Mnemosyne — Classical Greek Myth Library

Daedalus, Athenian craftsman (son of Metion, of the Erechtheid line), fled to Crete after killing his nephew and pupil Talos (Perdix)—who had invented the saw—out of envy; the Areopagus condemned him. In Crete he served Minos. When Minos failed to sacrifice Poseidon’s magnificent bull, Poseidon made Pasiphaë desire the animal; Daedalus built her a hollow wooden cow on wheels so she could couple with the bull. From that union came the Minotaur. Daedalus then built the Labyrinth to contain the monster (cross-ref 054). Minos, angry that Daedalus had abetted Pasiphaë (and later that he had helped Theseus via Ariadne’s thread), imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the Labyrinth—or otherwise forbade them sea passage from Crete. Daedalus fashioned wings of feathers set in wax for himself and Icarus. He warned the boy neither to fly too low (spray would soak the wings) nor too high (sun would melt the wax). They escaped by air. Icarus, exulting, climbed toward the sun; the wax softened; feathers scattered; he fell into the sea that thereafter bore his name (Icarian Sea) and died. Daedalus recovered the body on an island (Icaria) or buried him there, then flew on to Sicily (Kamikos), where he took refuge with King Cocalus. Minos pursued him by a riddle-test of a spiral shell; Daedalus threaded it with an ant and a thread, revealing himself; Cocalus’s daughters killed Minos in the bath to protect their guest. The flight is the craftsman’s last Cretan masterpiece and a parable of measure: the father’s techne succeeds; the son’s disregard of limits destroys him.