Who was Daedalus?
The story of Icarus Fallen primarily consists of the doings of his father Daedalus. Throughout the tale, Greek mythology attributes ample importance to this character. It reveals that Daedalus was a master inventor and a craftsman. According to certain sources, the meaning of the name Daedalus is “cunning worker”. Keeping in tune with this unique terminology, the mythology explains in detail, some of the so-called “projects” which Daedalus had completed successfully. The rest of the sections will outline a few among them – along with his role in the tale.
Being a professional artisan helped Daedalus to attain great reverence from his peers as well as other prominent personalities of the era such as the King of Athens. However, the myth proclaims that he was banished from the city on permanent basis due to an unfortunate incident. It involved his nephew and professional jealousy. Perdix, the intelligent nephew of Daedalus invented the saw; an important tool in the hands of the craftsman. Daedalus thought that Perdix may supersede him in the niche. In order to combat this problem, Daedalus murdered Perdix by pushing him off a cliff. When the king of Athens came to know about this incident, he was furious and banished Daedalus from Athens.
Daedalus began to search for fresher opportunities and began to serve the king of Crete. The latter king was grossly impressed by the talent levels displayed by Daedalus. The Greek mythology states that one of the first innovations created by this master inventor was a wooden structure for the queen Pasiphae. The queen had an unusual sexual craving and this was often satisfied by a white bull sent by the sea god i.e. Poseidon. The structure built by Daedalus was used to quench her carnal desires.
The second project which was commissioned by Minos, the king of Crete was an elaborate system of labyrinth. The king did not want the outsiders to see his step son, the Minotaur. Placing the half bull half human creature within the confines of this labyrinth was a feasible idea. The same labyrinth was used to imprison Daedalus and his son Icarus when Theseus of Athens arrived in Crete and slayed the Minotaur. Daedalus was charged with treason; moreover Minos was enraged by the fact that his own daughter ran away with Theseus of Athens. There exists contradictory information pertaining to the circumstances which led to the imprisonment.
With no way to escape from the labyrinth in sight, Daedalus came up with an innovative plan. The idea was to affix feathers on their bodies with the aid of wax and fly to their freedom. Everything was working out as envisaged until pride set forth within the mind of Icarus. He began to fly to higher altitudes which caused the wax to wither away. Within no time, Icarus had to meet his untimely fate. It is said that when Daedalus learnt about the folly of his son, he went back to find the body of Icarus subsequently burying him in a nearby island.