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The myth is set on the island of Crete, ruled by the powerful King Minos. To contain a terrifying creature, Minos commissioned the master craftsman Daedalus to build an inescapable prison. Daedalus, a legendary inventor and architect, devised a structure of such bewildering complexity that he himself could barely find his way out after completing it. This intricate, winding structure was known as the Labyrinth, a name that has since become synonymous with any confusing maze.
At the center of this architectural marvel lived the Minotaur. This fearsome beast, with the body of a man and the head of a bull, was the offspring of Minos’s wife, Pasiphaë, and a divine bull sent by the god Poseidon. As punishment for a past offense, the city of Athens was forced to send a tribute of young men and women into the Labyrinth to be devoured by the Minotaur. The creature’s reign of terror only ended when the Athenian hero Theseus volunteered as a tribute, navigated the maze with the help of Princess Ariadne, and slew the monster at its heart.
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