from Ovid, 8 trans. Rolfe Humphries (1955)

Homesick for homeland, hated Crete 8:182 Daedalus interea Creten longumque perosus And his long exile there, but the sea held him. 8:183 exilium tactusque loci natalis amore "Though blocks escape by land or water," 8:184 clausus erat pelago. 'terras licet' inquit 'et undas Daedalus said, "surely the sky is open, 8:185 obstruat: et caelum certe patet; ibimus illac: And that's the way we'll go. Minos' dominion 8:186 omnia possideat, non possidet aera Minos.' Does not include the air." He turned his thinking 8:187 dixit et ignotas animum dimittit in artes Toward unknown arts, changing the laws of nature. 8:188 naturamque novat. nam ponit in ordine pennas He laid out feathers in order, first the smallest, 8:189 a minima coeptas, longam breviore sequenti, A little larger next it, and so continued, 8:190 ut clivo crevisse putes: sic rustica quondam The way that pan-pipes rise in gradual sequence. 8:191 fistula disparibus paulatim surgit avenis; He fastened them with twine and wax, at middle, 8:192 tum lino medias et ceris alligat imas At bottom, so, and bent them, gently curving, 8:193 atque ita conpositas parvo curvamine flectit, So that they looked like wings of birds, most surely. 8:194 ut veras imitetur aves. puer Icarus una And Icarus, his son, stood by and watched him, 8:195 stabat et, ignarus sua se tractare pericla, Not knowing he was dealing with his downfall, 8:196 ore renidenti modo, quas vaga moverat aura, Stood by and watched, and raised his shiny face 8:197 captabat plumas, flavam modo pollice ceram To let a feather, light as down, fall on it, 8:198 mollibat lusuque suo mirabile patris Or stuck his thumb into the yellow wax, 8:199 impediebat opus. postquam manus ultima coepto Fooling around, the way a boy will, always, 8:200 inposita est, geminas opifex libravit in alas Whenever a father tries to get some work done. 8:201 ipse suum corpus motaque pependit in aura; Still, it was done at last, and the father hovered, 8:202 instruit et natum 'medio' que 'ut limite curras, Poised, in the moving air, and taught his son: "I warn you, Icarus, fly a middle course: 8:203 Icare,' ait 'moneo, ne, si demissior ibis, Don't go too low, or water will weigh the wings down; 8:204 unda gravet pennas, si celsior, ignis adurat: Don't go too high, or the sun's fire will burn them. 8:205 inter utrumque vola. nec te spectare Booten Keep to the middle way. And one more thing, 8:206 aut Helicen iubeo strictumque Orionis ensem: No fancy steering by star or constellation, 8:207 me duce carpe viam!' pariter praecepta volandi Follow my lead!" That was the flying lesson, 8:208 tradit et ignotas umeris accommodat alas. And now to fit the wings to the boy's shoulders. 8:209 inter opus monitusque genae maduere seniles, Between the work and warning the father found 8:210 et patriae tremuere manus; dedit oscula nato His cheeks were wet with tears, and his hands trembled. 8:211 non iterum repetenda suo pennisque levatus He kissed his son (Good-bye, if he had known it), 8:212 ante volat comitique timet, velut ales, ab alto Rose on his wings, flew on ahead, as fearful 8:213 quae teneram prolem produxit in aera nido, As any bird launching the little nestlings 8:214 hortaturque sequi damnosasque erudit artes Out of high nest into thin air. Keep on, 8:215 et movet ipse suas et nati respicit alas. Keep on, he signals, follow me! He guides him In flight--O fatal art!--and the wings move And the father looks back to see the son's wings moving.

