Dædălus

, an A then i an, son of Eupalamus, descended from Erechtheus king of Athens. He was the most ingenious artist of his age, and to him we are indebted for the invention of the wedge, the axe, the wimble, the level, and many other mechanical instruments, and the sails of ships. He made statues, which moved of themselves, and seemed to be endowed with life. Talus, his sister’s son, promised to be as great as himself, by the ingenuity of his inventions; and therefore, from envy, he threw him down from a window and killed him. After the murder of this youth, Dædal us, with his son Icarus, fled from Athens to Crete, where Minos king of the country gave him a cordial reception. Dædal us made a famous labyrinth for Minos, and a isted Pasiphae the queen to gratify her unnatural pa ion for a bull. For this action, Dædal us incurred the displeasure of Minos, who ordered him to be confined in the labyrinth which he had constructed. Here he made himself wings with feathers and wax, and carefully fitted them to his body, and to that of his son, who was the companion of his confinement. They took their flight in the air from Crete; but the heat of the sun melted the wax on the wings of Icarus, whose flight was too high, and he fell into that part of the ocean, which from him has been called the Icarian sea. The father, by a proper management of his wings, alighted at Cumæ, where he built a temple to Apollo, and thence directed his course to Sicily, where he was kindly received by Cocalus, who reigned over part of the country. He left many monuments of his ingenuity in Sicily, which still existed in the age of Diodorus Siculus. He was despatched by Cocalus, who was afraid of the power of Minos, who had declared war against him, because he had given an asylum to Dædal us. The flight of Dædal us from Crete, with wings, is explained, by observing that he was the inventor of sails, which in his age might pa at a distance for wings. Pausanias , bks. 1, 7 & 9.— Diodorus , bk. 4 .— Ovid , Metamorphoses , bk. 8 , fable 3; Heroides , poem 4; De Ars Am at or i a , bk. 2 ; Tristia , bk. 3 , poem 4.— Hyginus , fable 40.— Virgil , Æneid , bk. 6 , li. 14 .— Apollo dor us , bk. 3 , ch. 1 , . — Hero dot us , bk. 7 , ch. 170 .――There were two statuaries of the same name, one of Sicyon son of Patroclus, the other a native of Bithynia. Pausanias , bk. 7 , ch. 14 .— Arrian.