![]() ![]() Your father makes you wings and you can fly anywhere you want. Imagine being in jail for something you didn’t do. Daedalus, master craftsman that he was, created two sets of wings made of wax and feathers, and told Icarus not to fly too high or too low. ![]() He and his father were in prison for something minor his father did – Daedalus gave the princess a ball of golden thread so that her lover could get out of the labyrinth, and for that he was imprisoned. Why are you accusing a young boy of flying too close to the sun? He is not the one who made wings out of wax. And, as another caveat, I know full well that these myths were created to teach a lesson and convey a moral. I don’t know if I’m the only one who feels that Icarus has been slandered, but even if nobody else agrees my theory has just as much right to be considered as any other out there. Because, apparently, if you aspire to be the best you can be, your proverbial wings will melt, and you will crash and burn. The lesson we usually get taught from Icarus’ fatal flight is this: don’t fly too high. Whether or not any of these theories have any truth, all of them are still avoiding the uncomfortable betrayal found at the heart of the myth. ![]() Some claim that Icarus and Apollo were lovers, and some claim that it wasn’t the harsh sun but his fall into the cruel sea that killed him. I have seen various criticisms of this narrative, for there have been countless poems, and I have no doubt countless essays and songs too, written about it. Something about it has always bugged me the laying of blame on Icarus seems like merely an easy way of avoiding a difficult question. Icarus teaches you have power over what you do with your gifts, and to what heights and destinations they take you.I’ve been doing a lot of thinking this year about the story of Icarus from Greek mythology. To make the most of your gifts, you don’t need to make yourself into more than you are, you don’t need to fly higher than you can and burn yourself, but you also don’t need to stay down on earth, denying your own wings to fly. If you don’t fly-or you try to fly too high like Icarus, the myth teaches you’ll find yourself falling into the depths of emotional despair, drowning in your egoic feelings (as represented by the sea Icarus drowned in). Do we not use them and never take flight? Do we accept them as they are and fly proudly on them to new destinations? Or do we misuse them, flying too high, too close to the Sun, destroying our gift and ourselves in the process? We all have, and are given, wings to fly on and it is our choice what we do with them. Instead, he chose to push it further, to a place where his gift was destroyed, and he destroyed himself in the process. It was Icarus’ choice not accept his gift as it was and to see it as enough. The feathers came loose and Icarus plunged to his death in the sea.Īs I see it, this myth is a lesson about balance, about finding balance with your ego and with your gifts. But Icarus became enthralled with his ability to fly and forgot his father’s warning. His father cautioned him that flying too near the Sun would cause the wax to melt. Do you know the Greek myth of Icarus? Icarus is the son of Daedalus who dared to fly too near the sun on wings of feathers and wax. ![]()
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