Icarus is the myth of a genius inventor named Daedalus and his son Icarus. The story begins with Daedalus and Icarus imprisoned by King Minos, after Daedalus helped the hero Theseus escape the Labyrinth that Daedalus himself built, after killing the Minotaur, at the behest of Minos’s daughter. However, after being imprisoned, Daedalus ever crafty, immediately formulated a plan for escape. After seeing there was no way out by land or sea, Daedalus decided to craft wings out of feathers and wax to fly them out of the prison. After warning Icarus not to fly too close to the sun or the water the two set off. Icarus being excited, and enjoying the freedom of flight, became reckless and started flying too close to the sun. The heat melted the wax of his wings, and he fell into the sea where he drowned.
In the context of ancient Greece where the myth of Icarus was created, it is easy to see the moral of the story. The moral is to keep yourself in perspective. Most scholars will agree that the story of Icarus is about Hubris. In ancient Greece hubris meant “presumption toward the gods.” With this definition, it is clear to see the myth of Icarus is a warning for humans never to overstep their boundaries; lest man bring down the wrath of the gods upon himself. The demise of Icarus is depicted in Pieter Bruegel’s painting, “Landscape With the Fall of Icarus,” which says something about the nature of myth in the everyday world. This painting depicts that myths are unimportant to daily life. The important moment of Icarus’s death, as seen in the painting is marginalized. Icarus’s demise is placed at the bottom right corner of the painting. What’s more, nobody in the painting seems to notice him, as most of his body is submerged; and why should they? Bruegel is using this painting to tell us that common men have no need for these myths; only the priests and powerful people who benefit most from the dogma.
According to Brueghel, when Icarus fell, it was Spring. A farmer was ploughing his field; the whole pageantry of the year was awake. Tingling near the edge of the sea, concerned with itself, sweating in the sun that melted the wings' wax. Unsignificantly, off the coast, there was a splash, quite unnoticed this was Icarus drowning.