Icarus the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell into the sea where he drowned, sparking the idiom ""don't fly too close to the sun"". This tragic theme of failure at the hands of hubris contains similarities to that of Phaëthon. Icarus' father Daedalus, a very talented and remarkable Athenian craftsman, built the Labyrinth for King Minos of Crete near his palace at Knossos to imprison the Minotaur, a half-man, half-bull monster born of his wife and the Cretan bull. Minos imprisoned Daedalus himself in the labyrinth because he gave Minos's daughter, Ariadne, a clew
The Battle of the Labyrinth book opens with Percy Jackson attending freshman orientation at Goode High School, where he sees Rachel Elizabeth Dare, a clear-sighted mortal who helps him fight two empousai and escape. Percy travels to Camp Half-Blood, where he learns Grover is in trouble with the Council of Cloven Elders for not having found Pan. During a competition organized by the new sword instructor Quintus, Annabeth and Percy accidentally find an entrance into the Labyrinth, which presents a possible invasion route for Luke. Annabeth is given leadership of a quest to find Daedalus and convince the inventor not to give Luke Ariadne's string.