ICARUS, THE SON OF DAEDALUS.

The labyrinth from which THESEUS escaped by means of ARIADNE was built by DAEDALUS, a most skillful artificer. It was an edifice with numberless winding passages and turnings opening into one another, and seeming to have neither beginning nor end, like the river Meander, which returns on itself, and flows now onward, now backwards, in its course to the sea.
Daedalus built the labyrinth for King Minos, but afterwards lost the favor of the king, and was shut up in a tower. He contrived to make his escape from his prison, but could not leave the island by sea, as the king kept strict watch on all the vessels, and permitted none to sail without being searched.
"Minos may control the land and the sea," said Daedalus, "but not regions of the air. I will try that way." So he set to work to fabricate wings for himself and his young son ICARUS.
He used feathers. threading them and the smaller with wax, and gave the whole and gentle curvature like the wings of a bird. ICARUS, the boy, stood and looked on, sometimes running to gather up the feathers which the wind had blown away, and then handling the wax and working it over with his fingers.
When the work was done, Daedalus waving his wings, found himself buoyed upward, and hung suspended, poising himself on the beaten air.
He next equipped his son in the same manner and taught him how to fly, as a bird tempts her young ones from the nest into the air.
When all was prepared for flight he said, "ICARUS, my son, I charge you to keep at a moderate height, for if you fly too low the damp will clog your wings, and if too high the heat will melt them. Keep near me and you will be safe."
While he gave him these instructions and fitted the wings to his shoulders, the face of the father was wet with tears, and his hand trembled. He kissed the boy, not knowing that it was for the last time.
They flew off, encouraging him to follow, and looked back from his own flight to see how his son managed his wings.
When the boy began to leave the guidance of his father and soar upward as if to reach heaven, the nearness of the blazing sun softened the wax which held the feathers together and they started to come off. He fluttered with his arms, but no feathers remained to hold the air.
While his mouth uttered cries to his father he was submerged in the blue waters of the sea and drowned.
Thenceforth the sea was called by his name.