Icarus: “Icarus…
The story of Icarus is one of the most tragic ones in Greek mythology. There was once a very wise king, King Minos. His wife was cursed by one of the gods to fall in love and to copulate with a beautiful bull. When Minos’ wife gave birth to the result of said copulation, the Minotaur was born. He asked Daedalus to create a maze from which the terrifying monster, the half-bull/half-man, could never escape. Daedelus was a brilliant architect who could devise an answer to almost any sort of logic problem. When he finally created the amazing maze, King Minos trapped Daedelus and his son, Icarus, into the maze along with the Minotaur. Minos did not want anyone who could guess the maze’s solution to live outside of the maze.
Daedelus’ spirit may have been hurt by his captivity, but his mind was still brilliant. After many trials, and probably many errors, Daedelus finally devised the plan of creating wings tacked together by beeswax for his son and he. The two escaped, soaring high. Before they had gotten off the ground, Daedelus had tried to warn Icarus not to fly too closely to the sun. Icarus, being an irrascible boy, did not listen.
He forgot all inhibitions when he discovered the freedom of flight. Icarus soared high and happily. Unfortunately and sadly, he got too close to the sun. It melted the delicate beeswax with which his wings were held together. As the feathers fell, so did Daedelus’ heart. His soul tore when he saw his beloved son falling into the sea from thousands of heights in the sky. Icarus found death when he tried to soar too high.