While the labyrinth maze is a reference to the twisting passages of the Knossos palace, the name 'Labyrinth' was derived from the sacred double axe, the emblem of which was carved repeatedly into the fabric of the palace, especially an area which Evans dubbed 'The Hall of the Double Axes'.

...the most sacred emblem of the aniconic cult of Crete, the double axe, is equally on the Anatolian side a central object of cult, and its Lydian name labyrs has suggested a key not only to the title of Carian Zeus, Labraundos, but to that of the Labyrinth, here identified with the palace sanctuary of Knossos.^[11]