The story from ancient Greece of the boy who flew too close to the sun. It continues the story of Daedalus, whom we first met in the story of the Minotaur. We hear how he and his son Icarus tried to escape from Crete with wings made of feathers and wax. Some of the touching details – such as Icarus playing with the feathers – come from the Latin poet,Ovid.
Read by Natasha. Duration 9.23
I’ve told you before about the half man-half bull called the Minotaur. This strange and terrible beast lived in a deep, dark Labyrinth on the island of Crete. Well you may remember that the Labyrinth was created by the cunning and ingenious mind of Daedalus.
Daedalus was a brilliant architect and inventor – in fact, he was so brilliant that King Minos of Crete did not want to let him go back to his home in Athens. Instead, he kept him as a prisoner. Daedalus lived with his son Icarus in a tower of the palace, and King Minos made him invent weapons of war that would make his army and navy even more powerful than they already were.
Although Daedalus and Icarus had every comfort that they could ask for, the father longed to return home to Athens. His son hardly remembered his home city, but he too wanted to leave, because he longed to run and play in the open, rather than be in a tower all day.
Daedalus looked out over the waves of the Mediterranean Sea, and he realised that even if they could manage to slip out of the tower and find a little boat, they wouldn’t not be able to sail very far before they were spotted and caught by one of the ships of King Minos’s navy.
He thought for a long time about the best way to escape, and finally he came up with a plan, and this is what he did. He told King Minos that he needed feathers and wax for a new invention that he was working on. When these were brought to him, he took them up onto the roof of the tower. Here he arranged them in four lines, starting with the smallest fathers, and following those with the longer ones, so that they formed gentle curves. Then he began to stick the feathers together with thread in the middle and wax at the base. While he was working, Icarus played with the wax, squashing it between his finger and thumb, and when the feathers blew away in the breeze he ran after them and caught them.
When Daedalus had finished, he showed Icarus his work. He had made the feathers into two pairs of wings. He fastened the larger pair to his arms, and began to flap them until his feet took off from the floor and he began to hover in mid air. Icarus laughed with delight and could not wait to try out the smaller pair of wings. Over the next few days father and son both practised with them until little Icaraus was almost as good at flying as his father.
Then one morning Deadalus said to Icarus:
“Now Son, we are ready to leave this island for good. We shall fly home to Athens. But although you are now quite good at flying, you must not forget that it can be very dangerous. So listen to my instructions and be sure to follow then to the letter. At all times follow me, for I will find the way home. Do not veer off on a different flight path, or you will soon be lost. And do not fly too low, or your wings will fill with moisture from the waves and they will become too heavy you will sink down. Nor should you fly too high, or the sun will heat the wax and your wings will fall apart. Have you understood all that I have said?”
Little Icarus nodded to show his father that he had understood. And then Daedalus led his son up onto the battlements of the tower, and like a bird leading her fledglings from the nest for the first time, he jumped into mid air and flapped his wings, and Icarus followed soon after.
If a fisherman or a shepherd had looked up just then, he would have seen two very unusual birds hovering above the waves. No doubt he would have thought that they had caught sight of two winged gods : For who could have believed that a mortal father and son had mastered the art of flight?
Over the seas they sailed, and at first Icarus felt frightened for he had never ventured very far in his practice flights. But soon he found that he was really good at flying. In fact, it was the most tremendous fun you could ever have. He began to swoop up and down with the sea gulls. Wow! It was amazing ! His father turned round and called:
“Icraus, Take Care!” and for a while after that Icraus obeyed his father and flapped along behind him. But then his wings caught a warm air current, and he found that he could soar along and upwards almost without any effort. This was the life ! He was floating ever so high above the waves and the ships down below were like tiny little specks. His father called up to him
“Icarus, remember what I told you. Come down right now!” But Icarus could not hear, and his father could not catch up with him.
Icarus was way too close to the sun, and soon the wax that held the feathers together began to melt. Gradually his wings began to loose their shape, and some of the feathers even began to fall off. Icarus flapped his arms frantically, but it was too late. He had lost the power of flight and down he plunged into the sea.
64 Comments
super thank
we are as parent never forget thet many things can be vital to surviva but children
insist on doing thir mind. Because children want to learn the truth by practice. İn fact no body as inteligent as use others experinces.
dear natasha ı give all the respect you.
