Daedalus and Icarus

1. Daedalus and Icarus Sarah Heim, Nicole Banks, Megan Boyd, and Danielle Montanari

2. Daedalus • In Greek mythology, Daedalus was a most skillful artificer, so skillful that he was said to have invented images. Daedalus had two sons: Icarus and Iapyx. The story of the labyrinth is told where Theseus is challenged to kill the Minotaur, finding his way with the help of Ariadne’s thread. Daedalus was a tall man with short brown hair, a very handsome young man. Quite tempremental. Daedalus was shut up in a tower to prevent his knowledge of the labyrinth from spreading to the public. He could not leave Crete by sea, as the king kept strict watch on all vessels, permitting none to sail without being carefully searched.

3. Icarus • Icarus is a character in Greek Mythology. Icarus's father, Daedalus attempted to escape his prison at the hands of King Minos. Daedalus fashioned a pair of wings for himself and his son, made of feathers and wax. Before they took off from the prison, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, as the wax would melt. Overcome by the sublime feeling that flying gave him, Icarus soared through the sky joyfully, but in the process came too close to the sun, which melted his wings. Icarus fell into the sea in the area which bears his name, the Icarian Sea near Icaria, an island southwest of Samos.

4. The Story 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 Daedalus. There are stories about Daedalus 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 Daedalus built the Labyrinth, though, King Minos did not want him to be able to tell its secrets to anybody else, and so he kept Daedalus a prisoner in a tall tower, all alone with only his young son Icarus. Now Daedalus and Icarus did not like being prisoners, and so Daedalus 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. Daedalus and Icarus made the wings out of bird feathers and wax and they tied them on to each other. Daedalus 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. Icarus fell into the sea in the area which bears his name, the Icarian Sea near Icaria, an island.

5. Waiting for IcarusMuriel Rukeyser (1973) He said he would be back and we'd drink wine togetherHe said that everything would be better than beforeHe said we were on the edge of a new relationHe said he would never again cringe before his fatherHe said that he was going to invent full-timeHe said he loved me that going into meHe said was going into the world and the skyHe said all the buckles were very firmHe said the wax was the best waxHe said Wait for me here on the beachHe said Just don't cryI remember the gulls and the wavesI remember the islands going dark on the seaI remember the girls laughingI remember they said he only wanted to get away from meI remember mother saying: Inventors are like poets, a trashy lotI remember she told me those who try out inventions are worseI remember she added: Women who love such are the worst of allI have been waiting all day, or perhaps longer.I would have liked to try those wings myself.It would have been better than this.

6. IcarusEdward Field Only the feathers floating around the hatShowed that anything more spectacular had occurredThan the usual drowning. The police preferred to ignoreThe confusing aspects of the case,And the witnesses ran off to a gang war.So the report filed and forgotten in the archives read simplyDrowned, but it was wrong: IcarusHad swum away, coming at last to the cityWhere he rented a house and tended the garden.That nice Mr. Hicks the neighbors called him,Never dreaming that the gray, respectable suitConcealed arms that had controlled huge wingsNor that those sad, defeated eyes had onceCompelled the sun. And had he told themThey would have answered with a shocked, uncomprehending stare.No, he could not disturb their neat front yards;Yet all his books insisted that this was a horrible mistake: What was he doing aging in a suburb?Can the genius of the hero fallTo the middling stature of the merely talented? And nightly Icarus probes his woundAnd daily in his workshop, curtains carefully drawn,Constructs small wings and tries to flyTo the lighting fixture on the ceiling:Fails every time and hates himself for trying. He had thought himself a hero, had acted heroically,And now dreamt of his fall, the tragic fall of the hero;But now rides commuter trains,Serves on various committees,And wishes he had drowned.

7. IcarusWendy A. Shaffer Did Icarus,        falling,        watching white feathers flutter upward,        curse the wax as a fair-weather friend?It seemed such a strong solid type,        but it melted away        when things got hot. Did he rail at the sun,        which beckoned enticingly,        and then changed from a beacon to a furnace? Did he blame Daedalus, his father?Who warned him not to fly too high        in the same distracted tones with which        he admonished his son        to put on a sweater in the cold,        to eat his lima beans,        to not run with scissors.How could he have known that this time the old man really meant it? Or did he regret that the illustrious inventor,        when creating his flying apparatus,        did not take the obvious next step:        the emergency parachute? He must have thought        all of this                and more. It was        a long                long                        fall. But as he neared the ocean,        came close enough to wave to the startled fishermen in their boats,        he laughed,                and admitted                that even had he known                        of the many failings of fathers and feathers,                                he would have done it anyway.