Mythology Book

ANCIENT GREECE 81

Icarus falls from the sky as his

father looks on in this engraving by

Jean Matheus (ca.1610), from a

translation of Ovid’s Metamorphoses

by Frenchman Nicholas Renouard.

Daedalus eventually landed in

Sicily, far to the west. There, King

Cocalus of Kamikos took him in.

Tested by a riddle

Meanwhile, King Minos was intent

on finding his ingenious inventor

and returning him to Crete. He

pursued Daedalus to Sicily, where

he combed the island with a riddle

he knew only Daedalus would be

able to solve—threading a spiral

seashell with a silken cord. When

King Cocalus returned the shell

neatly strung, Minos guessed that

Daedalus had assisted him. He

was correct: Daedalus had tied the

thread to an ant and let the tiny

creature draw it through the shell.

Minos demanded Daedalus’s

surrender, but Cocalus played for

time and asked his visitor to wait

and enjoy his hospitality for a while.

Some say that his daughters

attacked and killed King Minos as

he took a bath, others that Daedalus

himself had a hand in killing him

by pouring boiling water into the

bath through secret pipes. Some

versions of the myth say that after

his death, the gods took Minos to

Olympus, where he worked with

Hephaestus, the god of

metalworking and blacksmiths. ■

Phaëton and Helios

The myth of Icarus and

Daedalus is often compared to

that of Phaëton and Helios.

Helios, the Titan sun god,

drove westward across the

sky each day in a golden

chariot drawn by flaming

horses and plunged over the

western horizon by nightfall.

Every day, Helios’s son,

Phaëton (“Shining One”),

watched in awe and envy,

begging his father to let him

drive the chariot. Despite his

misgivings, Helios eventually

agreed and Phaëton took off,

laughing exultantly.

Soon, however, Phaëton

panicked; his horses pulled

him far off course, bucking,

diving, and swerving through

the sky. Flying low, they

scorched the earth; then

soaring into space, they left

the fields frozen and barren.

Finally, Zeus had seen enough:

he hurled a thunderbolt and

sent Phaëton falling to his

death, as a punishment for

trying to fly too high. While

the story of Icarus is most

often viewed as a warning

against hubris, Ovid’s

account of Phaëton’s downfall

can be read as a tale of

both the nobility of man’s

aspirations and their folly.

Because of the ignorance

of youth, he made his

flight too far aloft and

fell into the sea.

Historical Library

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