"[[w:Recreational mathematics|[R]ecreational math]] is a huge... subject... [A] particular favorite of mine... s and labyrinths, which were originally recreational. One of the earliest examples... involves... the ... the product of a between the queen of King and... Zeus, dressed up as a bull... turned into a bull, or whatever they do. The product... was the Minotaur... half man and half bull... [H]e was... ferocious and... lived in the center of a labyrinth underneath the palace of King Minos. ...Theseus... said I will go with the 9 young men and 9 young women and... attempt to kill the Minotaur. So when he went to Crete he was met by one of my heroes... ... the first female mathematician... recorded in the classical literature. ...[S]he gave him a sword. By the way she fell in love with him. ...[S]he also said ..."I will give you an algorithm for cracking the labyrinth ...and using this algorithm, he went into the labyrinth, found ...[and] killed the Minotaur, got out of the labyrinth and took the young men and... women back to Greece... [O]n the way he stopped off at an island... where they had a great party... and only after they had sailed off did they realize they'd left Ariadne behind, and she died of a broken heart and turned into a spider... [T]he real hero of the story is the labyrinth. ...[T]his design, although they've found it everywhere in the ancient culture, is universal. There are clear examples of Native American populations in the U.S. having essentially discovered the same design."