Classical Mythology

(^568) THE GREEK SAGAS: GREEK LOCAL LEGENDS
THE FLIGHT OF ICARUS
Daedalus eventually tired of his life in Crete, but Minos would not let him go.
He therefore contrived feathered wings, held together by wax, by means of which
he and his son Icarus could escape. As they flew high above the sea, Icarus ig-
nored his father's warning not to fly too close to the sun, and as the wax on his
wings melted he fell into the sea, which thereafter was called Mare Icarium (see
Color Plate 19). The story is told by Ovid (Metamorphoses 8. 200-230):
t
When Daedalus the craftsman had finished [making the wings], he balanced his
body between the twin wings and by moving them hung suspended in air. He
also gave instructions to his son, saying: "Icarus, I advise you to take a middle
course. If you fly too low, the sea will soak the wings; if you fly too high, the
sun's heat will burn them. Fly between sea and sun! Take the course along which
I shall lead you."
As he gave the instructions for flying, he fitted the novel wings to Icarus'
shoulders. While he worked and gave his advice, the old man's face was wet
with tears, and his hands trembled with a father's anxiety. For the last time, he
The Fall of Icarus. By Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1525-1569); oil on canvas, 1555, 30 X 44
in. Only the legs of Icarus are visible in the sea near the galleon. The ploughman, the
fisherman, and the shepherd, observers in Ovid's narrative, here mind their own busi-
ness. The partridge (Latin name, perdix), too, is Ovidian, a reference to Daedalus' rival
and victim Perdix: in Ovid it gloats over the burial of Icarus. (Brussels, Musées Royaux des
Beaux-Arts.)