Daedalus and Icarus
Source: Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
Daedalus was an Athenian artist and inventor who had learned his craft from the goddess Athena herself. Nevertheless, his nephew Talos surpassed him; still very young, Talos invented the saw, the potter’s wheel, and the compass. Out of jealousy, Daedalus threw Talos from the roof of Athena’s temple and killed him. For this reason he was banished, finding refuge at the court of King Minos, where he had a son by a young slave girl; the boy was called Icarus.
After Theseus killed the Minotaur, Minos imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus in the labyrinth. The only way to escape the labyrinth was through the air, since it had no roof, and so Daedalus constructed two pairs of wings from feathers and wax. After telling Icarus not to fly too close to the sun, lest the wax melt, nor too close to the sea, lest the feathers become wet, the two set off in flight. But overcome by the exhilaration of freedom, Icarus forgot his father’s warnings and flew so high that the sun melted his wings and he plunged into the ocean, where he died.
Daedalus reached Sicily safely and took refuge at the court of King Cocalus. Minos pursued him, but Daedalus, having installed himself in the palace with hot-water pipes, killed him by boiling the water while Minos was taking a bath.