Man has forever pushed himself to the limits trying to
achieve the impossible. Inventions are perhaps man’s way to escape from the mundane and alter his life.
Such an effort is the myth of Daedalus and Icarus, a brilliant
story of how necessity facilitated the invention of something that was never meant
for man and how it led to his downfall.
Myth though it may be, the story of Daedalus and Icarus shows that the
power of man has no limits, but also that we should be very careful how to use
this power.
The intelligence of Daedalus was known far and wide. He was
accredited the finest artificer ever with a sharp and clever mind. Daedalus was living in Athens and he had a
young apprentice, his nephew Talus.
Talus was an extraordinarily talented boy and had begun showing traces
of being a craftsman far surpassing his uncle’s skills. Daedalus was very envious of his nephew’s proficiency. One day, while on a visit to the Acropolis, Daedalus
ho pushed him off the edge. Some say
that the boy that Daedalus had pushed was not Talus, but his sister’s son
Perdix, who was an apprentice to him.
To stop Perdix from being killed goddess Athena transformed
him into a bird that flew away to safety.
Legend has it that the bird has since been known as partridge and because
of its tragic past avoids high places and nestles in hedges. Whoever was the victim the artificer was
brought to trial by Areios Pagos and charged with murder. His punishment was to
get banished from Athens to the island of Crete.
Crete was then ruled by King Minos and in his palace of
Knossos, Daedalus found work as an architect. Years passed and he fell in love
with Nauseate, the mistress slave of the King, and married her. They were blessed with a child called Icarus.
Life went on without incidents until one day Minos asked Daedalus
to design and construct an enclosure for Minotaur, a creature with the body of a man
and the head and tail of a bull. This
monster was the son of Pasiphae, Minos’s wife but not the king. Years had passed since his ascension to the throne
of Crete, there had been much squabbling between king Minos and his brothers. Minos had prayed for a sign from Poseidon to
assist his claim to the throne. Poseidon
impressed with Minos’s devotion had sent him a white bull as an omen that he should
be the supreme ruler. Overjoyed Minos
vowed that he would sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, but consumed by avarice, he
kept the bull for himself.
For this reason, he asked Daedalus to build a labyrinth for the
beast, a structure with many twists and turns that even Daedalus found it difficult to find his way out. The Minotaur was
kept at the center of the labyrinth and was fed with young people much to the
horror of Minos’s enemies and subjects.
(To be continued....)
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