The Nephew

Daedalus could make anything with his hands. In Athens, people said he was the best maker in the world. He built houses and temples. His statues had open eyes, and their legs were apart, like a man walking. People said they could see and walk.

His sister had a son, Perdix, a boy of twelve. She sent the boy to Daedalus. "Teach him," she said. "He has good hands too."

The boy learned fast. Soon he did not need his uncle's help. He looked at the world and saw tools in it. One day he found the bones of a fish. They made a line of small, sharp teeth. He took a thin piece of iron and cut teeth in it, like the fish bones. That was the first saw, the tool that cuts wood.

Another day he joined two iron arms at the top. One arm stayed still. The other arm turned around it and drew a perfect circle. That was the first compass. Now people in Athens talked about the boy, not the uncle.

Daedalus watched him and said nothing. He was jealous of a boy of twelve.

One day they walked together on the Acropolis, the high rock above the city. There was a temple of Athena there. Daedalus pushed the boy off the rock. Then he went down into the city and said, "He fell. It was an accident."

But Athena saw it. She is the goddess of clever people, and the boy was one of hers. She caught him in the air and changed him into a bird. His quick mind went into his wings and his feet. His name stayed with him. Perdix is the Greek word for partridge, a small brown bird that lives on the ground.

Athens did not believe the story about the accident. The court found Daedalus guilty. He ran away from the city. He went south, over the sea, to Crete.

The Labyrinth

Minos was the king of Crete. His ships were on every sea, so he was the king of the sea too. He was happy to have Daedalus. A king can always use a man who can make anything.

But there was a secret in the king's house. The queen, Pasiphae, had a child. It was not a normal child. It had the body of a man and the head of a bull. People called it the Minotaur. Minos wanted to hide it from the world.

"Build a house for it," he said to Daedalus. "A house with no way out."

So Daedalus built the Labyrinth. It was a great house of a thousand paths. The paths turned and crossed, like a river on flat land. They came back to the same place again and again. Even Daedalus himself nearly lost his way inside it. Minos put the Minotaur in the middle. Then he found food for it.

Years before, Minos's son died in Athens. Minos did not forget it. He came with his ships and made war on the city. In the end Athens had to pay a terrible price. Seven young men and seven young women came to Crete by ship. They went into the Labyrinth, and they did not come out.

Then one day, Theseus was one of them. He was the son of the king of Athens. Ariadne, the daughter of Minos, saw him and fell in love.

"Take me to Athens with you," she said, "and marry me. Then I will help you."

Theseus promised. So Ariadne went to Daedalus and asked him: "How can a man get out of the Labyrinth?"

Daedalus thought about it. Then he gave her the answer: a ball of thread.

"Tie one end to the door," he said. "Hold the ball, and let the thread go as you walk. When you want to come back, follow the thread."

Ariadne gave the thread to Theseus. He tied it to the door and walked in. He found the Minotaur in the last room of the Labyrinth and killed it with his hands. Then he followed the thread back to the door. That night he sailed away from Crete, and Ariadne went with him.

In the morning Minos learned everything. The Minotaur was dead. His daughter was gone. And the thread was Daedalus's idea. Minos knew it at once. Nobody else understood the Labyrinth.

Minos did not kill Daedalus. He kept him. The sea was closed to him. The land was closed to him. Daedalus had a son now, Icarus, born on Crete. The boy grew up in a house that was a prison.

Wings

Daedalus hated Crete. Every day he looked at the sea and thought of home.

"Minos is the king of the land and the sea," he said. "But the sky is open. He is not the king of the air. We will go that way."

So Daedalus began to work on something new. He was going to make wings.

He collected feathers and laid them in a line, the short ones first, then the long ones. He tied the middle of each feather with thread. He held the bottom together with wax. Then he bent them a little, like the wings of a real bird.

His son Icarus stood next to him. The boy smiled and ran after the feathers when the wind took them. He pressed the yellow wax with his thumb and made it soft. He did not know it, but the wax was his danger. His games made his father's work slow.

Daedalus also made a pair for his son. At last the wings were ready. Daedalus put on his pair and moved his arms. He rose into the air and stayed there, like a bird.

Before they flew, he spoke to the boy.

"Icarus, listen to me. Fly the middle way. If you go too low, the water will make your wings heavy. If you go too high, the sun will burn them. Stay between the sea and the sun. Don't look up at the stars. Just follow me."

He tied the wings on his son's back. His hands were shaking. There were tears on the old man's face. He kissed the boy. It was the last kiss.

Then Daedalus went up, and Icarus went up after him. The father flew first, like a bird that takes its young out of the nest. He taught the boy as they went. Again and again he looked back at his son.

Far below, a fisherman sat with his line in the water. A shepherd was leaning on his stick. A farmer was working in his field. They looked up and saw two people in the sky. They thought they were gods.

Delos and Paros were now behind them. Samos was on their left. On the right was Calymne, the island of honey.

Icarus began to enjoy himself. He left his father behind. He wanted more sky, and he went up. Higher and higher.

He came too close to the sun. The wax got soft. Then it melted. The feathers came off. Icarus moved his arms up and down, but now they were only arms. The air did not hold him.

He fell, calling his father's name. The dark blue sea closed over his mouth.

Daedalus was a father no more.

"Icarus!" he called. "Icarus, where are you? Where can I look for you?"

He called again. Then he saw the feathers on the waves.

He cursed his own skill. He cursed the hands that made the wings.

He found the body on an island, and he buried his son there. The island took the boy's name too.

While he was burying the boy, a bird sat in an oak tree above him. It was a partridge. It watched him and beat its wings. Then it sang.

The Shell

Daedalus flew on alone, to Sicily. He came down in the land of King Cocalus. He asked the king to keep him safe. Cocalus was glad to have him.

Daedalus built the king a new city on a high rock. The road up was narrow, and it turned many times. Three or four men could hold it against an army. Cocalus moved his house and his gold there. The city was called Camicus.

Minos did not give up. He went from country to country with his ships, and he looked for Daedalus. In every city he showed a shell from the sea. It had many turns inside, round and round. "A great prize," he said, "for the man who can pass a thread through this shell." Minos knew only one man in the world could do that.

At last he came to Camicus. His ships filled the sea in front of the city. He showed the shell to Cocalus. "I can do it," said Cocalus. He took the shell into the palace and gave it to Daedalus.

Daedalus made a small hole at the top of the shell. Then he took an ant and tied a thread to its leg. He put the ant into the hole. The ant walked through all the turns of the shell and came out at the other end. The thread came with it.

Cocalus brought the shell back to Minos. Minos looked at the thread. "Daedalus is here," he said. "Give him to me."

"Tomorrow," said Cocalus. "Tonight you are my guest." He gave a great dinner for Minos. Before dinner, Minos went to the bath. The daughters of Cocalus were there to serve him. They poured boiling water over him, and he died.

Minos, the king of the land and the sea, died in a bath in Sicily. Cocalus told the men from Crete: "He fell in the hot water. It was an accident." They buried their king there. Their ships were burned, and they never went home.

Daedalus stayed in Sicily. He built for Cocalus for many years. Nobody came to look for him again.

Icaria is still on the map today, and so is the Icarian Sea. English keeps the story in a saying. When someone goes too far and it ends badly, people say: "He flew too close to the sun."

The partridge is still here too. It makes its nest on the ground, under a bush. It does not fly high. It remembers its fall.