labyrinths
- 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