In Greek mythology, who was the father of Icarus?
In Greek mythology, Icarus is the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the creator of the Labyrinth. Icarus and his father attempt to escape from Crete by means of wings that his father constructed from feathers and wax. Icarus' father warns him first of complacency and then of hubris, asking that he fly neither too low nor too high, so the sea's dampness would not clog his wings or the sun's heat melt them. Icarus ignored his father's instructions not to fly too close to the sun; when the wax in his wings melted he tumbled out of the sky and fell into the sea where he drowned, sparking the idiom "don't fly too close to the sun".
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5 Comments
Fred Mayes
My employer purchased a statue depicting Icarus falling and placed it in the lobby where I worked (in the engineering department). This baffled me because to me the statue represented the message "don't strive to do more than you are expected to do or you will fail and plummet to your doom." It was a nice statue, though.
David Holmes
Tom Seigo, to give all that information would have required a very long answer and would have given rise to many adverse comments. The best advice for those who wish to know more is to get hold of a decent book on classical mythology.
Laurie Bowman
Tom Seigo, you just did!
Rob Farr
With limited space for an explanation, you are restricted in how much detail you can give … it answered the question and added a little more. A good trivia question … thanks.
Tom Seigo
The question does not give an explanation of who Icarus was and for what he was noted in Greek mythology!! According to legend, Icarus and his Dad, Deadalus were imprisoned by King Minos of Crete and both attempted to escape the Labyrinth by the use of wings made from feathers and wax. Icarus, ignoring his father's warning flew too close the sun and melted the wax thereby causing Icarus to rapidly fall to earth, thus ending his life. The reason for them being imprisoned was that Daedalus and Icarus aided in helping Theseus who killed the Minotaur! King Ninos imprisoned Deadalus and Icarus for this reason.