Daedalus

Daedalus was born in Athens, the son of Metion, an Athenian noble, and Alcippe, a woman of the city. He was descended from the line of Erechtheus, the legendary king of Athens who was raised by the goddess Athena, and his skill was so extraordinary that some said he had been taught by Athena herself, the goddess of wisdom and craft. From an early age he showed a genius for invention. He created the saw by copying the jaw of a snake, the axe, the plumb line, and the mast for ships. His reputation spread across Greece, and he became the most sought-after craftsman of his age. But his brilliance carried a dark seed. He had a sister who bore a son named Perdix, a boy of remarkable cleverness. While walking on the seashore, Perdix picked up the spine of a fish and conceived the idea of using it to cut things, inventing the saw. Daedalus, jealous that a child might surpass him, took the boy to the top of the Acropolis, the great citadel of Athens, and threw him off. Athena, watching from Olympus, caught the child in mid-air and transformed him into a partridge, the bird that still bears his name, while Daedalus was tried for murder and exiled from Athens.

The exile brought Daedalus to the court of King Minos, the lawgiver of Crete, where his skill was welcomed. He built the dancing floor for Ariadne, the princess daughter of Minos and Pasiphae, a floor so ingeniously designed that it became famous throughout the Aegean. But his greatest and most terrible work came when Minos needed to hide the Minotaur, the monstrous offspring of his wife Pasiphae, the daughter of the sun god Helios, and a white bull. Daedalus constructed the Labyrinth, a maze so cunningly designed that even its builder could barely navigate it, with twisting corridors that doubled back upon themselves, false turnings, and a centre so well concealed that the Minotaur could be hidden forever. The maze was built beneath the palace at Knossos, and into it Minos cast the beast, feeding it on the tribute of Athenian youths and maidens sent every nine years. Daedalus also built the hollow wooden cow that allowed Pasiphae to satisfy her cursed passion for the bull, the very device that created the monster he was now hired to contain.

When Minos discovered that Daedalus had helped Pasiphae and knew the secret of the Labyrinth, he imprisoned the craftsman and his son Icarus in the maze itself, or in some accounts in a tower. The king blocked the land and sea routes, but he could not block the sky. Daedalus, ever the inventor, gathered feathers from the birds that flew over the prison and bound them together with thread, sealing the joints with wax from the candles that lit their cell. He made two pairs of wings, one for himself and one for his son. He warned Icarus not to fly too low, where the sea spray would weigh down the feathers, and not too high, where the sun would melt the wax. Then they leapt from the tower and flew. At first they stayed together, passing the islands of the Aegean, but Icarus, intoxicated by the freedom of flight, soared upward. The wax softened, the feathers loosened, and the boy fell, flailing, into the dark waters below. Daedalus could only watch as his son drowned in the sea that would ever after be called the Icarian Sea.

Daedalus landed safely on the island of Sicily, at Camicus, the city of King Cocalus, the ruler of that western land. There he was welcomed and protected, and he repaid his host with a string of marvels. He built a temple to Apollo, the god of music and prophecy, on a great height. He constructed a steam bath for the king, heating the water by pipes that ran through a furnace, an engineering feat that astonished the Sicilians. He created a deep reservoir that collected water for the city. He built a fortified acropolis that was impregnable. And he fashioned a statue of Heracles, the hero forced to complete twelve impossible labors, so lifelike that the Greeks said it was the work of a man who had learned the secrets of the gods. But his peace was short-lived. Minos, hunting the fugitive across the Mediterranean, arrived in Sicily with his fleet.

Minos was determined to find Daedalus. He devised a test, offering a great reward to anyone who could thread a spiral conch shell, a task that seemed impossible. Daedalus, hidden in the court of Cocalus, took an ant and tied a thread to it, then placed the ant at one end of the shell. The insect crawled through the spiral, drawing the thread behind it, and emerged at the other end. Minos knew then that Daedalus was in Sicily and demanded his surrender. Cocalus agreed to hand him over, but the king's daughters decided to kill Minos rather than betray their guest. They offered the king of Crete a bath, and as he relaxed they poured boiling water over him, ending his life. Daedalus lived out his remaining years in Sicily, honoured as the greatest craftsman of the age. In later centuries, his name became a byword for any work of art so intricate that it seemed to move of its own accord, and every labyrinth, every flight of fancy, and every invention that bridges the impossible carries the memory of the man who built wings and flew.