I don’t know about you, but I love mazes. I always end up completely lost, but then that’s half the fun! I’m also always amazed when I finally emerge. And that’s quite appropriate really, because a maze took its name from the fact that it ‘amazes’.

Now, have a guess where the word ‘clue’ comes from.

A. Was it a secret message written in invisible ink by prisoners on the walls of their cells?

B. Was it a clever way of helping the hero of a famous story escape from a deadly maze?

C. Could it have been an early form of the game ‘charades’ – but when someone couldn’t guess the clue or ‘mime’, they had to pay a horrible forfeit?

Tell you what, I’ll give you a string of clues to take with you. (That’s it, that’s the clue!)

The story of the word ‘clue’ began a long, long time ago…

…In Greek legend, King Minos of Crete ordered his craftsmen to build him a maze in which he could keep his pet Minotaur. Actually, I say ‘pet’, but ‘monster’ would be a much better description — this beast was half-man, half-bull!

Now, King Minos’s armies would regularly attack Athens across the sea. The King of Athens begged Minos to stop; Minos agreed, but on one condition: that Athens would promise to hand over seven boys and seven girls every nine years as food for the Minotaur.

Reluctantly, the King of Athens agreed, and when nine years had passed, it was time for the children to be picked. The brave warrior Theseus promised to be one of them — for he had a cunning plan. As he made his way deeper and deeper into the maze, he unwound a long ball of thread. He eventually found the Minotaur and slayed it in a bloody battle. Best of all, he managed to find his way out of the maze by following his trail of thread.

And that is how the mystery is solved, for the ball of string was called a ‘clew’ or ‘clue’.

See, I told you I’d given you a hint!

Did you know …

That the Minotaur’s maze was called the Labyrinth, pronounced lab-ee-rinth, and to this day we use that word to describe a complicated building with lots of different corridors or passage. They don’t usually have monsters lurking in them though.