Myth

Icarus and Daedalus

a Greek myth

When the famous builder, Daedalus, went to Crete, he built an amazing labyrinth for the king. It had twists and turns. It had corridors that coiled in dizzy circles like the spirals on a seashell.

King Minos hid the Minotaur, a creature with a bull’s head and a man’s body, in the maze.

Every seven years, the king did something horrible. He fed youths from Athens to the Minotaur. A man named Theseus wanted to stop this terrible practice, so he entered the maze and killed the beast. Daedalus had told him how to escape from the maze.

King Minos was angry, and he locked Daedalus and his son, Icarus, in a tower.

From the tower, Icarus watched the seabirds whirl over the water every day. One day a thought came to Daedalus. He and Icarus could fly to freedom!

Father and son began to gather feathers