Icarus

= =

By Kim Wang and Hana Chung

= THE FALL OF ICARUS =



=
Once upon a time, there was an inventor by the name of Daedalus. Daedalus built a labyrinth for King Minos. However, he soon lost the favor of the king and was imprisoned, along with his son Icarus, inside the very labyrinth that he had constructed. Minos had thrown them into the labyrinth with the intention of having the Minotaur kill them (the Minotaur was a half-bull and half-man monster who was born by Minos's wife, Queen Pasiphae, and a white bull sent to the mortal realm by Poseidon). Because Daedalus had created the labyrinth, he knew his way around it, so he was able to escape with his son. After their escape, Daedalus realized that the only way off the King's island to safety was to fly, because Minos controlled both the sea and land. Therefore, he and his son collected feathers and wax, which Daedalus subsequently crafted into two pairs of waxen wings. =====



 Before flying, Daedalus warned his son to be aware of his surroundings, making him promise that he would not fly too close to the sun, for fear of the wax melting, but not too close to the sea, because he feared that the water would dampen the wings and make them too stiff for flight. However, as they flew further and further away from land, Icarus grew exhilarated by the thrill of flying and began to be careless with his father's instructions, ultimately, forgetting Daedalus' warnings.

As a result, he flew too close to the sun, his wings melted, and he started to plunge downwards. With that, Icarus fell from the sky and into the deep sea below, where he drowned to death.

So... What type of myth is this?

 This myth is an example of a __//hubris/punishment myt////h.//__

The story of Icarus warned the Greek people not to be caught up in their glory because it would ultimately lead to their downfall. The "glory" is represented by going too close to the sun, which symbolizes human pride. In addition, Icarus' father had told him not to fly too close to the ocean because the water would dampen his wings, which symbolizes that humans should not anger the gods by being too arrogant, thinking that they can outshine the gods' accomplishments and power. The purpose of this myth is to teach the consequences of having too much self-pride (hubris). Although Icarus does not have defined self-pride, his death represents the consequences of those who do have self-pride; his flight symbolizes the course of life, the sun represents success, and the sea represents a person's self-control.

 1. Geography: Because of the Greeks' belief in this myth, they named the Icarian Sea after Icarus, believing that it was the sea in which Icarus drowned. 2. Kim often uses "flylikeicarus" as her user name (this shows that some people in modern times like to make allusions to Greek mythology). As seen in this example, some people may like to use the names of mythological characters when creating email accounts, etc.

3. Many modern day organizations and projects are named after Icarus: "Icarus Canopies" for skydiving parachutes, "The Icarus Project," an organization/project dedicated to studying the health of the mind and the psychiatric conditions that can afflict it, "ICARUS," which is aimed at conducting further studies of the solar system, etc. Upon research, it was found that there are //several// establishments with the name Icarus.

[[image:http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_DMsvL7sD9Pw/SNwPIRqpylI/AAAAAAAAA_g/KZLulD5Dgv8/s400/Angel-Wings-Tattoos.jpg align="center"]]
= = = = =**** =

= =

= =