Icarus fell like a stone into the sea below. He flailed his arms but could not regain control as the wings disintegrated.ĭaedalus looked on in horror as his beloved son plunged from the sky, feathers fluttering uselessly around him. Suddenly, Icarus felt wax melting, feathers coming loose. The nearer Icarus drew, uncontrolled in his joy and heedless ambition, the warmer his back grew. The blazing sun god Helios looked down and saw the boy daring to approach the sun’s fiery chariot. Ignoring his father’s repeated warnings, an exhilarated Icarus began flying higher and higher, intoxicated by the feeling of the wind rushing over his feathers. As he soared through wisps of cloud, he felt like a god, unbound by earthly constraints. Icarus was overwhelmed with ecstasy at this newfound freedom and power of flight. Now he was seeing his island home become small below him as he rose on his own wings. Never before had humans flown like birds! Icarus had only ever watched gulls and terns wheel and glide on breezes around their island prison. Standing atop the high tower overlooking the Aegean Sea, father and son leapt into the air and soared on their makeshift wings. Daedalus reiterated his warnings, and Icarus nodded, showing he understood. He strapped the wings onto himself and Icarus, anxious but thrilled over their daring plan. The day came when the winds were favorable, and Daedalus deemed the wings ready. They must maintain a middle course over the waves. A skilled artificer, Daedalus knew his wings would work but warned Icarus that they must follow his instructions precisely for the escape to succeed.ĭaedalus warned his son that they must not fly too close to the sun, for its heat would melt the wax holding the feathers together, nor too close to the sea, for the feathers could become waterlogged and useless. When the wings were ready, Daedalus explained his plan to use them to fly from the tower all the way across the sea to safety on the island of Sicily. He made two pairs of large wings for himself and his boy Icarus. Gathering feathers shed by birds that came near their window, Daedalus carefully assembled them using wax as glue. Trapped in a high tower overlooking the sea, the ingenious Daedalus set to work finding a way for him and Icarus to escape. Daedalus had initially pleased the king, but after helping Ariadne and Theseus, Daedalus was thrown in prison with his young son Icarus. Enraged by the death of his Minotaur, King Minos refused to free the remaining Athenian youths and instead imprisoned them.Īmong the imprisoned was Icarus, the son of the master craftsman Daedalus who had designed the twisting Labyrinth for King Minos. Theseus successfully managed to slay the Minotaur and escape the Labyrinth with Ariadne’s help. When Theseus arrived in Crete with the other Athenian youths and maidens, Minos’ daughter Ariadne fell in love with him and gave him a ball of thread to unwind through the Labyrinth so he could find his way out after killing the Minotaur. One year, the legendary hero and prince of Athens Theseus volunteered to be one of the youths sent to slay the Minotaur and end this cruel tribute. After King Minos’ son was killed by the Athenians, Minos demanded that every year seven youths and seven maidens be sent from Athens to Crete as tribute and sacrifice to the half-man, half-bull Minotaur who lived in the twisting Labyrinth under the palace. The island of Crete in ancient Greece was ruled by the powerful King Minos.
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