Thank you. I love mythology
Yea… good story but i like da god and godnesses da best!!!
please have two storys a week
hi
Lim Soon Sien,
I’m glad you like the stories so much. We would love to do two a week, but unfortunately we can’t manage it. We do have tongue twisters most weeks. And we hope to restart Alice Through the Looking Glass soon, so this is upping our output.
Thank you !
All the best
I like this, story becase it is funny and this story tells me ,a laesso that I must now my ,daddy and mummy words.
Love Maxine
A sad but exciting story.
nice ha ha i want to be a palot and i also want to go to the moon
That was so cool.
It was good.
I want go to the moon too.But how did he get to the moon?
It made me cry.Becauseit was sad.
WOW! thats an amazing story. I had a tape when I was younger about a boy named Gideon. he was a young angel and he always disobeyed the older, wiser angel. one day he was allowed to fly and he flew so high he scorched his wings against the sun, and he never disobeyed again. his name became Gideon Fire Wing.
It was wonderfull story,
thanks
i like a bit la
this story was so good I listened to loads and was the best one I have heard. I have looked at loads of websites and this was the best and I used it for my home-work and I will show my teacher who will be just as impressed as my mum lol I hope you carry on reading these great stories for when I have kids and I will tell everyone about you I who has only heard of you once (now)and i love you
hi girl i agre with you too!
cool and awsome
Amazing site!!!Natasha has a lovely voice!
The story was nice. I’ve never heard of it before. Did everyone enjoy it?!
This is great, as adults sometimes we forget to share these stories and morals of these stories with our children, books are cool, but audio books are a great. Love the story and how it was read
i love that story.it bout made me cry.
ps. the dad was a good inventer
I am interested in the stories and I was wounder if you could make the stories withe som intresting animation
it was very violent but cool
cool cool
i like natasha
i agree with maryam. you guys totally need art.
I enjoyed reading this
Great for kids!!
The story itself is quite interesting, but considering my age, the vocabulary bored me a bit.
i thouth it was very good and betie should read use all one and i like the way nathasha read it with exspesoin i like story nory i think it good for younger children. thank you nathasha for another lovely story.xxx
Hey nastaha urlike my best friend for life!!! and and it would help if you talk faster…….thanks so i will talk to you later bff!!!!!
this story was cool cant wait to read it in class.
this story was cool cant wait to raed it in class.
good story
thanks storynory, I really loved that story. got anymore?
this story is in my school social studies book! /yay
this story is great to teach my nece a lesson.I love this story.yyyyyyaaaaa
I love this storie
awesomest story ever dudes like totally wickit and gnarly. p.s
I LIKE PIE!
it it wicked, man!
It was good!!
That wass nice. ( i hve it in english homework)
THIS STORY IS GOOD
Thanks for the great Greek stories. They are GREAT!!! We listen to them over and over.
Dear KC Many thanks. Look out for The Midas Touch in a couple of week’s time
Wasn’t as interesting as other legends
we love your storys about greek myths because we learned about them in school.
Hi! I’m Wesley (a girl) and I LOVED the story! It’s awesome!!!!!! I love greek mythology SO much. Because I like history a lot too! And Natasha? If you see my note, can you write back? Thanks a LOT! And do you have any other Greek myths? If you do, Tell me!
Wesley:)
the climax of the story is when he doesnt listen to his dad and he starts flying higher when catches the warm draft to fly upward
(Mrs.Sprague class,7 grade)
I think that the story’s conflict is both man vs. society because Deadalus was a prisoner and it’s man vs. nature because the Sun affects the wings and the sea kills the boy.
This myths conflict is man vs. self because Icarus doesn’t listen to his father like he should and gets to overconfident. So even though it was the sun that melted his wings, it was his overconfidence that killed him.
Excellent – clear RP pronunciation, lovely voice to listen to, beautifully retold story. Perfect for my cross-curricular Flight project. Many thanks
Hi Maria, your cross-curricular Flight project sounds very intriguing. Good luck with it.
the conflict is the boy did not follow instructions and flew to high an he fell and eventuly drowend in the ocean
very good
this is a good story i listend to it in school and it was also very usefull for my greek project
Dedalus also made the labrinth.
King minus was searching for dedalus.
Dedalus named the sea that his son was lost in by his sons name
this book is very good
st.georges school are doing a project about it but it is only year 5
its good my people of my vilage loisten to this 1 1jh2m
couldnt have Daedalus caught Icarus well he was falling?
Dear Jon, I suppose Daedalus would have caught him if he could have . Thanks for the shrewd comment though.