Icarus (Myth)
heroIcarus was the son of Daedalus who escaped Crete on wings of wax and feathers but flew too high — the sun melted his wings and he fell into the sea.
The Myth
Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings from feathers and wax. He warned Icarus: fly neither too low (the sea spray would dampen the feathers) nor too high (the sun would melt the wax). Icarus, exhilarated by flight, forgot his father's warning and soared toward the sun. The wax melted, the feathers fell away, and he plunged into the sea — named the Icarian Sea after him. Daedalus reached Sicily safely but lived with the grief of his son's death. The myth became the supreme metaphor for the danger of overambition.
Parents
Daedalus and Naucrate
Symbols
Fun Fact
Bruegel's "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" — where a tiny figure drowns while the world carries on — inspired Auden's poem "Musée des Beaux Arts."
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
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