Icarus is not a hero, and Icarian feats are points of shame. Icarus is important because of what he represents: excessive pride, daring ambition, and foolishness. He initially made this observation in his De Rerum Natura when discussing the ancient volcanic crater, Avernus. The island is famous for its thermal baths, which the Roman poet Lucretius notes harm birds. Icaria is in the middle of the northern Aegean Sea and is said to be the nearest landmass to where Icarus fell. Other than a little bit of divine favor, Icarus has no relation to the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology.ĭespite his lack of divinity, Icarus is the eponym for the island of Icaria (Ικαρία) and the nearby Icarian Sea. The nearest relation that Icarus has to any sort of god is Athena’s blessing of his father’s crafts. He is the son of two mortals, regardless of Daedalus’ suspiciously impressive skillset. They were once considered archaic figures from history, rather than beings of myth. The characters of Daedalus and Icarus were from the Greek Hero Age, sometime during the height of the Minoan civilization in the Aegean. Now, Daedalus and Icarus’ mythical origins didn’t stop the geographer Pausanias from attributing numerous wooden xoana effigies to Daedalus in the Description of Greece. Other more frequent mythical figures, like beloved heroes, overshadow him greatly. Additionally, Icarus may be a popular character today, but he is a minor one in the whole of Greek mythology. Like his father, he is considered to be a mythical figure. There is no hard evidence that Icarus existed. A sculpture of Theseus fighting the Minotaur set in Archibald Fountain in Hyde Park of Sydney, Australia. The Minotaur was known to have roamed the Labyrinth – a maze-like structure created by Daedalus – up until its death. It was the offspring of Queen Pasiphae of Crete and the bull of Poseidon (also known as the Cretan bull). In Greek myth, the Minotaur is a famous monster that had the body of a man and a bull’s head. He was also incredibly bitter towards King Minos for treating Daedalus poorly. A youth, Icarus was reportedly uninterested in his father’s trade. The Minotaur had been recently killed by the Athenian hero-king, Theseus. Legends do little to flesh-out Naucrate, with Pseudo-Apollodorus simply citing her as a slave within the court of Minos.īy the time Daedalus’ welcome ran out at the court of Minos, Icarus was between 13 and 18 years old. Their union came after Daedalus created the famed Labyrinth at the behest of King Minos of Crete at Knossos. Icarus is the son of the legendary Greek craftsman, Daedalus, and a Cretan woman named Naucrate. What is the Meaning of the Story of Icarus?.Icarus in English Literature and Other Interpretations.What Does “Don’t Fly too Close to the Sun” Mean?.Hubris may have cemented his death in Greek mythology, but it has made Icarus live on in modern literature. That, and the ability to be applied to various settings and characters has made Icarus a popular literary figure. The popularity of Icarus outside of Greek mythology is found mainly in the tragedy of the tale. His plummet into the sea became a cautionary tale for those whose ambitions burned all too close to the sun. However, more famous than the flight of Icarus is his fall. Indeed, Icarus and his daring attempt to escape Crete alongside his father was a harebrained scheme that, granted, would’ve worked. In Greek mythology, the myth of Icarus has become synonymous with excessive pride and foolhardiness.
This cautionary legend has proven its resilience against the passing of time, being reimagined and retold several times. Initially recorded in 60 BCE by Diodorus Siculus in his The Library of History, the most popular variation of the tale is written by the Roman poet Ovid in his Metamorphoses in 8 CE. He is infamously known as the “boy who flew too high,” who crashed to earth after melting his waxen wings. The story of Icarus has been told for centuries.
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