The element of the text that seems "larger than life" is the fact that handmade wings could help someone actually fly.
The moral, or lesson, of the story might be to listen to your parents. (If Icarus had listened to his father, he wouldn't have drowned.) Another lesson might be about the dangers of power--Icarus felt so powerful while flying, he forgot his father's words. Because he enjoyed this power so much, he drowned.
Finally, this myth explains how the Icarian Sea got its name. It is the place where Icarus drowned.
