Knossos the Palace of Minos in Crete | Mythology Series Middle & High School

Who were the Minoans, and what did Sir Arthur Evans uncover when he excavated Knossos? What might daily life have looked like inside a royal palace complex? And what about the labyrinth: was it ever a real structure, or is it pure story?

This lesson set invites students to hold myth and archaeology side by side. According to legend, King Minos ruled from Knossos and commanded the inventor Daedalus to build an elaborate labyrinth to confine the Minotaur. But where does the myth end and the historical record begin? Students trace how the Knossos tradition connects to the Theseus narrative, asking how stories shape what later cultures “remember,” and how excavations reshape what we think we know.

What’s Included:

3-Day Lesson Plan

• Designed for three 45-minute class sessions or one 90-minute block plus a 45-minute writing block

Teacher-Facing Materials

• 1 Teacher’s Note
• 3-Day Lesson Calendar
• 1 Multimedia Student-facing Slide Deck

Map Activities & Anchor Charts (2)

• Knossos and Its Neighborhood Map Activity
• Key Characters and Places Anchor Chart
• The Palace of Knossos Map Activity

Pre-Reading Cards (3)

• Minoan Civilization
• King Aegeus, Father of Theseus
• Knossos (Dictionary Entry)

Reading Cards (8)

• The Minoan Palace
• From Myth to Masonry
• Crete (Dictionary Entry)
• Knossos
• The Minoan Throne Room & the Bull Leaper
• A Minoan Storehouse
• Interdisciplinary Text: Textiles and Comparative Ancient Trends

Art & Literature Connections (2)

• The Palace of the King of Minos
• The South House

Student-Friendly Learning Supports

• Reading-protocol–friendly content
• Dozens of embedded prompts and discussion questions
• Gallery-walk / reading-carousel–station friendly design
• 2 Half-Sheet Exit Tickets
• 36-Question Bank
• 1 Note-Taking Template
• 1 Cretan-Type Labyrinth with Seven Circuits
• 2 Frayer Model Vocabulary Cards (lesson-aligned)

Writing & Assessment

• 1 Expository Essay Writing Assignment
• Student Instructions and Guide
• Lesson-aligned writing directions
• 2-Point Rubric for written responses
• 1 Further Reading List
• 1 Answer Key for all student-facing materials
• 1 Academic Standards Alignment Chart (Common Core, TEKS, VA SOL)

Formats Included

• PDF
• Google Workspace

Suggested Classroom Use

• A Theseus and the Minotaur tie-in lesson
• A Daedalus and Icarus tie-in lesson
• English Language Arts or Humanities
• A unit (or mini-unit) on Greek mythology / ancient literature

Note: The mythology of Knossos and the labyrinth, paired with Sir Arthur Evans’s well-known excavation work on Crete, makes this topic especially compelling for students. Use this resource to layer nonfiction and myth alongside Theseus and the Minotaur, or to build a focused mini-unit on how archaeology and storytelling inform one another.

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