--Click on picture to see larger individual images
and a picture of the art framed.--
In Greek mythology, Daedalus (also Daedalos and Daidalos) was a most skillful artificer and was even said to have first invented images. He built the Labyrinth for King Minos, who needed the labyrinth to imprison his wife's son: Asterius, the Minotaur.
Daedalus afterwards lost the favor of the king, and was shut up in a tower. He could not leave Crete by sea, as the king kept strict watch on all the vessels, and permitted none to sail without being carefully searched. 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 make the wings wet and they would no longer fly. Then the father and son flew away.
They had passed Samos, Delos and Lebynthos when the boy began to soar upward as if to reach heaven. The blazing sun softened the wax which held the feathers together, and they came off. Icarus fell into the sea. His father cried and bitterly lamenting his own arts, called the land near the place where Icarus fell into the ocean Icaria in memory of his child.