Death of Icarus. Engraving from 'Tableaux du temple des muses' (1655) by Michel de Marolles (1600 - 1681), known as the abb? de Marolles

Death of Icarus. Engraving from 'Tableaux du temple des muses' (1655) by Michel de Marolles (1600 - 1681), known as the abb? de Marolles; a French churchman and translator. In Greek mythology, Daedalus was shut up in a tower to prevent his knowledge of his Labyrinth from spreading. Since Minos controlled the land and sea routes, Daedalus set to work to fabricate wings for himself and his young son Icarus. When both were prepared for flight, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too high, because the heat of the sun would melt the wax, nor too low, because the sea foam would soak the feathers. They had passed Samos, Delos and Lebynthos by the time the boy, forgetting himself, began to soar upward toward the sun. The blazing sun softened the wax that held the feathers together and they came off. Icarus quickly fell in the sea and drowned.