The Mythology Book

7878

DISDAINING HIS

FATHER’S WARNINGS,

THE EXHILARATED

ICARUS SOARED

EVER HIGHER

DAEDALUS AND ICARUS

D

aedalus was an inventor

and was responsible for

a host of innovations: he

equipped ships with masts, sails,

and prows with battering rams to

outpace and outfight rival fleets; he

made lifelike statues and automata

that could think and feel like men;

and he invented new tools for

construction. Originally from

Athens, he worked for King Minos

in Crete and built not only the

Labyrinth that concealed the

Minotaur but also the wooden cow

in which the monster’s mother had

hidden in order to mate with the

king’s prized bull. Minos valued

Daedalus so much that he did

not want to let him of his sight.

IN BRIEF

THEME

Man’s pride and

punishment

SOURCES

Historical Library, Diodorus

Siculus, ca.30 bce; Library,

Pseudo-Apollodorus ca. 10 0 ce;

Metamorphoses, Ovid, 8 ce;

Natural History, Pliny, ca. 78 ce.

SETTING

Crete and the Aegean.

KEY FIGURES

Minos King of Crete; son of

Zeus and Europa.

Daedalus Greek inventor

employed by King Minos.

Icarus Son of Daedalus by

Naucrate, an Egyptian slave.

Cocalos King of Kamikos,

Sicily; Daedalus’s protector.

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See also: Theseus and the Minotaur 76–77 ■ Arachne and the spider 115 ■ The epic of Gilgamesh 190–97

Daedalus’s inventions made him

indispensable but dangerous—he

knew the king’s deepest secrets,

and Minos dreaded losing him.

After Daedalus helped Theseus

escape from the Labyrinth, Minos

installed the inventor in a tower

where he lived as a pampered

prisoner, enjoying every luxury

except his freedom. With him was

Icarus, Daedalus’s son by Minos’s

Egyptian slave Naucrate.

Taking wing

Daedalus resolved to flee his gilded

cage. Escape routes from the tower

and off the island were barred, first

by the dizzying drop beneath the

window; then by Minos’s men

below; and lastly by the waves of

the Aegean Sea. Watching from

his window as the birds flew by,

Daedalus realized that the sky was

still open to him as a highway—if

only he could fly.

Daedalus devoted hours of

study to the birds; he examined

the anatomy of their wings and the

aerodynamics of their flight. Day

and night he toiled to construct

two pairs of wings—one pair for

himself and one for his son.

The wings were complex: their

frames had to be strong but flexible

and light, and they had to provide ❯❯

ANCIENT GREECE

Daedalus and Icarus build a wooden

cow for Queen Pasiphaë (far left) in this

floor mosaic from Zeugma, Turkey.

Hidden inside the cow, Pasiphaë mated

with her husband’s bull.

Daedalus’s dark past

Originally from Athens,

Daedalus fled to Crete after

the murder of his nephew

Talos (sometimes identified

as Perdix), who was also his

talented apprentice. Daedalus

was believed to have felt

threatened by Talos’s growing

powers of invention, which

seemed set to outshine his

own. By the age of 12, Talos

had already invented the

potter’s wheel, the chisel, and

the first compass, which he

made out of two pieces of iron

that he pivoted on a pin.

Overcome with jealousy,

Daedalus pushed Talos off the

top of the Acropolis. In Ovid’s

version of the myth, Pallas

Minerva (Athena) witnessed

the incident and intervened

to catch Talos in mid-air,

transforming him into a

partridge—a bird, the poet

notes, that likes to live close to

the ground. Seeking to escape

trial, Daedalus then fled with

his son Icarus to Crete, while

Talos’s mother, Daedalus’s

sister, took her own life.

The

inventions

of Daedalus

Drill

Plumb line

Saw

Axe

Ship’s prow

Glue

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