Icarus | Greek Hero

Icarus (Greek: Ἴκαρος, transl. Íkaros; Latin: Icarus; Etruscan Vikare), in Greek mythology, was the son of Daedalus and is commonly known for his attempt to leave Crete by flying - an attempt thwarted in a fall that culminated in his death in the waters of the Aegean Sea, more specifically in the part known as the Icarian Sea.

Icarus

Icarus was the son of Daedalus and a slave of Persephone (goddess of herbs, flowers, fruits, and perfume).

Expelled from Athens for killing his nephew Perdix, Daedalus took refuge on the island of Crete with King Minos. After the birth of the Minotaur, the fruit of love between Pasyphae (Minos' wife) and a divine bull, he and his son Icarus built the Minotaur's labyrinth, in which they imprisoned the monster. Sometime later the Minotaur was killed by Theseus.

After the death of the Minotaur, Daedalus was trapped together with his son in the labyrinth. Both then built artificial wings out of beeswax and bird feathers of various sizes, shaping them with their hands to look like real wings. In this way they were able to escape from the labyrinth.

Before the escape Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, so that its heat would not melt the wings' wax, and not to fly too close to the sea, because the waves' splashes could make the wings heavier.

However, Icarus did not listen to his father's advice, and because he wanted to fly close to the sun, his wings melted and he fell into the Aegean Sea, where he drowned in the area that now bears his name, the Icarus Sea, near Ikaria, an island southwest of Samos.