Mazes and Monsters

Fourth Grade Unit on Greek Mythology

Labrintihan studies

How is a labyrinth different to a maze?

Although both maze and labyrinth depict a complex and confusing series of pathways, the two are different. A maze is a complex, branching (multicursal) puzzle that includes choices of path and direction, while a labyrinth is unicursal, i.e., has only a single, non-branching path, which leads to the center.

Lose yourself in the world's most impressive labyrinths and mazesIf the numerous elaborately mazes and labyrinths constructed across the world are any indication, there's a certain appeal to the feeling of being lost.

Daedalus

Daedalus, (Greek: “Skillfully Wrought”) mythical Greek inventor, architect, and sculptor who was said to have built, among other things, the paradigmatic Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete. Icarus and Daedalus, etching by Giovanni David, 1775; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City.

Daedaleus and Icarus by Frederic Leighton