Daedalus and Icarus
Once upon a time on the island
of Crete, maybe about 1325 BC, there
was a king whose name was Minos (in the story; this is only a story).
He had living in his palace
at Knossos a great architect and inventor named Daedalos. There
are stories about Daedalos inventing all kinds of things, but he is
especially supposed to have built the great Labyrinth for King Minos
to keep the Minotaur in.
After Daedalos built the Labyrinth, though, King Minos did not want
him to be able to tell its secrets to anybody else, and so he kept
Daedalos a prisoner in a tall tower, all alone with only his young
son Icarus.
Now Daedalos and Icarus did not like being prisoners,
and so Daedalos began to think about how they could get away. He watched
the birds flying and he thought how free they were, and he decided
to make wings for himself and Icarus.
Daedalos and Icarus made the wings out of bird feathers and wax and
they tied them on to each other. Daedalos warned his son to be careful
when he was flying: if he went too close to the sea, he might fall
in, but if he flew too high in the sky, the heat of the sun
would melt the wax on his wings and he would fall. Icarus promised
to be careful.
So they set off for freedom. At first everything went well, but after a little while Icarus got tired of just flying in a straight line. He began to try to do tricks and go up and down. His father told him to cut it out and behave himself, but Icarus was having too much fun to listen, and he kept on going up, higher and higher. Suddenly he realized his wings really WERE melting! He tried to go back down again, but it was too late. His wings came apart, and he fell down, down, down into the ocean, where he drowned.
Daedalus was horrified that his son had died, and spent a long time searching for his body, but when he found it there was nothing he could do but bury it sadly.
To find out more about Daedalus, check out these books from Amazon.com or your library:
Daedalus and the Minotaur, by Priscilla Galloway. For kids. A 1990's retelling that deals with the Minotaur sympathetically as a disabled person, rather than just a monster.
Mythology: Daedalus, Echo and Narcissus, the Fortunate King, Atalanta's Lovers, by Olivia Coolidge. For middle schoolers.
Daedalus and Icarus, by Geraldine McCaughrean and Tony Ross (Illustrator). Unfortunately out of print, for now. For kids.
D'aulaire's Book of Greek Myths, by Edgar and Ingri D'Aulaire. (Look under Theseus).
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