Read "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus," by Ovid and "Musée des Beaux
Arts," by W. H. Auden.
Daedalus was a skilled artisan, favored by King Minos for building a labyrinth to house the Minotaur, a creature half-man and half-bull. Eventually, however,
Daedalus lost the favor of the king and was locked in a tower on the island of Crete.
His exile was long, and thoughts of escape were thwarted by the knowledge that King Minos had guards on both land and sea. In his weary homesickness, he finally looked to the air. "Minos may control the land and sea," said Daedalus, "but not the regions of the air. I will try that way." So he set to work fabricating wings for himself and his young son Icarus, with the intention of changing the laws of nature.
He sewed feathers together beginning with the smallest and adding larger, so as to form an increasing surface. The larger ones he secured with thread and the smaller with wax, and gave the wings a gentle curved shape like the wings of a bird. Icarus, the boy, stood and watched, unaware that he was witnessing his downfall.
Sometimes he ran to gather up the feathers which the wind had blown away, and then handled the wax and worked it over with his fingers, making it difficult for his father to work. When at last the work was done, Daedalus, waving his wings, found himself lifted upward and hung suspended, hovering in the air. He next made wings for his son, Icarus, and taught him to fly, as a bird tempts her young ones from the lofty nest into the air. When all was prepared for flight, he said, "Icarus, my son, you must keep at a moderate height, for if you fly too low the damp air from the sea will clog your wings, and if you fly too high the heat from the sun will melt them. Keep near me and you will be safe." While he gave these instructions and fitted the wings to his son's shoulders, Daedalus' face was wet with tears, and his hands trembled. He kissed Icarus, not knowing that it was for the last time. Then he rose into the air on his wings, and flew off, encouraging Icarus to follow. Below them a farmer stopped his work to gaze, and the shepherd leaned on his staff and watched them, amazed at the sights, thinking the figures above were gods who could fly through the air.
The two flew over the islands of Samos, Delos, and Lebynthos, and the boy Icarus, thrilled with the limitless power of flight, began to soar higher than his father, soaring upward as if to reach heaven. As Daedalus had predicted, the blazing sun softened the wax which held the feathers together, and they began to come off, falling through the air toward the sea. Icarus fluttered his arms, but the wings had come apart and his cries to Daedalus were lost as he fell into the deep blue waters of the sea. His father cried, "Icarus, Icarus, where are you?" At last he saw the feathers floating on the water. "Ill-fated arts!" he lamented, wishing he had never possessed the skill to allow them to fly. He named the land Icaria, after his son, and offered his wings to the god Apollo.
-Publius Ovidius Naso, "The Story of Daedalus and Icarus," in The Metamorphoses of Ovid, based on a translation by Henry T. Riley (London:
Wm. Clowes & Sons, LTD., 1893), Book VIII, Fable III.
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position: how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along;
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating Gn a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green Water, and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky, Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.






"The Story of Icarus and Daedalus, by Ovid and "Musée des
Beaux Arts, ," by W. H. Auden. Then answer the question.
How is the focus on Auden's poem different than the focus of Ovid's myth?
• A. Auden focuses on the destruction of Icarus's wings, while Ovid focuses on Icarus building his wings.
• B. Auden chooses to focus on Icarus's death, while Ovid focuses only on Icarus's life.
• C. Auden focuses on the people on the shore, while Ovid focuses on Icarus and Daedalus.
• D. Auden draws attention to Icarus, while Ovid only focuses on
Daedalus.