This is the very well-known and often referenced story of the genius architect Daedalus and his son.
Icarus is the Trope Namer for Icarus Allusion.
Their story begins when Daedalus was in Crete and King Minos commissioned him to design an impossible labyrinth. After the events surrounding the Minotaur, Theseus, and Ariadne, Minos imprisoned Daedalus and his son to prevent Daedalus from sharing his knowledge of the Labyrinth. (they apparently didn’t have nondisclosure agreements back then.)
They are on an island, and Minos is monitoring them so they cannot leave by sea. Daedalus decides that the only way out is up. Daedalus then created a pair of wings for each of them, feathers fastened together with beeswax and string, and they could fly. Daedalus warns his son specifically that he must not fly too high nor too low, and he has to follow the path that Daedalus showed.
Daedalus flew with care and worried for his son constantly. Icarus, young and reckless and flying for the first time, did not watch how high he was going. He flew too close to the sun, and the wax on his wings melted off. He plummeted into the ocean.
Tropes in “Icarus and Daedalus”
- Fatal Flaw: Icarus's inability to control his excitement in being able to fly, which leads to his recklessness and eventual death.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Daedalus.
- Ignored Expert: Daedalus trying to warn Icarus.
- The Joy of First Flight: Icarus gets overexcited with this feeling, and it leads to his death.
- The Law of Conservation of Detail: We wouldn’t have learned the potential dangers unless one of them was going to come into play.
- A Wizard Did It: The book only explains that Daedalus “applied his thought to new invention and altered the natural order of things.”
