Icarus was the son of Daedalus, the great Athenian craftsman, who was imprisoned with his father in the Labyrinth of Crete. To escape, Daedalus fashioned wings of feathers and wax for himself and his son, and they flew away. Icarus, ignoring his father’s warning, flew too close to the sun, and the wax of his wings melted. He fell into the sea and drowned. The myth of Icarus is and most poignant cautionary tales in Western culture, a warning against the dangers of excessive ambition, of ignoring the advice of the wise, and of overreaching the limits of human capability. The phrase “Icarus complex” has been used in psychology to describe the over-ambitious person.
The Imprisonment of Daedalus
Icarus was the son of Daedalus, the great Athenian craftsman, and the mother is variously named. The father and son lived in Athens, where Daedalus was a celebrated inventor and architect. According to one tradition, Daedalus had killed his nephew Perdix, who had been his apprentice, by pushing him off the Acropolis. Perdix had been a brilliant inventor, and his death brought the curse of Athena on Daedalus.
Daedalus fled to Crete, where he was welcomed by King Minos. There, he designed the wooden cow that Pasiphaë used to mate with the white bull, and he built the Labyrinth where the Minotaur was imprisoned. He also made automata, statues that could move, and many other wonders.
When Minos discovered that Daedalus had helped Theseus escape the Labyrinth by giving Ariadne the ball of thread, he was furious. He imprisoned Daedalus and his son Icarus in the Labyrinth, the very maze that Daedalus had designed.
The Wings of Wax and Feathers
Daedalus, the great craftsman, knew the Labyrinth better than anyone, but he also knew that escape was impossible by land. The only way out was by air. He fashioned wings of feathers and wax for himself and his son, using the feathers of birds and the wax of bees. He bound the feathers together with thread and fastened them to a frame of wood.
Before they took flight, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too high, lest the sun melt the wax, and not to fly too low, lest the sea spray weigh down the wings. He told Icarus to follow him closely, and to fly at the middle height, where the air was calm.
The Flight
Father and son took off from Crete and flew northward, over the Aegean Sea. They passed over the islands of Paros, Delos, and others, and they flew past the Peloponnese. Icarus, exhilarated by the flight, ignored his father’s warnings and began to soar higher and higher, closer and closer to the sun.
The heat of the sun melted the wax of his wings, and the feathers began to fall. Icarus, realizing his danger, tried to fly lower, but the feathers had come loose, and his wings were useless. He fell into the sea, calling out to his father, who could not save him. He drowned in the sea, which was thereafter called the Icarian Sea in his memory.
The Variations of the Myth
The myth of Icarus has been told in many versions. In some, Daedalus is the central figure, and Icarus is a minor character. In others, Icarus is the central figure, and his tragedy is the focus. In the most familiar version, told by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, Icarus is the tragic hero whose hubris leads to his downfall.
In some versions, the flight is not from Crete but from another prison. In some, Icarus and Daedalus are imprisoned by Minos for helping Theseus. In others, they are imprisoned for another reason. The story has been adapted to many contexts, including political imprisonment, religious persecution, and personal tragedy.
The Symbolism of Icarus
The myth of Icarus is symbols in Western culture. The image of the young man flying too close to the sun and falling to his death has been used by poets, painters, philosophers, and psychologists to describe the dangers of excessive ambition, of ignoring the limits of human capability, of overreaching the boundaries set by the gods or by nature.
The myth has been interpreted in many ways. The ancient Greeks saw it as a warning against hubris, the excessive pride that leads to downfall. The Christian theologians of late antiquity saw it as an allegory of the soul’s fall from grace. The Renaissance humanists saw it as a celebration of human ambition, an acknowledgment of the human desire to fly that could not be suppressed. The existentialist philosophers of the 20th century saw it as a metaphor for the human condition, the endless striving toward the unattainable.
The Cultural Legacy of Icarus
Icarus has been the subject of countless works of literature, art, and music. The most famous ancient depiction is the Roman fresco from Pompeii, now in the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, which shows Daedalus and Icarus flying. The Renaissance and Baroque periods produced many depictions, including the famous painting by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, which is also the subject of W.H. Auden’s famous poem “Musée des Beaux Arts.”
The phrase “Icarus complex” has been used in psychology to describe the over-ambitious person, the one who is destined to overreach and fall. The story of Icarus has been the subject of operas, plays, films, and novels, including the 2017 film Icarus and the 2019 novel Icarus at the Edge of Time by Brian Greene. The “Icarian” adjective has been used in English to describe excessive ambition or overreaching, derived from the myth.
The image of Icarus has been particularly important in the modern age of flight. The Greek myth has been invoked countless times by early aviators, by the space program, and by writers reflecting on the human desire to reach beyond our limits. The tragedy of Icarus is a reminder that the human desire to reach beyond our limits is both our greatest strength and our greatest danger.
For more on the cultural legacy, see our guide to Greek mythology in modern culture, and our profiles of Daedalus and Theseus.