Abstract

The ancient myth of the labyrinth, for centuries, remains attrac-tive, both as an object of scientific research and a foundation of philosophical and artistic discourse. Despite the evident simplicity of its plot, it has motivated an extraordinary diversity of interpretations which inevitably raise question of the extent of its arbitrariness. This paper argues that the idea of the well-known myth, because of its narrative structure -a space-time level of abstractions, the fate, the existence, and the world order-does not simply reflect the ancient notions of the world order and man’s placein it, but represents a universal cosmological and existential model, interpretedin accordance with the cultural facts of the relevant era. Despite the variety of interpretations of the myth, its semantic invariant, in my view, can be reducedto the following formula: “Human existence, as a part of the world order, follows necessarily from it, but simultaneously, participates in its generation”.