The Minoan civilization flourished during the Bronze Age (2700 to 1450 BC) on the island of Crete. Knossos was the Cretan ceremonial and political center of the Minoan civilization and culture. Here was the location of the Palace of Minos (the house of King Minos). Knossos was a complex collection of more than a thousand connected rooms; there was a throne room, but also work rooms for artisans and wine presses. There were storerooms and rooms for religious worship and administration. At its height, the surrounding area comprised about 30,000 people.

It is unknown today whether the palace was primarily an administrative center, a religious center, or both. It is also unknown whether Knossos was the primary settlement on Crete. Knossos has no fortifications or stores of weapons, for example. Minoan civilization was nonmilitaristic, possibly because it was a matriarchal society.

The palace has long been considered as the source of the myth of the Labyrinth. The Labyrinth was originally constructed for King Minos of Crete to contain the Minotaur, a monster that was half-man and half-bull. Minos’s wife had given birth to the monster and it required frequent human sacrifices to propitiate it. The architect Daedalus and his son Icarus design the Labyrinth so that the Minotaur could not escape. Eventually the Minotaur was eventually killed by Theseus, with aid from Minos’s daughter Ariadne.

“Labyrinth” comes from labrys, a double axe and symbol of royal power (-inthos meaning “place”). The double-axe image was used throughout the Mycenaean world as a charm to ward off evil. Axe motifs were scratched on many of the stones of the palace. There is also a Shrine of the Double Axes at the palace, as well as throughout Crete and the Aegean.

But where was the Labyrinth? Was it the palace itself, part of the palace, or somewhere else? The answer is unknown. Part of the legend probably comes from the Minoan practice of human sacrifice. This practice was not found anywhere else on Crete. It is possible that the palace was a center for human sacrifice. Certainly, its layout is very difficult and confusing to navigate.

In the Iliad, Homer stated that the Labyrinth on Crete was a dancing ground made for Ariadne. Hephaestus inscribes pictures on Achilles’ shield, one being a dancing-ground “like the one that Daedalus designed in the spacious town of Knossos for Ariadne of the lovely locks.” The intricate labyrinth dance was also symbolized, where “youths and marriageable maidens were dancing on it with their hands on one another’s wrists… circling as smoothly on their accomplished feet as the wheel of a potter…and there they ran in lines to meet each other.”

Symbolizing the Grecian patterns of continuous meander, the labyrinth is known today as the Greek key pattern. In 300 BC, the coins from Knossos still featured the labyrinth symbolism.

After the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek culture became dominant on Crete. The city of Knossos remained important through the classical and Roman periods, but its population shifted to what is now Heraclion during the 9th century AD.

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