Saturday, June 5, 2010

Myths and Legends: Daedalus and Icarus

Daedalus and Icarus. To find out more about the fall of Icarus, see this Wikipedia article: link; for information about the image: image source.

In this famous story, the inventor Daedalus has made wings of wax and feathers so that he and his son Icarus can escape from captivity on the island of Crete. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too high because the heat of the sun would melt the wings; Icarus, however, did not heed his father's advice. Icarus soared high, the sun melted the wax in the wings and he plunged to his death in the sea below, while his poor father looked on.

You can also find more myths and legends for the week of June 3-9 here. For more information and links to the actual javascript code, see the Myths & Legends Widget Reference Page.