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Greek and Roman Mythology
Daedalus was the creator of the
Labyrinth for the horrible
Minotaur in
Crete. He also showed
Ariadne how to tell
Theseus to escape the maze. Upon hearing of the escape of the
Athenians,
King Minos threw a fit and trapped
Daedalus and his son
Icarus in the
Labyrinth, from which there was no way to escape from...or so he thought.
Daedalus was a bright fellow, and figured out how to make wings from wax and feathers (he must have known
the Professor on
Giligan's Island.) He put these on himself and Icarus and they flew off. Now
Daedalus had warned
Icarus "Don't fly near the sun, it'll melt the wax and you will fall into the sea." Of course Icarus was too caught up in the sheer wonder that he was flying and he ignored his dad, flew up and up and up...and then, to Daedalus's horror, came crashing down when the sun melted the wax on his feathers. A saddened
Daedalus flew on to
Sicily, where he was welcomed home by the king.
Minos was even more furious than before. How dare that smart little geek escape me, he likely thought. So he got smart himself and devised a trick. He proclaimed he'd give a load of cash to whoever passed a thread through an intricately spiraled shell. Daedalus met the challenge by having an ant carry the thread, to which Minos proclaimed "Only Daedalus could think of that." And set off to Sicily to get him. But the King of Sicily and King Minos fought, Minos bit the dust, and Daedalus got to live out the rest of his life free.