The Legend Of Icarus And Daedalus

The story of Daedalus and Icarus comes from the Greek mythology. Icarus was son of Daedalus, an architect, inventor, and sculptor, that was very well-known in Athens. The Goddess Athena herself had instructed Daedalus, and he felt very blessed for this. But his nephew Talos was equal or better in his profession. This tortured Daedalus deep within, and the jealousy grew inside him, so one day, Daedalus threw Talos off from the temple of Athena. So Daedalus was found guilty and sentenced to death, but he escaped and went to Crete, where King Minos welcomed and protected him. One day, the wife of Minos, Pasiphae, asked Daedalus to do a strange work: a wooden cow of the size of a real one, to fool the white bull of Crete. And a new creature was born, a being that was half bull and half man. It was called the Minotaur. After this aberration, King Minos decided to hide this creature, so he asked Daedalus to build a labyrinth where the Minotaur could never find the exit. The Minotaur only ate human flesh. So Minos ordered that the Athenians gave him human sacrifices. Theseus, son of the King of Athens, decided that he had to assassinate the Minotaur, and convinced Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, to help him. Ariadne gave a ball of wool to Theseus. Ariadne hold one of the ends of the thread, so he may come back to the entrance. That way, he may find the exit of the labyrinth. And he killed the Minotaur. Daedalus had had a son with a slave, and that boy was called Icarus. Minos was very enraged for the death of the Minotaur, and blamed Daedalus for that, so he shut up him with his son Icarus inside the labyrinth that Daedalus himself had built. Daedalus, after some time thinking in how to get out of the labyrinth, only found a way to escape: through the air, because the labyrinth had no ceiling. Daedalus built two pairs of wings with feathers and attached them to their shoulders using wax. And this way, they started to fly. Daedalus warned his son Icarus: "Don't fly too high, nor too low. If you fly too low the feathers may get wet with the sea, and if you fly too high the wax that hold your wings may be melted by the sun". But Icarus was so fascinated with the dream of flying that is the dream of every human, that he did not follow his father's advice. Icarus flew so high that the sun melted the wax that attached his wings, and fell to the ocean and died drowned. The sea where Icarus died was called the Icarian Sea. Daedalus arrived to Sicily, and King Cocalus took him under his protection, but Minos continued to chase him. Daedalus took revenge on Minos boiling him when he was having a bath with the hot water that Daedalus had installed in Cocalus' palace. This way, Daedalus avenged his son Icarus. Images (in order): Icarus, by eWKn on deviantART; Minotauros, by DocUhu on deviantART; Theseus and Ariadne, by IdleProdigy on deviantART; Ikarus fell, by ~darick on deviantART. -Emma Alvarez- © 2008 by Emma Alvarez. Link to this post without copying the text. Some Related Posts: If you liked this post, subscribe to Emma Alvarez Site or give yourself a gift Stumble it! Add me to your del.icio.us network