PJO Monthly Magazine: Edition 2 (February 2022)

The Labyrinth - A brief study

By @PerseusJSonOfSea

The history-

The Labyrinth was originally built for Crete after the birth of the Minotaur after Pasiphaë had an affair with the Cretan Bull due to Minos not sacrificing it. Minos got this idea after consulting the Oracle of Delphi. In order to protect its secret, Minos imprisoned its inventor, Daedalus, inside but gave him his own workshop. Despite the warnings of Apollo, Daedalus gave the maze its own malevolent consciousness. Daedalus eventually flew out of the Labyrinth by making wings for him and his son, Icarus. Theseus managed to track through the Labyrinth using the string of Minos' daughter, Ariadne, and make it back after slaying the Minotaur.

Over time, the Labyrinth continued growing, spreading beyond even Daedalus' ability to control. Following the murder of Minos, Daedalus retreated back into the Labyrinth to hide and avoid death and the punishment that he knew was coming for him for his crimes.

Eventually, the Labyrinth moved to the States, along with the Olympian gods although it continued to extend all around the world. One entrance to the Labyrinth opened on in Zeus Fist in Camp Half Blood, where it was eventually found by Luke Castellan during his time at the camp. However, he was unable to navigate the Labyrinth and kept his discovery a secret.

The Lightning thief-

While arguing with Annabeth Chase about killing the Minotaur, Percy Jackson remembers that there was only one in the stories and that it had been killed a long time ago by Theseus in the Labyrinth. Annabeth explains that the Minotaur is the same one that Theseus had killed in the Labyrinth as monsters eventually reform after being killed.

The titan's Curse

Clarisse was given a secret mission by Chiron to investigate the Labyrinth. Kronos had also been sending scouts ahead to find ways into camp through the Labyrinth, though with no success. However, all that Percy heard about Clarisse's absence is that she was on a "secret mission." During her time in the Labyrinth, Clarisse found near Chris Rodriguez her mother's house and eventually took him to camp after trying to heal him herself.

Nico Di Angelo also found an entrance to the Labyrinth near Zeus' fist. After running away from Camp Half-Blood into the woods, Percy and Annabeth followed him, but couldn't find him anywhere. This was because Nico had entered the Labyrinth, and had started being trained in using his Underworld abilities by King Minos.

The Battle of the Labyrinth

As Olympus moved west, so did the Labyrinth. Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, Grover Underwood, Tyson, and Rachel Elizabeth Dare (RED) attempted to navigate through the Labyrinth, with varying degrees of success.

Entrances to the Labyrinth could be found all over the US and were marked with a (Δ), the symbol of Daedalus. In addition, the Labyrinth increased in size constantly. Its life force was connected to Daedalus, so when Daedalus died, the Labyrinth also collapsed.

The Labyrinth gained a mind of its own and eventually grew out of Daedalus' control, since it began to grow and expand on its own. When Percy, Annabeth, Grover, and Tyson tried to get some sleep, they could hear the walls shifting around them. The walls were also constructed of many different materials from stone to concrete. Annabeth incorrectly assumed that Daedalus' Workshop was in the center of the maze, the oldest part of the maze, but was actually surrounded by futuristic walls and doors (cool ngl).