Minotaur statue holding a double-edged axe

The double-edged axe — the labrys — was the sacred symbol of Minoan Crete, the same word from which "Labyrinth" itself derives. To depict the Minotaur wielding the labrys is to crystallise the entire myth in a single image: the beast as both prisoner and embodiment of the labyrinth whose name he bears. The labrys remains one of the oldest religious symbols continuously recognised across Mediterranean civilisations.