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Far off, far down, some fisherman is watching 8:216 hos aliquis tremula dum captat harundine pisces, As the rod dips and trembles over the water, 8:217 aut pastor baculo stivave innixus arator Some shepherd rests his weight upon his crook, 8:218 vidit et obstipuit, quique aethera carpere possent, Some ploughman on the handles of the ploughshare, 8:219 credidit esse deos. et iam Iunonia laeva And all look up, in absolute amazement, 8:220 parte Samos (fuerant Delosque Parosque relictae) At those air-borne above. They must be gods! 8:221 dextra Lebinthos erat fecundaque melle Calymne, They were over Samos, Juno's sacred island, 8:222 cum puer audaci coepit gaudere volatu Delos and Paros toward the left, Lebinthus 8:223 deseruitque ducem caelique cupidine tractus Visible to the right, and another island, 8:224 altius egit iter. rapidi vicinia solis Calymne, rich in honey. And the boy 8:225 mollit odoratas, pennarum vincula, ceras; Thought This is wonderful! and left his father, 8:226 tabuerant cerae: nudos quatit ille lacertos, Soared higher, higher, drawn to the vast heaven, 8:227 remigioque carens non ullas percipit auras, Nearer the sun, and the wax that held the wings 8:228 oraque caerulea patrium clamantia nomen Melted in that fierce heat, and the bare arms 8:229 excipiuntur aqua, quae nomen traxit ab illo. Beat up and down in air, and lacking courage 8:230 at pater infelix, nec iam pater, 'Icare,' dixit, Took hold of nothing. Father! he cried, and Father! 8:231 'Icare,' dixit 'ubi es? qua te regione requiram?' Until the blue sea hushed him, the dark water 8:232 'Icare' dicebat: pennas aspexit in undis Men call the Icarian now. And Daedalus, 8:233 devovitque suas artes corpusque sepulcro Father no more, called "Icarus, where are you! 8:234 condidit, et tellus a nomine dicta sepulti. Where are you, Icarus? Tell me where to find you!" And saw the wings on the waves, and cursed his talents, Buried the body in a tomb, and the land Was named for Icarus.

During the burial 8:235 Hunc miseri tumulo ponentem corpora nati A noisy partridge, from a muddy ditch, 8:236 garrula limoso prospexit ab elice perdix Looked out, drummed with her wings in loud approval. 8:237 et plausit pennis testataque gaudia cantu est, No other bird, those days, was like the partridge, 8:238 unica tunc volucris nec visa prioribus annis, Newcomer to the ranks of birds; the story 8:239 factaque nuper avis longum tibi, Daedale, crimen. Reflects no credit on Daedalus. His sister, 8:240 namque huic tradiderat, fatorum ignara, docendam Ignorant of the fates, had sent her son 8:241 progeniem germana suam, natalibus actis To Daedalus as apprentice, only a youngster, 8:242 bis puerum senis, animi ad praecepta capacis; Hardly much more than twelve years old, but clever, 8:243 ille etiam medio spinas in pisce notatas With an inventive turn of mind. For instance, 8:244 traxit in exemplum ferroque incidit acuto Studying a fish's backbone for a model, 8:245 perpetuos dentes et serrae repperit usum; He had notched a row of teeth in a strip of iron, 8:246 primus et ex uno duo ferrea bracchia nodo Thus making the first saw, and he had bound 8:247 vinxit, ut aequali spatio distantibus illis Two arms of iron together with a joint 8:248 altera pars staret, pars altera duceret orbem. To keep them both together and apart, 8:249 Daedalus invidit sacraque ex arce Minervae One standing still, the other traversing 8:250 praecipitem misit, lapsum mentitus; at illum,

In a circle, so men came to have the compass. 8:251 quae favet ingeniis, excepit Pallas avemque And Daedalus, in envy, hurled the boy 8:252 reddidit et medio velavit in aere pennis, Headlong from the high temple of Minerva, 8:253 sed vigor ingenii quondam velocis in alas And lied about it, saying he had fallen 8:254 inque pedes abiit; nomen, quod et ante, remansit. Through accident, but Minerva, kind protectress 8:255 non tamen haec alte volucris sua corpora tollit, Of all inventive wits, stayed him in air, 8:256 nec facit in ramis altoque cacumine nidos: Clothed him with plumage; he still retained his aptness 8:257 propter humum volitat ponitque in saepibus ova In feet and wings, and kept his old name, Perdix, 8:258 antiquique memor metuit sublimia casus. But in the new bird-form, Perdix, the partridge, Never flies high, nor nests in trees, but flutters Close to the ground, and the eggs are laid in hedgerows. The bird, it seems, remembers, and is fearful Of all high places.

