of Aquitaine used one to solve Rosamond's Bower.

Cretan Labyrinth: A style of unicursal Labyrinth characterized by ten rings and four quadrants, where the start and end passages line up.
Daedalus: Gifted craftsman who built the Labyrinth. He also built a hollow mechanical cow to allow Queen Pasiphae to mate with a special bull which resulted in the birth of the Minotaur. When thrown into the Labyrinth by King Minos, he built wings held together with wax allowing him and his son Icarus to escape.

Dapuritojo Potinija: Ancient Minoan goddess of the Labyrinth. Can be considered a pre-Greek form of Ariadne.

Eleanor of Aquitaine: Wife of King Henry II (1122?-1204). Furious about her husband's affair with Rosamond the Fair and that he tried to hide Rosamond from her in the Maze Rosamond's Bower, she used a clew of thread just as Theseus did to find her way to the center whereupon she killed Rosamond.

Hedge: Type of life size Maze where the walls are high hedges. Hedge Mazes require many years to grow and then require continual trimming, however "living Mazes" of this type can be considered the most beautiful and interesting.

Icarus: Son of Daedalus, he was locked with his father in the Labyrinth after the Minotaur was slain. Daedalus cautioned him not to fly too close to the sun lest his wax wings melt, but Icarus didn't listen and so fell to his death in the sea.

King Henry II: King of England (1133-1189). As the story goes, he built Rosamond's Bower to hide his mistress Rosamond the Fair from his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Knossos: City on Crete containing the palace of King Minos and presumably the Labyrinth as well.

Labrys: Sacred double headed axe used by ancient Minoan civilization. This is the root of the word "Labyrinth".

Man in the Maze: Style of unicursal Labyrinth topologically equivalent to the classical seven circuit Labyrinth, commonly seen in the Tohono O'Odham nation (Native American tribe), characterized by seven concentric circles with the seed pattern in the center.

Minos: King of the Greek island of Crete. King Minos' pride in refusing to sacrifice a special white bull to the gods caused them to make his wife Pasiphae fall in love with the bull and give birth to the Minotaur. When his son Androgeous was murdered in Athens, he forced the Athenians to give seven youths and seven maidens every year to be thrown into the Labyrinth and devoured by the Minotaur.

Minotaur: Vicious monster with the body of a man and the head of a bull, who dwelled within the Labyrinth and killed all who entered. He was the son of Queen Pasiphae and was eventually slain by Theseus.

Mizmaze: Old term for a Labyrinth or Maze, especially a turf Labyrinth.

Nemetona: Celtic goddess of Labyrinths and sacred spaces in general, i.e. the Guardian of the Sacred Grove.

Pasiphae: Wife of King Minos. After King Minos refused to sacrifice a special bull to the god Poseidon, the gods made Queen Pasiphae fall madly in love with the bull. She mated with it and as a result gave birth to the Minotaur.

Processional: Type of unicursal Labyrinth with both an entrance and an exit on the outer boundary. This allows a sequence of people to walk through the Labyrinth, across the center if it has one, and out another location, without anybody crossing path. It also allows two people to race to the middle from both entrances.

Rosamond the Fair: Mistress of King Henry II. As the story goes, she was hidden in the center of Rosamond's Bower until Eleanor of Aquitaine solved the Maze and gave her a choice of how to die: either drink poison or be killed by a dagger. Rosamond chose the poison.

Rosamond's Bower: Legendary hedge Maze constructed by King Henry II to conceal his mistress from his jealous wife.

Seed Pattern: A simple pattern around which a unicursal Maze can be drawn. For example, the seed pattern for the classical seven circuit Labyrinth is a cross with four more right angle lines in each quadrant. Connecting adjacent endpoints all the way around this seed pattern results in the classical Labyrinth.

Theseus: Slayer of the Minotaur. Son of King Aegeus, he volunteered to be one of the youths submitted to be killed by the Minotaur. Theseus fought and killed the Minotaur instead, and ran off with King Minos' daughter Ariadne.

Troy Town: See Mizmaze.

Turf: Type of life size Maze carved into grass or turf, where the walls are carved into the ground and you walk on the raised grassy area. Mazes of this type are usually unicursal Labyrinths.

Thanks for the info! It could come in handy.

Thorough, comprehensive, and probably very useful... thanks for putting that together.

We shall see, its still a complete mystery to what kind of clue we are even looking for yet. Where would the confirmation even be? How would we even know?