THE STORY OF ICARUS

Once upon a time on the island of Crete, maybe about 1325 BC, there was a king whose name was Minos (in the story; this is only a story). He had living in his palace at Knossos a great architect and inventor named Daedalos.

There are stories about Daedalus inventing all kinds of things, but he is especially supposed to have built the great Labyrinth for King Minos to keep the Minotaur in.
After Daedalus built the Labyrinth, though, King Minos did not want him to be able to tell its secrets to anybody else, and so he kept Daedalos a prisoner in a tall tower, all alone with only his young son Icarus.
Now Daedalus and Icarus did not like being prisoners, and so Daedalus began to think about how they could get away. He watched the birds flying and he thought how free they were, and he decided to make wings for himself and Icarus.
Daedalus and Icarus made the wings out of  bird feathers and wax and they tied the wings on to each other. Daedalus warned his son to be careful when he was flying: if he went too close to the sea, he might fall in, but if he flew too high in the sky, the heat of the sun would melt the wax on his wings and he would fall. Icarus promised to be careful.
So they set off for freedom. At first everything went well, but after a little while Icarus got tired of just flying in a straight line. He began to try to do tricks and go up and down. His father told him to cut it out and behave himself, but Icarus was having too much fun to listen, and he kept on going up, higher and higher. Suddenly he realized his wings really WERE melting! He tried to go back down again, but it was too late. His wings came apart, and he fell down, down, down into the ocean, where he drowned.
Daedalus was horrified that his son had died, and spent a long time searching for his body, but when he found it there was nothing he could do but bury it sadly.