Daedalus

(Cunningly Wrought) Greek A legendary Athenian, descendant of the god Hephaestus, who was known as "the divine artificer." Daedalus was a great craftsman, architect, sculptor, and inventor. His nephew, Talus, was also a gifted craftsman and became the apprentice of Daedalus. When the boy invented the saw, Daedalus became jealous, murdered his nephew, and fled from Athens to the island of Crete. Daedalus entered the service of King Minos of Crete, for whom he constructed the amazing labyrinth, or maze, in which the Minotaur lived, The Minotaur, or monster, was half human, half bull, and was the offspring of Minos's wife Pasiphaë and a bull. Once the Labyrinth was completed, Minos kept Daedalus prisoner so that he could not reveal the secret of the maze to anyone. Daedalus made wings from the feathers of birds and wax and escaped from Crete with his son, Icarus. Icarus ignored his father's advice and flew too near the Sun, which melted the wax and rendered the wings useless. Icarus fell into the sea and drowned. Daedalus landed in Sicily and entered the court of King Cocalus, where he constructed beautiful and imaginative toys for the king's daughters. Minos went in search of Daedalus. He carried with him a triton shell and a piece of linen thread, saying that he would reward the person who could thread the linen through the shell. Minos knew that only the talented Daedalus could find a way to do this impossible task. Sure enough, when he reached Sicily, King Cocalus boasted of the wonderful inventor at his court and asked Daedalus to perform the task. Daedalus did this by boring a minute hole in the triton shell, smearing it with honey, and sending an ant, harnessed to the thread, through the hole and all the way through the shell's spirals to its opening. Minos demanded the surrender of Daedalus, but with the help of Cocalus's daughters, Daedalus contrived for Minos a horrid death in a hot bathtub. The story of Daedalus ends there. Scholars do not know whether there was a real Daedalus, so skillful that legends grew around his memory, or whether he was purely fictitious.