Although Minos was very wise, he had a subject named Daedalus who was even wiser than he. This man not only invented the saw and the potter’s wheel, but also taught the people how to rig sails for their vessels.
As nothing but oars and paddles had hitherto been used to propel ships, this last invention seemed very wonderful; and, to compliment Daedalus, the people declared that he had given their vessels wings, and had thus enabled them to fly over the seas.
Many years after, when sails were so common that they ceased to excite any wonder, the people, forgetting that these were the wings which Daedalus had made, invented a wonderful story, which runs as follows.
Minos, King of Crete, once sent for Daedalus, and bade him build a maze, or labyrinth, with so many rooms and winding halls, that no one, once in it, could ever find his way out again.
Daedalus set to work and built a maze so intricate that neither he nor his son Icarus, who was with him, could get out. Not willing to remain there a prisoner, Daedalus soon contrived a means of escape.
He and Icarus first gathered together a large quantity of feathers, out of which Daedalus cleverly made two pairs of wings. When these were fastened to their shoulders by means of wax, father and son rose up like birds and flew away. In spite of his father’s cautions, Icarus rose higher and higher, until the heat of the sun melted the wax, so that his wings dropped off, and he fell into the sea and was drowned. His father, more prudent than he, flew low, and reached Greece in safety. There he went on inventing useful things, often gazing out sadly over the waters in which Icarus had perished, and which, in honor of the drowned youth, were long known as the Icarian Sea.
