In Greek mythology, Icarus was the son of Daedalus, a skilled craftsman who designed the labyrinth of Crete, and his wife, Naucrate. After Theseus, the king of Athens and a rival of King Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, Minos believed that Icarus and Daedalus had shared the labyrinth’s secrets. As punishment, Minos imprisoned them—either in a tall tower near the ocean or inside the labyrinth itself, depending on the version of the story. To escape, Icarus and Daedalus built wings using feathers from birds, threads from blankets, leather from their sandals, and beeswax. Before flying, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too low, as water could soak the feathers, or too close to the Sun, as heat could melt the wax. Icarus ignored this advice and flew too close to the Sun, causing the wax in his wings to melt. His wings fell apart, and he fell into the sea and drowned. This story inspired the saying, "fly too close to the Sun." In some versions of the tale, Daedalus and Icarus escape by boat instead of flying.

The legend

Icarus’s father, Daedalus, was a skilled craftsman from Athens. He built a labyrinth for King Minos of Crete near his palace at Knossos to trap the Minotaur, a creature that was half man and half bull. The Minotaur was born from King Minos’s wife and the Cretan bull. After helping Theseus escape the labyrinth and defeat the Minotaur, Minos believed Daedalus had given Theseus a ball of string to aid in the escape. As punishment, Minos imprisoned Daedalus in the labyrinth.

Daedalus made two pairs of wings, one for himself and one for his son Icarus. The wings were made of feathers attached to a leather frame with beeswax. Before flying, Daedalus warned Icarus to follow his flight path and avoid flying too close to the Sun or the sea. Icarus became overexcited and flew too high, ignoring his father’s advice. The heat from the Sun melted the beeswax, causing the feathers to fall. Icarus tried to keep flying but eventually lost all his feathers. He fell into the sea and drowned. Daedalus mourned his son and named an island near Samos, called Icaria, in his memory.

Today, the island where Icarus is believed to be buried is named Icaria, and the sea near it is called the Icarian Sea. After Icarus’s death, Daedalus traveled to Sicily, where he offered his wings at a temple of Apollo and vowed never to fly again. According to ancient writings, Icarus believed he was greater than Helios, the Sun god. As punishment, Helios directed his rays toward Icarus, melting the wax on his wings. Later, Helios named the Icarian Sea after Icarus.

Some Hellenistic writers describe different versions of the story. In these accounts, Daedalus escaped Crete by boat, which was provided by Pasiphaë. He invented the first sails to outrun King Minos’s ships. Icarus fell overboard during the journey to Sicily and drowned. In this version, Heracles built a tomb for Icarus.

Classical literature

Stories about Icarus are recorded in several ancient texts, including Pseudo-Apollodorus's Bibliotheca (Epitome i.12–13), Diodorus Siculus's Bibliotheca historica (4.77.5–9), Hyginus's Fabulae (40), Virgil's Aeneid (vi.14–33), and Ovid's Metamorphoses (viii.183–235). Other ancient writers, such as Lucian, also mentioned the story briefly. Pseudo-Apollodorus's account is short. Ovid's description in the Metamorphoses is the longest, and he refers to Icarus's myth in other works. Hyginus, a Latin writer from the Augustan period, wrote about Pasiphaë, the daughter of the Sun, who had a love affair with a cow that led to the birth of the Minotaur.

Medieval, Renaissance, and modern literature

Ovid's version of the Icarus myth and its link to Phaethon influenced how the story was told in English literature. Writers like Chaucer, Marlowe, Shakespeare, Milton, and Joyce used this story in their works.

In Renaissance art, the meaning of Icarus depends on where he is shown. For example, in the Orion Fountain at Messina, he is part of a group of figures near water. In the Bankruptcy Court of the Amsterdam Town Hall, he represents high-flying ambition. The 16th-century painting Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, attributed to Pieter Bruegel the Elder, inspired two famous poems in the 20th century: Musée des Beaux Arts by W. H. Auden and Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by William Carlos Williams. Other poems that reference the Icarus myth include To a Friend Whose Work Has Come to Triumph by Anne Sexton, Icarus by John Updike, Icarus Again by Alan Devenish, Mrs Icarus by Carol Ann Duffy, Failing and Flying by Jack Gilbert, It Should Have Been Winter by Nancy Chen Long, Up like Icarus by Mark Antony Owen, Age 10, 3am by Sheri Wright, and Yesterday's Myth by Jennifer Chang. The myth also appears as a background theme in Hiromi Yoshida's poetry book Green Roses Bloom for Icarus (2024). In the Norwegian novel Icarus: A Young Man in Sahara (1957) by Axel Jensen, Icarus is a metaphor for troubled young men. The 2017 novel Icarus by Adam Wing and the 2022 animated film Icarus both use the myth, with the film adding a childhood friendship between Icarus and the Minotaur.

Examples of artworks featuring Icarus include:
– The Sun, or the Fall of Icarus (1819) by Merry-Joseph Blondel, displayed in the Rotunda of Apollo at the Louvre.
– A 16th-century print showing Icarus falling.
– In Bruegel’s Landscape with the Fall of Icarus (c. 1558), the fallen Icarus is a small detail at the lower right.
– Modern street art depicting Icaria Island and falling Icarus near the village of Evdilos on Icaria, Greece.

Interpretation

Literary interpretation often views the myth of Icarus as a lesson about the dangers of too much ambition. A study about the Daedalus and Icarus myth was written by Françoise Frontisi-Ducroux, a French expert in ancient Greek culture. In psychology, researchers have studied the "Icarus complex," which connects a strong interest in fire, high goals, and a desire to reach great heights. In psychiatry, some experts have linked the story of Icarus to bipolar disorder, a condition marked by extreme mood swings between very high and very low emotions. Henry Murray, who first used the term "Icarus complex," noted that people with this trait often show signs of mania, a mental state where individuals are drawn to heights, fascinated by fire and water, and have exaggerated or unrealistic thoughts. In his 2012 book The Icarus Deception, Seth Godin explained how Western culture has changed its view of the Icarus myth over time. He pointed out that Icarus was warned not to fly too low, as seawater would damage his wings. He argued that flying too low is just as dangerous as flying too high because it can feel falsely safe.