11. Who is Icarus? (Iron Maiden)
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This article is from the Iron Maiden FAQ, by Vartan Narinian vsn@pobox.com and Steve Payne Sirpapa@aol.com with numerous contributions by others.
11. Who is Icarus? (Iron Maiden)
In ancient greek mythology, there was once a king of the island of Crete
called Minos, who received a curse for his kingdom: this curse was a monster,
half man and half bull and was called the Minotaur. (I am leaving out the
why and how this Minotaur was born, but you may find the relevant information
in a good encyclopedia...it's rather amusing). After a son of Minos was
killed by the Athenians, to avenge his death, king Minos demanded that seven
Athenian youths and seven maidens be sent every 9th year to Crete to be
devoured by the Minotaur. When the third time of the sacrifice came,
Theseus, son of the king of Athens was chosen to go. Theseus decided to
take a shot at killing the Minotaur.
Before Theseus entered the maze, king Minos' daughter, Ariadne, gave him
a long string rolled into a ball, which Theseus unwound as he proceeded
through the labyrinth so as to remember his way out. Our hero succeeded
in slaying the Minotaur and escaped safely.
The builder of the labyrinth was a famous architect called Daedalus, who
was being held captive by king Minos so that he wouldn't divulge the secret
of the labyrinth. Icarus was the son of Daedalus.
At some time, Daedalus tried to escape from his prison by constructing
two sets of wings made with feathers stuck together with wax, one set for
himself and the other for his son Icarus who was to flee with him.
Both father and son were able to fly out of Crete, but it happened that
Icarus was overjoyous and flew too high, getting "very near the sun". The
heat melted the wax that bound the feathers and he fell into the ocean.
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