The Wax - The Rise - The Fall: Icarus
Isn’t good and bad always intertwined in life? Of course, is. Doesn’t humanity ever get lost in wanting more? Of course, does. Doesn’t every good beginning need a happy ending? Of course, not. If that were the case, it would be a betrayal of the nature of life. More, it would be a great waste for humanity if even one of the rises did not result in a fall. That’s why Icarus is still remarkable, and that’s why his fall is natural but unforgettable.
The story begins with Daedalus, who is an Athenian master craftsman who has created the first Labyrinth in history to hold the monster Minotaur. Minotaur is the half-bull, half-human result of Minos’ wife Pasiphae’s affair with the Cretan bull.
Daedalus builds the labyrinth under the order of Minos, the king of Crete. Because Minos is ashamed of his wife and the Minotaur grows bigger and starts to eat people. Daedalus builds the labyrinth with such a craftsmanship and complexity that Ovidius praises Daedalus in his Metamorphoses. However, for the Minotaur to calm down, it must be fed human flesh. Thus, 7 women and 7 men from all over the country are gathered and left in the labyrinth.
But the people starts to revolt and one day a man named Theseus from Athens comes to Crete to kill the monster. Actually, he is just a bait sent by Athens. At the same time, Minos’ daughter Ariadne falls in love with Theseus and tries to save him by asking Daedalus for help. Daedalus helps them by giving a ball of string and Theseus kills the monster.
Angered by this situation, Minos imprisons Daedalus and his son Icarus in a tower, in some stories, in the labyrinth. The king takes strict measures to prevent them from escaping. As the days are passing by and Daedalus seeks the ways to escape, he founds out an idea based on the birds. He starts to watch the birds flying around them more carefully. Then he decides to build wings like birds to fly away from their prison. He collects the feathers around them and sticks them down with wax to wooden framing for both of them.
When it’s time to escape, Daedalus tries the wings first, and they appear to be working. So, he and Icarus wear their wings. Before the flight, Daedalus warns his son to stay within the same route — not to fly higher to the sun above them or lower to the sea below them.
“Remember, never to fly very low or very high, for the fogs about the earth would weigh you down, but the blaze of the sun will surely melt your feathers apart if you go too near.” — Daedalus in the story Icarus and Daedalus by Josephine Preston Peabody.
Icarus promises his father that he will keep his word, and then the two take flight. After leaving Crete far behind, Icarus begins to rise with the joy and pleasure of being able to fly like birds. The giddiness of flying makes him forget his promises and he starts to rise. The closer he gets to the sun, the more the wax on his wings begins to melt because of the heat. Amid his father’s pleas, the feathers on his wings begin to fall like snowflakes one by one. Some resources tell that the feathers starts to burn, instead of falling.
He tries to clap his wings but he cannot keep flying so, he begins to fall rapidly towards the sea. Not having something to do, Daedalus sorrowfully watches his son drowning. Having saved his life, Daedalus names the closest island near where his son has fallen as Icaria in memory of him. Throughout the years, the sea in which Icarus drowned has started to be called the Icarian Sea.
The story of the tragic fall of Icarus has affected many throughout the ages. We could find traces of Icarus in all branches of art, either old or new.
For example, there are modern illustrations as well as old pictures that represent the story.
The contemporary sculpture of Icarus made by Lladró proves that the ancient story of him still has a place in the modern world.
The other example is a song named Flight of Icarus that tells the story of Icarus in the lyrics. Flight of Icarus was released by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden in their album Piece of Mind in 1983.
