There was once a queen of Crete, Europa, who was seduced (some stories say "seduced," in some that's not the word I would use) by Zeus, who came to her in the form of a magical bull. She had three human-looking sons from this nonsense, and the king of Crete raised them as his own. When the king died, it was unclear who would rule Crete, and in the power struggle, one of the sons, Minos, announced that it should be him because he had the favor of the gods. He prayed to Poseidon to produce a majestic bull from the ocean so he could sacrifice it. Poseidon provided, and everyone in Crete was so impressed that they made Minos king. Minos then decided that it would be just fine if he didn't sacrifice the bull to Posideon and instead sacrificed a lesser bull. Everything would be fine! Poseiden, of course, did not approve, and in revenge cursed Minos' wife, Pasiphae, to fall madly in love with the majestic bull. She just kept going on and on about the bull, staring at it out the window and sighing and whatnot. There was nothing Minos could do except ask his royal inventor, Daedelus, to create a wooden cow costume that Pasiphae could climb inside and then live happily with her beloved.
Should I even bother pointing out how much of this is nonsense?
Anyway, unlike Europa, when Pasiphae gave birth, the baby was a scary monster with the head and tail of a bull. They called it the Minotaur--the bull of Minos. Minos ordered Daedelus to build a labyrinth for the monster to live in, and every year they sacrificed young men to it. Eventually, the people of Crete got tired of sacrificing their sons to this monster, and a hero named Theseus came and killed the monster. He navigated the labrynth by unrolling a string behind him given to him by Ariadne, Minos' daughter and the Minotaur's half-sister.
That's the story of the Minotaur, and although I like the imagery of the labrynth (and there's a part where Daedelus has to thread a string through a sea shell and does it by tying the string around an ant and letting the ant navigate for him), the rest of the story treats women so badly that I just want to slap everyone.
On a more historical note, Crete used to be the main power in the Aegean, and Athens used to pay tribute to Crete. This tribute wasn't just goods and money, but also young men. When the Creatians would come to collect, the priest would wear a bull mask. Thus, the Minotaur was taking young men as sacrifice. Also, in the early 1900s excavator Arthur Evans, while excavating the palace at Knossos, said, "You know, this palace is super complicated, almost like a labyrinth." It's a hypothesis that is since treated with skepticism, but still interesting.
It's also interesting to note that a labyrinth, unlike a maze, traditionally has no choices in the direction you can go (its called "unicursal"). There are twists and turns in a labyrinth, but the way you need to walk is never in question. It leads you slowly towards the center, and is used for meditative purposes. This doesn't fit so well with the part of the story involving Theseus, who needed a string to not get lost. But it would make sense to me that the Minotaur would just hang out in the middle and all the young men would slowly come to him.
In Medieval times, labyrinths began to appear on the floors of cathedrals and in hedge mazes, and people would walk the labyrinths in meditation and contemplation, often with accompanying prayers or chants. This practice is still used today, and it is comforting to place one foot in front of the other and be guided into the center. I'll also note that when my son was stuck at home with strep throat, but felt good enough to be active for short bursts, I put a labyrinth design on the floor with painter's tape and had him run through it a few times.
Also note that IKEA is unicursal unless you take the shortcuts or wander off the path.
Thanks for posting this helps me with homework
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