From the prose version by A.S. Kline

Bk VIII:183-235 Daedalus and Icarus

Meanwhile Daedalus, hating Crete, and his long exile, and filled with a desire to stand on his native soil, was imprisoned by the waves. ‘He may thwart our escape by land or sea’ he said ‘but the sky is surely open to us: we will go that way: Minos rules everything but he does not rule the heavens’. So saying he applied his thought to new invention and altered the natural order of things. He laid down lines of feathers, beginning with the smallest, following the shorter with longer ones, so that you might think they had grown like that, on a slant. In that way, long ago, the rustic pan-pipes were graduated, with lengthening reeds. Then he fastened them together with thread at the middle, and bees’-wax at the base, and, when he had arranged them, he flexed each one into a gentle curve, so that they imitated real bird’s wings. His son, Icarus, stood next to him, and, not realising that he was handling things that would endanger him, caught laughingly at the down that blew in the passing breeze, and softened the yellow bees’-wax with his thumb, and, in his play, hindered his father’s marvellous work.

When he had put the last touches to what he had begun, the artificer balanced his own body between the two wings and hovered in the moving air. He instructed the boy as well, saying ‘Let me warn you, Icarus, to take the middle way, in case the moisture weighs down your wings, if you fly too low, or if you go too high, the sun scorches them. Travel between the extremes. And I order you not to aim towards Bootes, the Herdsman, or Helice, the Great Bear, or towards the drawn sword of Orion: take the course I show you!’ At the same time as he laid down the rules of flight, he fitted the newly created wings on

the boy’s shoulders. While he worked and issued his warnings the ageing man’s cheeks were wet with tears: the father’s hands trembled.

He gave a never to be repeated kiss to his son, and lifting upwards on his wings, flew ahead, anxious for his companion, like a bird, leading her fledglings out of a nest above, into the empty air. He urged the boy to follow, and showed him the dangerous art of flying, moving his own wings, and then looking back at his son. Some angler catching fish with a quivering rod, or a shepherd leaning on his crook, or a ploughman resting on the handles of his plough, saw them, perhaps, and stood there amazed, believing them to be gods able to travel the sky.

And now Samos, sacred to Juno, lay ahead to the left (Delos and Paros were behind them), Lebinthos, and Calymne, rich in honey, to the right, when the boy began to delight in his daring flight, and abandoning his guide, drawn by desire for the heavens, soared higher. His nearness to the devouring sun softened the fragrant wax that held the wings: and the wax melted: he flailed with bare arms, but losing his oar-like wings, could not ride the air. Even as his mouth was crying his father’s name, it vanished into the dark blue sea, the Icarian Sea, called after him. The unhappy father, now no longer a father, shouted ‘Icarus, Icarus where are you? Which way should I be looking, to see you?’ ‘Icarus’ he called again. Then he caught sight of the feathers on the waves, and cursed his inventions. He laid the body to rest, in a tomb, and the island was named Icaria after his buried child.

Bk VIII:236-259 The death of

As he was consigning his unfortunate son to the grave, a noisy partridge poked its head out from a muddy ditch, and, called, cackling joyfully, with whirring wings. It was the only one of its kind, not seen in previous years, and only recently made a bird, as a lasting reproach to you, Daedalus. Your sister, Perdix, oblivious to the fates, sent you her son, Talus, to be taught: twelve years old, his mind ready for knowledge. Indeed, the child, studying the spine of a fish, took it as a model, and cut continuous teeth out of sharp metal, inventing the use of the saw. He was also the first to pivot two iron arms on a pin, so that, with the arms at a set distance, one part could be fixed, and the other sweep out a circle. Daedalus was jealous, and hurled the boy headlong from Minerva’s sacred citadel, claiming that he had fallen. But Pallas Minerva, who favours those with quick minds, caught him, and turned him into the partridge, masking him with feathers in mid-air. His inborn energy was transferred to swift wings and feet, and he kept his mother’s name, Perdix, from before. But the bird does not perch above the ground, and does not make its nest on branches or on high points, but flies low on whirring wings over the soil, and lays its eggs in a sheltered place.

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