Who was Icarus?

[Justin]

Every time I go to a pub quiz, there's always a mythology question on Icarus. Who was he?

[James]

Icarus was the son of the inventor Daedalus and a slave named Naucrate. King Minos of Crete imprisoned Daedalus and Icarus in the Labyrinth to punish Daedalus for helping the hero Theseus kill the monster called the Minotaur and escape with Minos's daughter, Ariadne. Daedalus knew Minos controlled any escape routes by land or sea, but Minos could not prevent an escape by flight. So Daedalus built wings for himself and Icarus, using wax and string to fasten feathers to reeds to imitate birds' wings. Daedalus warned his son not to fly too high ' if he did, the sun would dissolve the wax. But once they had escaped, Icarus became so excited that he forgot his father's warning, flew higher and the wax melted. He fell and drowned. Daedalus buried his son on an island that would be called Icaria, and the sea in which Icarus drowned was named the Icarian Sea. Moral: listen to dad.

[Aschenbach]

Hi Justin old chap - long time no see

Icarus was a character in Greek Mythology. Icarus' father, Daedalus attempted to escape his prison at the hands of King Minos. Daedalus fashioned a pair of wings for himself and his son, made of feathers and wax. Before they took off from the prison, Daedalus warned his son not to fly too close to the sun, as the wax would melt. Overcome by the sublime feeling that flying gave him, Icarus soared through the sky joyfully, but in the process came too close to the sun, which melted his wings. Icarus fell into the sea in the area which bears his name, the Icarian Sea near Icaria, an island southwest of Samos. His flight was routinely alluded to by Greek poets in passing, but was told in a nutshell in Pseudo-Apollodorus, Epitome of the Biblioteca.