the tendency of humans to become overambitious to the point of failure and disaster.The story of Icarus brings together several themes or morals which could be incorporated into a painting. Gustave Moreau (1826–1898), The Fall of Phaeton (study) (1878), watercolor, highlight and pencil on paper, 99 x 65 cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris. This is shown in Moreau’s The Fall of Phaeton (1878) below. Once Phaethon was in charge of the chariot, he lost control of the horses, and Zeus had to kill him with a thunderbolt to prevent the chariot from crashing to earth and burning it up. Phaethon asked to drive the sun chariot for a day, and despite Apollo’s concerns, did so. When Phaethon was challenged by his peers to prove this, he asked his father, who promised to grant him whatever he wanted in proof. Apollo, as the god of the sun, drove the chariot of the sun across the heavens each day, as shown in the detail above from Poussin’s A Dance to the Music of Time (c 1634-6). In Greek mythology, Phaethon was the son of Apollo, the sun god, and the oceanid Clymene. Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), A Dance to the Music of Time (detail) (c 1634-6), oil on canvas, 82.5 × 104 cm, The Wallace Collection, London. There was also a separate myth concerning Phaethon, which has sometimes become confused with that of Daedalus and Icarus because the two legends have a common theme of people becoming overambitious and coming to grief as a consequence, this confusion may of course be intentional. This melted the wax as Daedalus had warned, Icarus’ wings fell apart, he plummeted into the sea, and was drowned near what became known as Icaria, an island ten miles southwest of Samos, in the northern Aegean Sea.

They set off, and were making good progress passing several islands when Icarus became over-confident and soared upwards towards the sun. Daedalus specifically warned Icarus that he should not fly too low, or the moisture from the sea would soak the feathers, nor too high, or the heat of the sun would melt the wax and the wings would disintegrate. Once Daedalus had completed his own set of wings, he found that flapping them in the manner of a bird generated lift, so he made a second pair for his son.įather and son then prepared to make their escape from Crete.

Ovid’s Metamorphoses (book 8, 183-235) describe how they did this, tying feathers together, securing them at their midpoints with string, then at their bases using beeswax. Daedalus therefore set about building himself and his young son Icarus sets of wings, so that they could fly from the island and escape.

Because of his knowledge of the Labyrinth, Minos, the king of Crete, shut him up in a tower to prevent him from spreading that knowledge. It has also lent itself to contrasting treatments, which make it valuable for gaining insight into the techniques of narrative painting.Īccording to classical Greek legend, Daedalus was a master craftsman who was most famously responsible for creating the Labyrinth on Crete, which contained the Minotaur. The tragic death of Icarus is quite a popular story for narrative paintings from classical times onwards.

Icarus story