The labyrinth from which Theseus escaped by means of
the clew of Ariadne was built by Daedalus, a most skilful artificer.
It was an edifice with numberless winding passages and turnings
opening into one another, and seeming to have neither beginning nor
end, like the river Maeander, which returns on itself, and flows now
onward, now backward, in its course to the sea. Daedalus built the
labyrinth for King Minos, but afterwards lost the favour of the king,
and was shut up in a tower. He contrived to make his escape from his
prison, but could not leave the island by sea, as the king kept
strict watch on all the vessels, and permitted none to sail without
being carefully searched.
"Minos may control the land and sea," said Daedalus,
"but not the regions of the air. I will try that way." So he set to
work to fabricate wings for himself and his young son Icarus. He
wrought feathers together, beginning with the smallest and adding
larger, so as to form an increasing surface. The larger ones he
secured with thread and the smaller with wax, and gave the whole a
gentle curvature like the wings of a bird. Icarus, the boy, stood and
looked on, sometimes running to gather up the feathers which the wind
had blown away, and then handling the wax and working it over with
his fingers, by his play impeding his father in his labours. When at
last the work was done, the artist, waving his wings, found himself
buoyed upward, and hung suspended, poising himself on the beaten air.
He next equipped his son in the same manner and taught him how to
fly, as a bird tempts her young ones from the lofty nest into the
air.
Flight
When all was prepared for flight he said, "Icarus, my son, I
charge you to keep at a moderate height, for if you fly too low the
damp will clog your wings, and if too high the heat will melt them.
Keep near me and you will be safe." While he gave him these
instructions and fitted the wings to his shoulders, the face of the
father was wet with tears, and his hands trembled. He kissed the boy,
not knowing that it was for the last time. Then rising on his wings,
he flew off, encouraging him to follow, and looked back from his own
flight to see how his son managed his wings. As they flew the
ploughman stopped his work to gaze, aid the shepherd leaned on his
staff and watched them, astonished at the sight, and thinking they
were gods who could thus cleave the air.
They passed Samos and Delos on the left and Lebynthos on the
right, when the boy, exulting in his career, began to leave the
guidance of his companion and soar upward as if to reach heaven. The
nearness of the blazing sun softened the wax which held the feathers
together, and they came off. He fluttered with his arms, but no
feathers remained to hold the air. While his mouth uttered cries to
his father it was submerged in the blue waters of the sea which
thenceforth was called by his name. His father cried, "Icarus,
Icarus, where are you?" At last he saw the feathers floating on the
water, and bitterly lamenting his own arts, he buried the body and
called the land Icaria in memory of his child.
Daedalus arrived safe in Sicily, where he built a temple to
Apollo, and hung up his wings, an offering to the god.
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