Minotaur Flegetonte ("river of blood"), to continue through the seventh Circle. Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur (, ; , , Etruscan: "Θevrumineś") is a mythical creature portrayed in Classical times with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "part man and part bull". It dwelt at the center of the Labyrinth, which was an elaborate maze-like construction designed by the architect Daedalus and his son Icarus, on the command of King Minos of Crete. The Minotaur was eventually killed by the Athenian hero Theseus. The
Labyrinth four examples of labyrinths are all complex underground structures, and this appears to have been the standard Classical understanding of the word. It is also possible that the word labyrinth is derived from the Egyptian "loperohunt", meaning palace or temple by the lake. The Egyptian labyrinth near Lake Morris is described by Herodotus and Strabo. By the 4th century BC, Greek vase painters also represented the Labyrinth by the familiar "Greek key" patterns of endlessly running meanders. When the Bronze Age site at Knossos was excavated by explorer Arthur Evans, the complexity of the architecture prompted him to suggest that