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Online Collections

labyrinths


Details
Term Type

Art & Architecture Thesaurus

Preferred Term

labyrinths

Details

Structures of any material having a plan consisting of a number of intercommunicating passages arranged in bewildering complexity, through which it is difficult or impossible to find one's way without guidance. The term was derived from structures so-named in classical Antiquity, perhaps derived from "labrys" (Greek for "double axe" or "place of the double axes"), because the structures were labeled with the sign of a double-axe. The earliest use of the term is usually associated with the mythical labyrinth at Knossos, Crete, in which Theseus killed the Minotaur.

Variations

labyrinth

mazes

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