Our
Statue of Icarus
Has the following story behind it from Bulfinch's Mythology
The Story of Dadalus and Icarus
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 favor
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
labors.
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.
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, and 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.
The death of Icarus is told in the following lines by Darwin:
"... with melting wax and loosened strings
Sunk hapless Icarus on unfaithful wings;
Headlong he rushed through the affrighted air,
With limbs distorted and dishevelled hair;
His scattered plumage danced upon the wave,
And sorrowing Nereids decked his watery grave;
O'er his pale corse their pearly sea-flowers shed,
And strewed with crimson moss his marble bed;
Struck in their coral towers the passing bell,
And wide in ocean tolled his echoing knell." |
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