Icarus

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Icarus (Greek: Ἴκαρος, Latin: Íkaros, Etruscan: Vicare) is a character in Greek mythology. He is the son of Daedalus and is commonly known for his attempt to escape Crete by flight, which ended in a fall to his death.

Contents 1 Escape from Crete 2 References in classical work 3 References in modern work 4 Parallel in Hindu mythology 5 Notes 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Escape from Crete

Icarus' father, Daedalus, a talented, remarkable craftsman, attempted to escape from his exile in the place of Crete, where he and his son were imprisoned at the hands of King Minos, the king for whom he had built the Labyrinth to imprison the Minotaur (half man, half bull). Daedalus, the superior craftsman, was exiled because he gave Minos' daughter, Ariadne, a clew^[1] of string in order to help Theseus, the enemy of Minos, survive the Labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur.

Daedalus fashioned two pairs of wings out of wax and feathers for himself and his son. Before they took off from the island, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, nor too close to the sea. Overcome by the giddiness that flying lent him, Icarus soared through the sky curiously, but in the process he came too close to the sun, which melted the wax. Icarus kept flapping his wings but soon realized that he had no feathers left and that he was only flapping his bare arms. And so, Icarus fell into the sea in the area which bears his name, the Icarian Sea near Icaria, an island southwest of Samos.^[2]

Hellenistic writers who gave philosophical knowledge underpinnings to the myth also preferred more realistic variants, in which the escape from Crete was actually by boat, provided by Pasiphaë, for which Daedalus invented the first sails, to outstrip Minos' pursuing galleys, and that Icarus fell overboard on route to Sicily and drowned. Heracles erected a tomb for him.^[3][4]

[edit] References in classical work

Icarus' flight was routinely alluded to by Greek poets in passing, but was told in a nutshell in Pseudo-Apollodorus, (Epitome of the Biblioteca) (i.11 and ii.6.3). Latin poets read the myth more philosophically, most of the time linking Icarus analogically to artists.^[5][6] In the 15th century Ovid became a popular and well-known source for the myth when it was rediscovered and transformed, now with Icarus acting as a vehicle for heroic audacity and the poet's own aspirations.

[edit] References in modern work

Literature

• Stephen Dedalus is the protagonist and antihero in James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
• Icarus Allsorts is a satrycal poem written by Roger McGough during the height of the Cold War.^[7]
• In the book Airman by Eoin Colfer, Conor (Finn) tries to escape Little Saltee (a prison) by flight, and makes some reference to Icarus as he is flying with an illusion of "riding the moon".
• Used as a reference in William Carlos Williams' "Landscape with the Fall of Icarus" and W.H. Auden's "Musée des Beaux-Arts", which poems refer respectively to the name and location of the painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder.
• Used as a reference in the poem "Mrs Icarus" by Carol Ann Duffy.

References in television/film/games

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (March 2009)

• Mohinder Suresh tells the myth of Icarus at the conclusion in Episode 56 of Heroes.
• Christopher Marlowe's Dr. Faustus makes reference to the plight of Icarus in the Prologue. It compares the two tragic figues, Icarus and Dr. Faust "his waxen wings did mount above his reach, and melting heavens conspired his overthrow."
• The episode The Icarus Factor of the Star Trek: Next Generation series features first officer Commander William Riker trying to make a decision about whether to accept command of another starship. Unexpectedly, Riker's estranged father is the Starfleet envoy who comes to the Enterprise to brief him on his new mission, and old wounds in their relationship flare.
• Inspiration for the 1987 Nintendo Game Kid Icarus.
• In the EA/Dice video game Mirror's Edge, the project to get rid of the Runners was called, "Project Icarus."
• In the Sega Genesis video game, Toejam and Earl, you can use a pair of Icarus wings as a power-up for a brief period of time to fly around levels.
• In Ripley's Game, Thomas Ripley sees a sculpture of Icarus and says "That is a lovely Icarus. He flew too close to the sun, no?"
• In James May's 20th Century, he refers to consulting Icarus about an experiment which could lead to him falling to earth.
• In Sony's (PS2) God of War II, Kratos encounters an elderly Icarus who's on the brink of insanity. Kratos later rips off Icarus' wings and uses them to sail below the earth to encounter Atlas.

References in modern music

Artist	Title	Date	Album/Note
Alesana	Icarus	2006	On Frail Wings of Vanity and Wax (album)
Angra	Metal Icarus		Fireworks (album)
Ani DiFranco	Icarus		Evolve (album)
Dreamtale	Wings of Icaros		Difference (album)
Danny Elfman	The Little Things	2008	"With a mountain of maybes And some Icarus wings"
Emperor	An Elegy of Icaros	1999	IX Equilibrium (album)
Epik High	Icarus Walks		Pieces, Part One (album)
Flutlicht	Icarus
Jon Foreman	Light & Heavy		"I'm feeling Icarus"
Bing Futch	Icarus
Hopesfall	Icarus		A Types (album)
Iron Maiden	Flight of Icarus	1983	Piece of Mind (album)
Jars of Clay	Worlds Apart	1996	"I flew too high and like Icarus I collide"
Kansas	Icarus (Borne on Wings of Steel)	1975	Masque (album)
Yngwie Malmsteen	Icarus' Dream Suite op. 4	1987	Rising Force (album)
Periphery	Icarus Lives!
Phish	The Squirming Coil		"... like Icarus, who had to pay with melting wax and feathers brown."
Race the Sun	To Icarus with all sincerity	2004	The Rest of Our Lives is Tonight (album)
Regina Spektor	Lacrimosa		"Hi, I'm Icarus, I'm falling down from the dust of earth returning..."
Santigold	Icarus	2008	Top Ranking
Sunset Rubdown	Idiot Heart		"The way that Icarus thought he might own the sky"
Third Eye Blind	Blinded		"Icarus is not a tee shirt or a swan song"
Thrice	Daedalus		Alchemy Index, Vol. III AIR (album)
It Dies Today	A Romance By The Wings of Icarus	2002	Forever Scorned (album)
Jason Webley	Icarus		Only Just Beginning (album)
Wolfgang	Weightless	1996	"Let Icarus plummet as sun melts his wax"

[edit] Parallel in Hindu mythology

A near parallel to the Icarus story exists in the Hindu epic Ramayana. The demi-god Jatayu and his brother Sampaati, who had the forms of vultures, used to compete as to who could fly higher. On one such instance Jatayu flew so high that he was about to get seared by sun's flames. Sampaati saved his brother by spreading his own wings and thus shielding Jatayu from the hot flames.^[8]

In the process, Sampaati himself got injured and lost his wings. Luckier than Icarus, he did not die a painful death, but had to live wingless for the rest of his life.

The Ramayana is attributed in Hindu tradition to the poet Valmiki who lived about 444 B.C, and presumably the story of Jatayu and Sampaati existed in earlier versions. Thus, it is roughly contemporary with the story of Icarus. Prior to the time of Alexander the Great there was hardly any direct contact between Greeks and Indians, but both were in contact with the Persian Empire and enough trade existed for elements of myth to pass over great distances.

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Graves, Robert, (1955) 1960. The Greek Myths, section 92 passim
• Smith, William, ed. A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology
• Pinsent, J. (1982). Greek Mythology. New York: Peter Bedrick Books.

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Icarus

• Daedalus et Icarus - original Latin text by Ovid (text starts about halfway down the page)
• Daedalus and Icarus - English prose translation of Ovid'
• Spoof CAA Style Accident Report About Icarus Incident