_Greek_
Daedalus was a skillful workman in many ways. One of the first things he
did to make himself famous was to build a maze. It had so many winding
walks and crooked paths that anyone who walked in ten steps without a
guide never could get out unaided.
He built this maze for his king, but before many years he offended the
king in some way and was locked up in a high tower. In the roof of the
tower were hundreds of doves, and as they flew back and forth,
Daedalus said:
"My king rules the land and the sea, but not the air. I will try that
way of escape."
So he set to work to make wings for himself. He shaped two great frames
and covered them with feathers. The largest plumes he sewed on with
thread, and the smaller ones he fastened with wax.
Icarus, his son, stood and looked on, catching any of the feathers the
wind tried to blow away. He troubled his father much, however, by taking
the wax and making little balls, which he tossed about the room.
The keeper of the tower thought the wise man very silly to spend his
time making blankets of feathers, Daedalus never let the keeper of the
tower see how he curved and pointed the corners of his frames. The
keeper told how foolish the wise man had grown from being shut up so
long; how he spent his time gathering feathers to make great blankets.
The people pitied him, not knowing that this very punishment was giving
Daedalus another chance to make himself famous.
One dark night Daedalus fastened the broad wings to his shoulders, and
jumping from the window found he could sail like a dove, but he could
not carry his boy. Back he flew and, folding his wings, slipped into the
window. Now he must make a pair for Icarus.
[Illustration: DAEDALUS AND ICARUS MAKING THEIR WINGS. From a bas-relief
in Rome.]
Soon this second pair was done, but the little fellow had to be taught
like a young bird how to use them. Many a time if Daedalus had not
caught him on his own great wings, Icarus would have gone tumbling heels
over head, down, down to the foot of the tower.
Finally, Icarus, too, could sail like a pigeon, and if the night had not
been so dark it would have been great fun to see these two new birds fly
out of that tower window.
Keeping their wings so close to each other that they almost touched,
they flew away over houses and fields. Before the sun came out, Daedalus
told his boy to be careful to keep near him. "Don't fly too near the
sun, for the heat will melt the wax, nor too low, for the damp will wet
the feathers. Keep close to me."
When the morning dawned they saw the men plowing in the fields stop work
to look at them. Shepherds left their flocks and ran miles to see where
those strange birds were going. No one could tell who they were. It was
grand to be so free and to fly so swiftly.
An eagle saw them and flew near. They felt the breeze from his powerful
wings, and swifter went their own. The eagle, frightened, turned and
mounted toward the sun. Icarus forgot his father's warning and followed.
Daedalus flew on and on, thinking his boy was beside him. Up, up went
Icarus swifter than the eagle and swept proudly past him toward the sun.
The next instant he felt his wings loosen and droop.
Just then, Daedalus, who was miles away, turned his head, for he heard
the boy call him.
"Icarus, Icarus, where are you?" his father shouted. There was no
answer, but the mass of feathers in the blue sea below told the story.
Flying down, Daedalus searched till he found the body, and, tenderly
laying it in the earth he wept that he had ever thought of wings.
The land where this happened was wild, and only savage beasts lived in
it, so Daedalus flew away to Sicily. There he built a temple and on its
walls hung up his wings forever.
He became so proud of his own success that he believed no one else
could invent anything. He was willing, though, to teach others all he
knew, and sister, living near, sent her son, Perdix, to him to learn
what he could.
This boy was quick to see, to hear, and to learn, and he could invent
things himself.
One day when Daedalus was slowly cutting through a log with an ax, the
boy showed him how much quicker he could do it with a saw he had made.
No one had ever heard of a saw before, and Daedalus was angry.
"Who told you how to make this?" he asked.
"I brought home yesterday the backbone of a great fish cast up by the
sea, and I made this like it, but of iron; that is all," said Perdix.
Another time Daedalus was trying to draw a perfect circle. Thirteen
times he tried and failed.
"Take my irons, if you will not be angry with me," said Perdix, and he
handed him a pair of compasses.
Here again was something no man had ever seen. But Daedalus, instead of
being proud of his nephew, was angrier than before.
"You will be claiming that you are greater than Daedalus, who first
sailed through the air, ungrateful boy," said his uncle.
"I have only tried to help you," answered Perdix.
Not long after this, when the two were in a tall building, Daedalus gave
Perdix a push that sent him headlong toward the ground. The goddess
Minerva, who loves learning, saw him falling and changed him into a
partridge before he touched the earth. Unlike Daedalus, he has always
kept his wings.
Perdix, the partridge, builds his nest low on the ground and stays in
low branches. Perhaps he is afraid he may not be saved from another fall
if he goes again into high places.