Daedalus Reveals His Secrets

His Pride I have scattered pieces of myself in every land I have stopped. Sometimes elaborate toys pleasing to a child, or to the child-hours of an adult. Sometimes a great weapon to forever link my name with the heroes. Other times I have left a few diagrams on a scroll, or a sequence of powerful numbers, delivered in my obscure script only a passionate scholar can grasp. I have a subtle mind, only a few have received the gift of knowing its origins. (You slipped through my life like wine slips through sheepskin. Splashes of you stained my robes.) His Obsessions I lived in a garden for three years. They were blissful years. My son, ICARUS, was born in the second year. His mother was a lovely slave serving in King Leontes's court. The courtiers laughed when I married her. Oh, how we loved that garden! The rainbow of colors against the dry earth of the surrounding landscape was our daily delight. But, one fateful day, I heard the ugly cackle of birds. I looked up into that cloudless blue iron sky, and saw scores of sun-struck black birds flying in an immense wheel which fell apart, reformed, rolled upward into blinding light, fell apart again, scattering birds across the wide sky realm... I was an absent thing. My garden delights vanished under that huge blue sky dome. Why am I not in that flight? was my only thought. Why do the Olympians, sky-dwellers themselves, fill the sky only with feathered flight? Why not us? Why not me? Thus began my life-long quest: to possess the sky as a fleshly being in full flight! (You... You slipped... from my life, my dear one.) His Ordeals The dwarfish King of Abydos tortured Amene mercilessly to force me to build for him a terrible weapon: in one attack, it destroyed a whole island of rebels, and then the other islands meekly surrendered to his glory. My invention was their dark fate! After the dwarfish King released us, with gifts and promises, but no remorse, to house arrest, I nursed Amene's wounds, I watched over her sleep. She smiled through her pain we placed flowers on her bed. When her soul fled her body, the boy and I had no further tears to shed. For many rulers, all seeking new killing machines, I, Daedalus, Great Artificer, satisfied their lust for power and glory - but every one was murdered by a follower who seized that power and glory. In the chaos that ensued, the boy and I fled to the next sheltering tyrant, and the gods were ever silent. Finally, it was the Great King of Crete, MINOS, Lord of the Seas, who clawed me into her service. He spoke darkly into his wine about what a proud man I was, 'Yes, so proud, to have a son who rivals Adonis in beauty, Perseus in daring, Nestor in intelligence. He should be a King's son, a Prince.' I shuddered under his stern gaze. I bowed to hide my fright: 'To do you service, Great Lord, is to increase my honor - ' My goblet tipped and spilled wine on dry, cracked earth. Minos stood suddenly, soldiers clustered around him. 'Daedalus, rumors of your flying machine abound. We would have it for ourselves.' His Sacrifice The night before the first flight above King Minos's assembled court, I led Icarus through the maze to a tunnel that would take him to the sea and a waiting ship. We had hardly spoken for hours as we attached the wings to our masterpiece, an artificial man who would fly with me the next morning and be destroyed by the Sun. At the tunnel entrance, we embraced and sobbed. Suddenly, he pulled himself free so violently, I fell to the ground. Then our eyes locked on the same beam of light, and I saw into my son's soul, and he into mine, And it was enough. Icarus disappeared into the tunnel's darkness. His Joy King Minos displayed no curiosity over Icarus's death. He even presided over a farewell ceremony with his whole court present. And that was an end to it. As for my invention, it proved to be too fragile, too dangerous. It was soon forgotten. Myself, I was humbled, and prayed to the gods to forgive my intrusion into their sky-realm. Every morning, I repay their goodness with my sacrifice. The years have passed, the decades have piled up behind me. I have continue to serve faithfully immortal kings and mortal kings, and my reward is my house, my workshop, my garden. And now whether I breathe the scent of flowers flowing over the still earth, or see birds tumbling against columns of sunlight, it is the same to me: scent or sight, silence or sound, growth or flight - to me, it is the same wonder in my mind, and my heart beats faster, faster, 'I saved my son! I saved my son! '